#leadership

Tsunami of Layoffs w.r.t Principal Engineers, Directors, Senior Managers, Managers is on the way

Inspirational stuff from the 2026 Proxy Statement. Bill’s total compensation jumped from $22M to over $29M (32%) this year. Meanwhile, in the cubicles, we’re out here debating if our 1.5% merit raise covers the gas for the new 5-day RTO mandate. Truly a masterclass in 'Leading the Way.' Thanks for the motivation, Bill!

https://pex.broadridge.com/getdocument.asp?doc=4CC6BB74616CC807E06317289D0A6255&type=edgar#3547022_1074842_1074924

2025 executive pay was just published in Cigna’s annual proxy report. Here’s how much the visionary leaders who are running the company into the ground are making - while your pay doesn’t even keep up with inflation and thousands of us are being laid off or replaced by workers in India at HIH.

David Cordani- $22.9 million
And no doubt he’ll also be getting a huge retirement package when he steps down as CEO in July.

Brian Evanko- $10 million
And he’s poised to make a LOT more as CEO.

Nicole Jones- $6 million
She’s Cordani’s right hand person so that’s not surprising. Will she survive the Evanko era though?

Ann Dennison (CFO)- $4.7 million
She’ll probably make a lot more this year depending on how fast Cigna can get rid of dedicated employees

Everett Neville- $4.1 million
How does this guy make that much?? He doesn’t run any businesses or operations and seems to just be a talking head. His title is “EVP, Strategy and Business Development” but we don’t even have a real strategy and the last few business development deals have been total disasters - MDLIVE or VillageMD anyone?? Cigna lost between $1.5 and $1.8 BILLION on VillageMD alone. How does that justify being paid more than $4 million??

Two of our executives have recently announced they are departing PNC. One is our Corporate Responsibility Officer and the other is our Chief Information Security Officer. Though we may never know the real reason they are leaving, I find it very ironic that they have both put in their notice shortly before the mandatory five day return to office takes affect.

They are two very highly respected Individuals and it’s sad to see them both leaving. Great talent write out the door.

Thoughts or opinions??

so despite all receiving a welcome message from our top people person stating there will be a review it seems the UK has been cancelled.
You have not and will not hear this from your UK leader, youll be told there has been a review and it was not affordable, usual rubbish.
your bottom level manager who was not included in the review despite how hard they may work, how low they may be paid or even if they received a top rating in their PDR will have this extra stress added to them and will have to break this news to you.
I am nearing retirement after spending my many years having done the most i can do to look after people in this supposedly people first company and this is the worst i have known it to be and i feel i have been left with no choice for the sake of the wonderful people i work with some of which have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet.
I have my monthly meet with my customer next week and I will be sharing this news and I invite you all to join me in sharing this with yours too.

they need to know before they sign any further projects.
it may just make them think twice about who they give their money to and with any luck move some of their business in house or to somewhere that actually cares about people

Scene: Corporate office conference room. A banner reads “Forward Together.” It’s hanging slightly crooked.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Mr. Go-Go, thanks for sitting down with me. Employees have some questions about the company’s direction over the last few years.

GO-GO:
Of course. Transparency is very important to leadership. That’s why my office door has a window.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Some people feel like the company went from an industry leader to… well… struggling a bit.

GO-GO:
I wouldn’t say struggling. I’d say we’ve entered a period of strategic unpredictability.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Right. And some employees think leadership decisions might have played a role.

GO-GO:
Impossible. Leadership can’t cause problems. Leadership is what fixes problems. That’s basic leadership.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
One concern I keep hearing about is the risk of employees talking about unionizing.

GO-GO:
Ah yes, unionization. We’ve studied that extensively.

EMPLOYEE:
What did you conclude?

GO-GO:
That employees tend to talk about unions when they’re unhappy.

EMPLOYEE:
That sounds… concerning.

GO-GO:
Not really. Our solution is simple.

EMPLOYEE:
What’s that?

GO-GO:
We encourage employees not to be unhappy.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Another topic people mention is moving operations away from places like Bartlesville, which some say has been keeping the company afloat.

GO-GO:
Yes, we’re very proud of our strategy there.

EMPLOYEE:
Could you explain it?

GO-GO:
Certainly. Bartlesville has been very reliable for decades. Which means it’s clearly time to move away from it.

