#leadership

Thank you DW. His great strategy is paying off.

I’m confused. According to our leaders, we have the best network. Currently experiencing nationwide outage. Great job! Customers who left will surely come running back!

Setting the foundation!!! Let’s go V Teamers!

Time to make our voices heard folks. Let's pick day(s) to gather outside The Tower at 5pm. Wear a mask, bring your signs. Let's let the a--holes know.

I’m asking you to message your director, your executive, your head of department to voice your frustrations. Let’s be real we have proven the remote model works very well. Acquiring BBVA and FirstBank, launching the new PNC website, onboarding over 11 million customers to a new user experience, beating earnings on a consistent basis, consistent dividend increases, record net income multiple times, becoming a top 5 national bank, and most importantly for the executives - a record high stock price less than a week ago. Let’s be real on another front, this announcement is driven by politics, power and greed. Don’t fall for the excuses. Well my friend Jamie Dimon did it, so why can’t we? Our shareholders don’t like empty buildings. Yea right our shareholders care about one thing only, ROI. (See above) Don’t fall for the corporate buzzwords that PNC loves to slurp on. “Being in the office fuels collaboration, sparks innovation, and helps us grow–individually and collectively.” In realty from someone who was five days in office, being in office fuels distractions, a longer commute, a reduce in W/L balance, and our carbon footprint (remember PNC loves the carbon footprint buzz-phrase). When a director or executive visited our floor, we were never approached or asked questions and if we tried to introduce ourself it was at the most a quick wave hi and goodbye. There was no collaboration. You took the time out of your busy schedule to come visit us and we couldn’t get a word in. Which is ironic because here we are yet again at a time where we are not given a chance to get a word in.

Long time FTE

Let’s stop pretending this five days a week RTO mandate is about collaboration, culture, or productivity. We already proved, clearly and measurably, that productivity increased while working remotely. During the pandemic, employees kept PNC stable, profitable, and operational under extraordinary circumstances. That wasn’t leadership from the top, that was workers carrying the bank on their backs.

Now the “reward” is being forced back into offices to sit on Teams calls all day, while absorbing thousands of dollars a year in new costs - gas, parking, commuting time, childcare, daily life friction - in an economy that’s already on fire. Wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living in years, people are stressed across the board, and somehow the solution is to make life harder for the people doing the actual work.

Let’s be honest about what this really is: empty buildings, tax incentives, sunk real-estate costs, and executive optics. Cities are upset. Balance sheets are uncomfortable. And instead of adapting to a proven, modern way of working, PNC chose to protect assets and executive compensation - at employees’ expense.

This decision makes one thing painfully clear: PNC doesn’t care about its people, its so-called “family,” or the reality employees are currently living in. It cares about making top tier executives even richer, no matter the cost. That isn’t leadership. It’s greed wrapped in a RTO memo. 🖕🏻

Thoughts on the townhall with Pete?

I’ve been at Honeywell 10 years(multiple SBGs). This is BY FAR the craziest and most chaotic time I’ve had a HON. By far. Really trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel for IA, but the light is dim. Leaders present the pretty slides and visions but nothing ever trickles down. The climb has to be so massive to really turn the IA ship. Every function has a different priority. No one has resources.(and more RIFs are coming) No one has funding. Light at the end of the tunnel is dim.

Trying to stay positive but it’s tough.

Let the rumor mill run. I've always liked him and his candidness as a leader.

It’s been interesting to watch the leadership at the dept level try to make sense of the pending layoffs. Squirming like a worm on a hook.
They don’t know what is coming next and are clearly scared.
We want answers and all they want are “more calls, call activity, activity leads to activations” are the callouts on our weekly “rally”.
What’s worse is that they have 2 co-mangers running the vbs teams. One just brought on and the other so bumbling who when challenged shrinks up like an Eskimos sc----m. They won’t admit or comment on our impending move or the layoff of the “specialty” teams.
Young employees like myself should have a better example of leadership.

