#leadership

We should all water paint like the great AI Centoni shared on her latest LinkedIn post

What do Frontier employees have to say about Nick J?

How have things been since the September layoffs?

If you are working hard for this company, dont. They dont deserve any of our efforts or loyalty. They have to be the most hated group of "leaders" in Chevron history and might rank up there on most hated in US history. They single handedly took a much loved company to one that the employees cant stand. They should be ashamed!

Working at this bank feels like watching a reality show with no script. Ideas fly around, half of them make no sense, and somehow projects still move forward like it’s all totally normal. I just sit there wondering when someone will notice how crazy things actually are.

What I don’t see is Nike ever reaching the heights of its old glory again. I actually used to enjoy working here. Now it just feels like any other random job that could vanish at any moment, and I wouldn't even care. You can’t be invested when leadership isn’t, and you can’t feel like part of a team when there’s no team left. We’ve become bland, and cutting people seems to be the only strategy they have to stay afloat.

Feels like a lot of waste. Where is the value? Can we not do the same with less? Other companies seem to do fine. I don’t know where the value add or money savings comes from anymore outside RIF’s.

Maybe just reset every leader. Don’t know if any are actually well liked by their own teams even.

And in parallel Naga's fault we still have these id--ts around tanking the foundries

The massive cuts and all the cheerful announcements haven’t helped the stock much.

Chevron has appointed a new Vice President of Exploration, bringing proven success from outside the company. This is a welcome change, as the performance of most current exploration managers has been consistently poor. Teams such as ERT, Excellence Exploration, GOA, and New Ventures between others, have not delivered the technical or leadership standards required. To move forward, Chevron will likely need to replace most of its Chevron's managers—up to 80%—to ensure stronger results. With new leadership, better times for exploration are ahead.

Narcissism is the only explanation for sending weekly videos of yourself in a sleeveless workout shirt to the entire CX org. I'm guessing he thinks it makes him "cool" or impresses us that he's outside, but really it's hard for us to imagine having no self-cringe-radar. The cost of PC replacements in CX must be enormous, cause I want to smash my computer every Saturday when he sends the video over. Each Monday I just hope that my face is not locked into a permacringe stance because I don't want customers to have to feel my pain. Andy, please help CX because this is the most feckless leader I've encountered in my career.

#RunWithHans last update was 6 weeks ago. Will he still be having them?

Notice how after a layoff, the Lumen higher ups like to post about the "wonderful awards" they seem to garner from this group or that group, and directors like to post about "brain storming" sessions with subordinates that they are working on things like AI and NAAS, but not addressing the real elephant in the room regarding declining revenues on the services that are still paying the bills? "look at this shiny thing over her, while we run Lumen into the ground" Kate and Kye are truly lost, it's no wonder why they jump from company to company, and bring all their friends with them.

Results received by Kevin, Stef & Senthil and they couldn’t be worse. Some of the worst / lowest in years.

They are trying to sweep them under the rug and write them off as people are always upset during times of change.

Kevin & Senthil called out repeatedly in comments for little to no ability to lead, motivate, communicate, arrogance, condescending behavior, etc….

They are trying their hardest to not share these results with the teams / larger organization.

If they aren’t held accountable we should stage a walkout fur a day to get CC attention.

While the RIF may be needed to cut cost and financially support or spend on new areas but the outcome of a quick decision like this usually does not work out from my experience. The employees did not get much time since the announcement was made. My concerns is they will be cutting people not having enough time to look at their scope of work. A poor judgement will be made. The leaders should have taken their time to do this exercise. That way we could have kept the right people or department to support our customers and the network. I just do not get what is the hurry for…

Anyone else think that this week’s productivity will reach an all time low? Is there any hope of it improving the following week? The only chance management has of rallying the workforce is to significantly cut the bloated layers of management. Leaving the old CEO on the board for another year sent a loud and clear message regarding Verizon’s non-commitment to change. That was a very stupid move! Telling the entire workforce that they would find out in just three weeks if they still have a job is just off the charts D-MB! If Verizon cuts front line employees without cutting significant management you might as well lock the doors and sell off the assets.