EMPLOYEE:
Why would reliability be a problem?

GO-GO:
Complacency. If something works too well for too long, people start expecting it to keep working.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
So the plan is to move resources away from places that are performing well?

GO-GO:
Exactly. Leadership is about bold moves.

EMPLOYEE:
Even if they don’t make sense?

GO-GO:
Especially then. Those are the moves people remember.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Some employees say the company culture has become dysfunctional.

GO-GO:
I disagree completely.

EMPLOYEE:
You do?

GO-GO:
Yes. Dysfunction requires coordination, and we have very little of that.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
What about morale?

GO-GO:
Morale is very important. That’s why we measure it every year.

EMPLOYEE:
What happens after you measure it?

GO-GO:
We measure it again the next year.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
So what’s your plan to turn things around?

GO-GO:
Simple. We’re forming a task force.

EMPLOYEE:
To fix the problems?

GO-GO:
No, to identify the appearance of problems.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
And then what?

GO-GO:
Then we’ll form another task force to determine whether the first task force should have existed.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Well… that sounds thorough.

GO-GO:
Leadership always is.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
One last question. Are you confident in the company’s future?

GO-GO:
Absolutely.

EMPLOYEE:
Why’s that?

GO-GO:
Because if things get any worse, expectations will be much easier to exceed.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
That’s… surprisingly reassuring.

GO-GO:
Thank you. Confidence is the cornerstone of leadership.

⸻

EMPLOYEE:
Well Mr. Go-Go, I appreciate your time.

GO-GO:
Anytime. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an important meeting.

EMPLOYEE:
About fixing the company?

GO-GO:
No. About changing the banner in this room to say “Strategic Excellence.”

I think it will really boost morale.

(Credit GBT) someone please make a short out of this!!! lol

In a stunning display of visionary leadership, Clearlake has decided to let two complete rookies role‑play as CEO and CTO of One Identity.
Their first genius move? Try to fire the entire Identity Manager team and replace decades of hard‑won expertise with an army of low‑cost code monkeys offshore.
Nothing says “strategic innovation” quite like dismantling one of the company’s last profitable products. But hey—let’s just hope the next buyer doesn’t notice the smell of burning cash just yet.

To all the directors whining and trying to make your case for know declared surpluses. GOOD LUCK! You’re not as important as you think you are. Dan will do what Dan wants to do. Change some of your ridiculous metrics and you’ll find you need far less personnel. Smarten up!

Seems like Impulse is taking advantage of all the property that Space Park is letting go for cost savings . They are growing fast and have a lot of frustrated NG alumni that have left who were always constantly brought down by status quo NG leadership. Hopefully they’re able to pick up anyone looking for coverage. Also I heard leadership here, at NG, is trying to stop them from recruiting 😂.

Good news M. Light-foot has been retired

We basically work for the mafia.

I'm hoping to get a big buyout, what's taking this new CEO so long to do something?

As many reiterate Dan was on the board for a number of years before being put in control. The question is why now? Who was responsible for holding him back or was it several on the board? Who has recently departed the board? Maybe those or that individual? Overall it is a shame it took so long as can be seen by his quick actions once CEO. Will Dan take out whoever else kept him back?

Anyone else see the stocks that all the execs got? It's crazy that they are laying people off in different BUs, changing the variable comp goal posts, and bringing in McKenzie over and over and they still get that bonus. Are we all just happy with a job and .9 VC instead of demanding better? Feels like they are asking for unions with this BS.

I thought John Bruno was the master of the word salad …. But KK is the new champion. Any idea what she actually said in her monologue

We got a new ME about 18 months ago. Since then, I've spoken to him like once. Meetings are cancelled or he just never shows up. There are no 1 on 1's. My year end scores might as well be a lottery as my ME has no idea what I am up to. We're being deluged with work from all sides (especially from CEME teams who are a fu--ing disaster and think they run the company) and having to manage it ourselves. We're being given no protection. I don't think he's in charge of any other teams, so I'm struggling to see what he actually does on a day to day basis.

Anyone else seeing a complete lack of leadership at the lower levels?

I heard a rumor that Shell will announce a spin off of chemicals after first quarter results if they are “good enough” (whatever that means) and will fire the leadership team if results are below that threshold. Any confirmation? Other rumors?