Ayn Rand, the author of such famous works as The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, etc., was a teenager in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1917 when the workers took power. Her father was a wealthy man who owned a chain of pharmacies. Under the newly formed USSR, healthcare was nationalized and, as such, Rand's family was stripped of their pharmacy holdings. Suddenly the conditions of empire that had centered them no longer existed. Though it led to millions of wretched serfs finally being treated a human beings with access to services, for a teenage girl raised with bourgeois security, this felt like theft, humiliation, the end of certainty.
For the rest of her life, Rand would form a philosophy (which is apparent in all of her fiction) around the idea that the world is divided into producers (like her father) and parasites (everyone else). The masses became "looters." Collective struggle became a moral evil/mob te---r. Greed became a virtue and mutual aid a cardinal sin.

Fast forward to 2026. Sears is owned privately by reclusive Billionaire, Eddie Lampert, who purports to idolize Ayn Rand and owns(and rarely leaves) a yacht which he has christened, "The Fountainhead." Lampert is discussed openly by current and former employees as amoral, mentally unstable, a bully, and is repeatedly named in the infamous Epstein files. He has been accused of purposely orchestrating a multiyear scheme by which Sears and its holdings and brands will be slowly wound down, and squeezed for every possible dollar at the expense of loyal employees and customers until there's no option left but to liquidate everything.
Given his history, and the people he looks up to, is that so far fetched? Or is he secretly a friend to joe workingman who drives his A&E vans and shops in one of 5 stores left in the country?

An email went out today from CC with the 2026 Enterprise Priorities as if this is supposed to excite us and motivate us to work harder.

"Modernize, transform, and consolidate our technology" (translate: make more job cuts, rely on underpaid incompetent overseas workers to work around the clock, burn-out anyone still here by making them do the jobs of those who were cut too)

"Turbocharge data, analytics and workflow innovation" (translate: a pile of BS which means nothing but sounds good)

"Streamline and modernize our operations" (translate: Don't worry OneTru is our life saving measure and the answer to all our problems, but we still don't have the hang of it yet. But.. getting there, we think, maybe? Hello, is this thing on?

"Evolve our Go-To-Market approach" (translate: keep focused on plans for 2026 layoffs, with less expenses, our bottom line will look better and we can go on more fun excursions!)

"Drive AI innovation across all areas of the business" (translate: the sooner Ai can replace human jobs, the more money we'll put in our pockets from their salaries that no longer need to be paid! Fist-bump!)

Sorry but I just cannot read a list of enterprise priorities and not see the greedy corporate truth behind this veil of deception.

AI transformation with LLMs integrated even into toilet seats will be a huge flop and one he-l of an expensive experiment.

All the cash thrown at Palantir, Snowflake, AI APIs, AI engineers, LangGraph and the rest of it is going to deliver zero ROI and just pile on more headaches. The data at AT&T is in absolute terrible shape, loads of systems are vendor locked, and IBM still holds all the keys. We've also got the never ending battle between official IT and shadow IT, not to mention the CDO clashing with pretty much everyone else in the company.

Instead of actually putting money into rebuilding a solid foundation where customers, provisioning, products and a single billing system would properly live, we're just dumping millions into quick fixes and Band Aids dressed up as agentic AI (total slop) and into a fancy new campus that just about everyone is going to hate.

Sometimes it really feels like a lot of these decisions are being made because someone's getting influenced or straight up because of corruption.

There is no reason in the world that a full 5 day in office, no exceptions, for every employee mandate needs to be made. Much less so quickly AND during a bank merger. With all the money baby billy dimon is making he just wants more. mgmt likes to make it about collaboration and culture, but really they are just further ruining PNC's culture by forcing this on everyone. PNC already doesnt pay well and is now making everyone incur costs they werent before. PNC had a ton of remote workforce before covid and is now going back on all of that. A lot of people were hired as remote or worked as remote for years before all of this and they are told to go in.... for what? to make sad little billy happy to see people in his offices. The offices su-k! have you been to any of them? what is the incentive for anyone to come in? There is none! pay for parking, additional childcare, food, travel, vehicle maintenance, etc. PNC cant even bump pay a little to compensate when they are making billions each quarter.

Bumping this up for visibility. OP: @ea+1kes6rfnt

TRP is so behind our peers in so many ways. Those who have spent their careers here often don’t see the issues or aren’t willing to challenge them. It’s time to bring in more new blood at the top levels to turn the ship around. The focus should be on innovation and operational efficiency.

From the good days of real, innovative work that gave us satisfaction, to a corporate shell chasing only the bottom line. I'm close to retirement, so I don't care anymore what happens to Dell. But I'm profoundly sorry for the younger talent that's been burned and discarded. If there's any advice to give, it’s to seek another company or find a different avenue to apply your skills. This has become the kind of company where you join just to watch your dreams and ideas die.

Need new leadership

I’m trying to be positive, but it makes it hard to do anything right now. Why would I try and “fill my funnel” if I could be doing it for someone else right now. This company seems to be ran by what seems is a startup, trying to figure things out rather than the supposed #1 telecom company in the USA. At least with Verizon they were open about what they were doing and ripped the bandaid quick. Over here it’s like a hush hush game. All I know is if certain members of my org are still here after all the cuts, and I’m talking about high ankles pants himself, which caused the chaos of our channel, then I know this is all bullsh-t.

I have noticed that managers and directors, especially those in the divestiture no longer work (if they did previously). They make fake meetings or keep their status as busy all day. Are your managers/directors working? This is especially true in D&D.

Here is what I heard from today`s Town Hall:

• EBIDTA is at a great level (90% of the employees doesn`t care, or have no idea what that is.)
• We should be very happy for the shareholders, as they will receive a min. 10$ divident / share.
• How nice that the colour of the 2 logos are matching.
  No mention of the employees, when will they advise on leadership, new responsibilities, or just acknowledging the frustration we have. At least they should say they are working on it and will be shared soon, or giving some justification for the hold up.

I laughed when I read the company's core values. The word hypocrisy immediately came into my mind. Changing your name doesn't dismiss all of your wrongs of the past. And your existing "leadership" was never held accountable for sinful deeds.

I've be at NM for a decade, working in tech. Idk if it's just me, but I feel like the recent reorg emails and town halls have been more fluff-filled than I've ever experienced at NM. I've been genuinely shocked at how many words are said and written without actually conveying anything of meaning, or adding any clarity. I don't remember it being this bad. Is this a testament to the age of ChatGPT where we're now seeing our leaders convey purely AI-generated fluff? Or is this just a testament to new SLT members not being as personable as previous years? I know I'm not the only one feeling a bit unsettled by recent SLT communication, but I don't know how widespread that feeling is.

There needs to be a real reckoning with what unchecked corporate power does to human beings.

What happened to EMC after the Dell takeover wasn’t just a business shift. It was a dismantling. A culture was stripped, people were discarded, and decades of loyalty were erased, all in service of financial objectives set by someone who would never bear the consequences. That kind of damage doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when wealth insulates leadership from humanity.

But it doesn’t stop at the billionaire level.
What made it even more disturbing was watching the layers of managers beneath them fall in line like puppets. The obedient middle tier. People who traded conscience for proximity to power. Who repeated corporate talking points as if they were truth, never questioning the harm being done, never stopping to ask who was paying the price.

That is the most chilling part: how programmed it all is. How sleepwalking managers enforce decisions they didn’t make, defend outcomes they wouldn’t survive, and convince themselves they are just doing their jobs. Completely unaware, or unwilling to be aware, of how thoroughly money and hierarchy have overridden their moral compass. This isn’t leadership. It is extraction enabled by obedience. It is cruelty made efficient by people who mistake compliance for professionalism.

If we are going to talk about accountability, it cannot stop with the billionaires at the top. It also has to include the systems and the people who carry out harm while telling themselves it is normal, necessary, or inevitable.

It is not.

Story by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Kevin Crowley

(Bloomberg) -- When Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Darren Woods told President Donald Trump Friday that Venezuela is currently “uninvestable,” he was echoing warnings already issued by oil industry leaders and analysts.

Indeed, some of his peers had tried to dissuade the White House from even holding the meeting, according to people familiar with the matter.

While Trump wants US companies to invest at least $100 billion rebuilding Venezuela’s beleaguered oil sector following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, some executives worry conditions won’t permit a speedy turnaround. They also don’t want their companies cast as opportunistically dividing up Venezuela’s vast crude reserves, believed to be the world’s largest, the people said.

Woods not only attended the meeting of roughly 20 oil industry executives, he spoke his mind. But Trump didn’t appear to appreciate the candor. By Sunday evening, the president was telling reporters he “didn’t like” Woods’ remarks and was inclined to keep Exxon out of Venezuela, saying, “They’re playing too cute.”