Nobody is ever going to convince me that competent leadership needs some jack-of-all-trades consultants to improve their business. No chance in he-l an outsider has a clue compared to in-house institutional knowledge and experience.

Reading my emails after a few days off and see we're supposed to support each other while our colleagues get laid off then an hour later a message asking us to donate to the Elevance PAC.

What phenomenal leadership.

And they'll have no better ideas than to cut the ranks and yet again diminish the customer experience.

Doubling down because they've already poured billions in, not because the payoff is certain. But there's a major cost and a lot of pain waiting for us at the end of this. The disruption is going to be massive on so many levels. Sure, efficiency sounds great on paper. But one of the really bad outcomes, the one not really talked about, is the loss of invaluable accumulated skills and competence. The people who actually know their stuff, who understand the systems and the history and the nuance? They'll be pushed out or made obsolete. And once that knowledge walks out the door, it's not coming back. AI can generate answers. It can't replace years of hard-earned instinct. But by the time leadership figures that out, the damage will already be done.

Things were kept under wraps for a while but now your Band 5 leader now knows what’s going down…they have to choose who is going to be riffed…who will sink or swim. Don’t trust a single thing they say…

Last year during March 19th they had layoffs of corporate employees, tech was hit the hardest. That was due to a series of decisions they made during a leadership offsite. Similar pattern this year (late Feb) they had a leadership offsite. From what I had exposure to they are finalizing headcount and growth, but also eliminating anything that isn't a priority for 2026/2027 (even if it's needed to manage Wayfair ops and technology). This all depends on how well your L6/L7 told your STO story.

Something is coming but I not sure about the scale or when. This could be a series of small restructures or a wider riff. I suspect March 16 to 30th we'll hear something. Please share anything you know to support your peers.

Of all the job functions AI is evaluating within Verizon, VBG leadership is uniquely ripe for replacement. While they talk about transformation initiatives, gap closure plans, and ad hoc Tiger Teams, none have produced real change. Just executive programs to meet their PA objectives.

The daily focus of status calls, roll up forecast reporting, escalations - those are human bottleneck inefficiencies AI will eliminate. Similarly, holding meetings to plan for meetings with higher level human leaders are also productivity black holes, easily identified via meta-analyses of calendar workflows. And the track record of decisions made after too much deliberation…the results achieved are uninspiring, to put it kindly.

While The leadership enjoyed MWC, the sales kick off in EMEA, The Superbowl, and the hospitality suite at CES, the real work of transformation languished back at the office.

AI discovery assessments in 2026 are ruthless. It won't be long now.

I see that, at least in Europe, many talented young folks are leaving Cisco to join competition or more innovative companies in the IT sector. As there is in almost all european countries an old leadership guard who does not make space for the new generation, there is no real career development possibilities for ambitious people. It is embarrassing to see how for e.g. a public sector leader changes the role with channel leader, services sales leader, etc etc but always the same people how are for many many years already in local leadership.

Hey look Gunn got new job titles. Still does nothing but blames others. Funny considering he was let go from a previous position because the OCC forced the leadership to do so. Love this place!!!!

Score the company, team, leader too low, and you might find yourself part of a RIF.

Score the company, team, leader too low, and you might find yourself part of a RIF.

Score the company, team, leader too low, and you might find yourself part of a RIF.

I've been working long enough to know the difference between a good manager and a bad one. The bad ones are everywhere sure. But the really awful ones, the ones who make you question everything, I found more of them in five years at 3M than in all my other jobs combined. Something about this place attracts them.

I often wonder what a Branch Manager does as part of their daily routine and I’ve finally figured it out. Sit in a chair all day and pretend to work. As an MDS Rep they are absolutely useless to me.

for the destruction of the wonderful organizational culture that characterized Cisco for many years under the leadership of John Chambers. Cisco has always led technologically and made sure to be number 1 or 2 in terms of market share. CR and his ELT have simply destroyed it to the core. The organizational culture has become toxic and cowardly. Yes, it is very sad that we have reached this point and it even seems that we have not reached the bottom yet.

Leadership, not just here but across all companies, needs to realize that AI is not the answer, at least not in its current form. You can already see it breaking things all around us. Amazon is just one of the most recent examples. But they don't seem to care. They'll lay all of us off in the name of AI, only to watch everything start to crumble later.