“Woods thought he was speaking the truth — and he probably was — but he didn’t read the room,” said Andrew Logan, oil and gas senior director at the CERES climate advocacy nonprofit, who speaks regularly with oil industry investors. “He wasn’t in a position to say that without blowback, and blowback is what he got.”

It was a fresh reminder of the potential pitfalls for the leaders of any company — or country — when summoned to Trump’s White House for a meeting. The president is fond of opening some sessions up for public viewing, giving him a platform to extract concessions from gathered executives or government leaders.

Oil executives, however, have reason to be cautious about Venezuela.

Any bid to significantly boost the country’s recent oil production of nearly 1 million barrels per day — much less reach 1970’s peak of close to 4 million barrels daily — would likely require tens of billions of dollars. Companies would have to rebuild or replace abandoned rigs, leaky pipelines and fire-ravaged equipment. Even beyond the physical challenge, industry representatives say they want to see political and legal reforms enabling them to move money in and out of the country as well as on-the-ground security before they make any big commitments.

“The industry was unified on Friday — with the meeting with the president — that there are going to be certain prerequisites that have to happen before there’s continued investment in Venezuela,” Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters Monday.

Exxon’s arch-rival Chevron Corp. remains, for now, the only major international oil company operating in Venezuela.

Exxon executives were taken aback by the media’s reaction to Woods’ comments — according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking — given he also told Trump the company was planning to send an assessment team if invited by the Venezuelan government. In addition, Woods expressed confidence the Trump administration could deliver the legal and regulatory reforms needed for any future investment.

Despite Trump’s negative response, administration officials took note of the changes Woods recommended, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the conversations were private. A White House official pointed to the president’s Sunday remarks when asked to comment. Exxon declined to comment beyond Woods’ remarks on Friday.

Woods has become more strident in his public comments in recent years, speaking forcefully in pursuit of his policy goals even when it risks unpopularity with politicians, the media and investors. It’s a departure from former CEO — and Trump’s former secretary of state — Rex Tillerson, who tended to be more conservative in his approach to the company’s image.

“They’re gone from seeing silence as a source of strength to seeing silence as weakness,” Logan said. “It’s been a dramatic shift.”

When Europe was considering new climate and human rights laws last year, Woods was among the first high-profile CEOs to attack them directly. He also pushed back on Trump’s plan to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement, arguing it would forfeit the chance to press for “common sense” carbon-cutting policy on the world stage.

Most strikingly, Woods took Chevron to international arbitration after its competitor agreed to buy Hess Corp., a deal that would secure a 30% stake in Exxon’s prized oil development off the coast of Guyana, next door to Venezuela. Exxon lost, as most analysts expected, but the case left Chevron in strategic limbo for more than a year. Woods defended his decision to pursue it, saying his company would always seek to protect shareholder rights.

For now, there are no signs the Trump administration will actively dissuade Exxon’s involvement in any Venezuelan reconstruction, should the company choose to pursue it.

As one of the Western oil majors with experience in the country — having left after billions in assets were seized by the government — Exxon is viewed as well-positioned to help. Most of Venezuela’s oil is heavy and sour, making it technically challenging to produce. That could constrain some of the independent oil companies that were more bullish at the White House meeting.

Trump told reporters after Friday’s meeting that “we sort of formed a deal.” But pressed to identify any specific commitments, Energy Secretary Chris Wright pointed to Chevron’s plan to increase its Venezuelan production by roughly 50% over the next 18 to 24 months as the “one specific pledge” from an oil company.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/exxon-s-truth-telling-on-venezuela-shows-risk-of-crossing-trump

Wealth and brokerage have been struggling with their strategy for better part of last 2 years.

Every couple months there's an org update email followed by period of radio silence and generic "We will get through this together" bs during AAM

Recent colocation posts have reignited the debate on how the new HR wants to proceed.

My takeaway is, if you're a executive CIO reading this post, what pleasure do you get in associates going through stress, anxiety throughout the year???

Why can't you let someone be who just wants to keep their head down and work?????

Verizon CHRO: Retaining Top Talent!!!

Mind blowing: McKinsey, high performers deliver 800% more output than average employees.