1. Do you agree that the information contained in the database associates your name with your survey responses? If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

2. Do you agree that the unique link helps ensure that people don't take the survey twice? But in so doing, do you also agree that the unique link is also stored in the database, which associates your name with your survey responses? If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

3. Do you agree that Dell could retrieve your information if they ever needed to for things like legal discovery, etc? For example, if someone said something really stupid like made a threat or something, which has happened before. If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

4. Do you trust Dell HR and/or Dell leadership?

True anonymity severs any PII between the user, user ID, employee number, etc., from existence. It never creates it in the first place - i.e., no logs, no db entry, no links, no memory, nada. That's not the case here by virtue of the way it is created, distributed, and stored.

As to whether the 3rd party who manages the survey would give up that information, that's an entirely different discussion altogether.

But it is NOT anonymous by definition, End of Story.

Been here long enough to remember when people actually wanted to work here. When leadership led and careers meant something. That place is long gone.

The people at the top made choices that slowly ki-led the culture. Now we just endure instead of feeling part of anything.

New hires show up bright eyed every time but give it a few months and that look fades. That's how long it takes them to figure out how things really work. The rest of us by now know not to give extra. Company will forget you the second it's convenient.

We have all said it, there is at least one director out there that we want to know why they are even here. I personally want to apply out of my spot but don’t want to be in a toxic environment especially when the fruit goes bad from the “top” down. Any suggestions on which directors to avoid and why?

There is nothing of value that comes out of 90% of the work our ‘researchers’ do. They get paid for making up bumber in the air, dragging projects for 2-3 years until a new manager arrives , tweak and drag some more. Dead after 10 years. rinse and repeat. how stupid does our company have to be to not see through the BS? it’s embarrasing to talk to them from business unit perspective. there are people working genuinely hard, everyday trying to meet the targets and doing honest work, spending hours stressed about meeting baseline — but the research orgs? what the he-l are they doing? made up work no one wants to use? why are we allowing to continue this clear inefficiency?

If any leader with common sense and some ba--s reads this, please conduct an audit of the claims of research projects and actual value delivered over years. Its mind numbingly d-mb to let these projects and organizations survive. Nothing against the people, they are smart ( but scared to speak up) deploy them to do something useful. Oil and gas is not rocket science.

•••
On behalf of the great T, she welcomes your accolades. At present, Dolce and Cabana’s “Who cares about my workers’ collection is debuting. The great T purchased another form fitting belt for $18k, to honor Women’s month. HR is currently explaining 3 days a week is actually not 4 days a quarter. Where is our CEO??

It seems there has been a lull in layoffs likely due to the latest tantrum. It seems that until he finds something new stateside to fixate on things will be in flux businesswise around the world. Will Dan continue his path or will it be a whole new plan afterwards?

Dearest gentle reader, it has come to this author’s attention that all is not glittering in the oil patch, particularly within the cold, steely walls of Chevron.

While the company boasts of record-setting efficiency, measured by colorful scorecards that are all the rage this season, the loyal workers—those remaining, at least—are being squeezed until they are positively breathless, expected to drive performance while looking over their shoulders.

'Tis whispered that the infamous leader, the Cryptkeeper himself, MW, cares not a wh-t for the human cost of his grand ambitions, treating seasoned staff as mere overhead to be deleted, rather than the lifeblood of the enterprise, as he searches for his next low-cost geography “Diamond” of the season and incessantly prods his subjects to most expeditiously dispatch labor abroad.

With thousands of souls reportedly cast out in a relentless drive to slash costs, one wonders if the "Human Energy" touted in this company’s advertisements refers to the energy it takes to flee the sinking ship, or perhaps, the sheer audacity of laying off much more than the reported 20% of the workforce, while demanding more with less.

The atmosphere, by all accounts, is less "energy giant" and more "relentless harvester," leaving one to wonder who, if anyone, will be left to turn out the lights in Houston.

Fear not, gentle reader, for there is much more merriment to share. The ton demands it, and we shall oblige. I leave you with this juicy riddle: who is the Diamond that shines so bright—albeit unnaturally—that he lights up the dark halls of the Houston dungeon and is—dare we say this—in an entanglement? One hint: Chicklets