Proven tips to retain top talent:

1. Overpay to keep your top performers
2. Make recognition the default
3. Listen to what energizes your team and lean into it
4. Address toxic behavior immediately
5. Be soft on the person and hard on the problem
6. Trust people with as much autonomy as possible
7. Implement meeting-free days
8. Normalize frequent feedback
9. Remove friction to let your top people thrive

The age of pizza parties and ping-pong tables as retention strategies is over.

Use these 9 tips to invest meaningfully in your highest performers and they’ll reinvest in the business tenfold.

24 positions open in the United States, Teradata is crushing it and I want to thank each and every one of you. I know we've all had some arguments here but I'd like to take a moment here to say thank you and hope you can all take a moment to appreciate Teradata and it's contributions to cloud computing.

Steve McMillan if you're there I appreciate your strength and candor during these difficult times. Teradata is lucky to have you at the helm

Are we ever going to address the elephant in the room? Our marketing su-ks. Get us a new CMO!

New leadership will land soon finally

Jeff Miller went to the White House on friday to meet with Trump and other oil execs. Miller said Halliburton would love to go back to Venezuela. Trump responded “you’ll be back”.

"HP Inc’s stock has reached a 52-week low, hitting $21.20, marking a significant point in its trading history. This decline reflects a broader downward trend for the company, as HP Inc has experienced a substantial decrease of 36.53% over the past year. The technology giant has faced various challenges in the market, which have contributed to this notable drop in its stock value. Investors are closely watching to see how HP Inc will navigate these difficulties and whether it can rebound from this low point."
https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/hp-inc-stock-hits-52week-low-at-2120-93CH-4435466

Yes, keep laying off your best and most innovative employees and keep hoping that everyone buys your "HP Invent" mantra.

Top 10 sports jargon that Nike will use as business strategy in 2026:

1. No pain no gain
2. No blood no foul
3. Just rub some dirt on it
4. Trust the process
5. Defense wins championships
6. Both teams played hard
7. It’s a business
8. We can make the play-in
9. If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying
   … And my favorite at number 1
10. Ball don’t lie!

So where is Steve B? He has been off-grid, off communication and leadership for so long is he (a) in hiding from his shameful decisions (b) really can’t be bothered or (c) unwell (hope not this option despite everything) ….. videos done by LP and JEG recently but no Stsvs B .,,, whatever the reason shouldn’t there be some CEO presence at. Time like this?

Do not help this company to recover back . they shattered many people life by doing false PIP , threatening etc . Let QCOM go down

Hans updated his linkedin resume. I remember they told us Hans was going to still be a Special Advisor on the BOD when he was removed from his job. We all scratched our heads when they replaced Lowell with a CEO who had been removed from his previous job. Why on earth would they still keep him around as a special advisor? Do they ask him his thoughts and then do the opposite of what he says? It's criminal that people are losing their jobs and this meatball is still around.

All bootlickers - Go check out askAT&T’s prompt catalog and put “Executive” in the search bar. Here, you can see how the executives you worship & believe should be paid so much, actually do nothing. The executive update you received, was just a GenAI prompt that look them 5 seconds to generate. The headcount reduction email you received? 3 seconds to generate.

AI has already replaced 90% of these executives jobs, they want you to believe that they are irreplaceable and that you are what needs replacing.

What’s your favorite? My favorite is the “Critical Thinking Companion” that the executives need to critically think! Very telling of the state of the company

Will Charlie cater to Trump's wishes and make up for card LOB losses with increased layoffs if this cap went in? Maybe he's angling for the Fed chair job when all the juice has been squeezed out of this gig and be nice way to stand out.

Well the long awaited 5-day RTO announcement finally came and in PNC fashion it was an email instead of being covered by the executives at their all hands. Obviously they didn’t want the questions or responses. Demchak is so disconnected from reality it’s comical. Good luck to folks that have been hybrid remote since well before the pandemic, a detail most in leadership seem to forget. Can’t wait for the talent to leave in troves to get paid what they’re worth.

Company wide email to come later this week. Only managers received the communication for now.

CHRO: Set the Foundation?

What does success look like?? What is different than today??

Where are we deliberately going—and why does it matter???

Who else enjoyed the CA and AG show? I've never heard such self serving drivel! These two have proven to be among the most toxic "leaders" in recent memory. SL is too new to know how bad they really are. Her Jepordy farce was a complete flop. Alex, I'll take "tell us your sales superpower for 2 cents."