Any one else's senior director started using increasing profanity on joint team calls, and openly degrading others as 'failures' in front of 20+ folks? The level of unprofessionalism if out of hand since Dan's webcast few weeks back.

Is SS/TS still in charge of GSSO?

Sampath or Stratton? Who do you think makes more sense and why?

I was hired about two years ago so I only know the cultural under this CEO and CEO leadership. Honest question for those who have been here for a decade or so - how does this culture compare to prior CEOs and leadership team? Better? worse? If different, then how?

Why do we have a US leadership and Indian leadership in IT.
Possibility to trim the fat..

As chairman of Frontier.. does John Stratton come back?

Maybe Mike Lanman and George Fischer weren’t also so bad; compared to what we had the last decade?

Remember when the 10 points of the Credo were stuck on every wall, printed and stuck on every desk.

I just found out that the cost for my mental health visits will double in 2026. WTF is the ELT thinking by slashing mental health benefits, especially at a time that employees need this most? MW and the rest of them will have bl00d on their hands if someone who is on the brink is pushed over in desperation, seeing care they desperately need.

He is getting his Pals the pay...

As f5 continues to sink we can turn this around. Go back to hiring people not on how they look but on what skills and vision they bring to the table. How John McAdam did it.

Every time the org chart gets shuffled, employees don’t feel “aligned”; they feel like another layoff wave is coming. That kind of background anxiety eventually becomes its own full-time job.

The constant context switching is just as costly.
Teams barely settle into new priorities, new leaders, or new workflows before everything resets again. It’s impossible to build momentum when you’re always reintroducing yourself and relearning the mission of the month.

At some point, leadership has to realize that stability is a competitive advantage. You can’t demand world-class creativity and execution from people who are bracing for impact every quarter.

What the company actually needs isn’t another reorg ; it’s a resilient long-term plan, consistent direction, and a culture where people feel safe enough to do their best work. That’s how you “win,” whether it’s now or later.

Leadership in my organization is useless, indecisive and incapable of making sound decisions. When I asked to provide direction, they complicate things by giving you more work, even when you provide them with everything they asked for, they still don’t do anything. You will come out of the discussions/meetings more confused. This leads to ambiguity and tension between team members who end up confused not knowing what to do, not to mention the time and resources wasted on the endless calls where sometimes all it takes is a strong leader to say “yes” or “no”. They do not care as long as you don’t bother or challenge them. The moment you do, you will be rewarded with more work!

The past few years at Clover have exposed the full extent of failure in engineering and product leadership. Decisions are reckless, priorities constantly flip, and nothing ever gets executed properly. Every new “initiative” collapses into chaos because the people in charge can’t think ahead, can’t follow through, and seem completely out of touch with reality. Teams are left to pick up the pieces while leadership pretends everything is fine.

The lack of accountability is absurd, the same mistakes keep repeating, yet nothing changes. If real progress is ever going to happen, serious action needs to be taken at the top. Clover leadership needs a hard reset, and the company can’t afford to keep operating with this level of repeated mismanagement

So apparently if you haven’t been asked to give a list there’s basically a 20-30% chance you’re on one already. Also found out one of our bold leaders is buying a lakefront property well deserved! Excellent job at VZ.

Praying for everyone and their families. v teamer family is bs but human to human I don’t want anyone to get chopped but I wish everyone the best

Seriously, the guy just cuts heads- couldn’t literally anyone do that? So what exactly makes someone a great leader? Apparently here it’s leading us to lots of debt, pi----g off most employees, forcing overcrowded buildings, having the arrogance to say this is best even though employee surveys says differently, constantly refer to other companies like Amazon that we are following- so really we lead in nothing, and of course the complicit board-made of of other people that knew best and pi---d off their own employees.

The current implementation of internal account indicators—often referred to as "banners" or "flags" for priority opportunities—is fundamentally distorting our approach to customer engagement and compromising the integrity of our sales data.

The core issue is that management directives are prioritizing the achievement of a high banner "close rate" metric over serving the complete needs of the customer.

Metric Manipulation Over Sales Integrity:
The mandate to achieve a positive close rate on these specific accounts results in behavior that is detrimental to both the customer and the business's long-term health:

Avoidance of Service:
Employees are being instructed to actively avoid accessing accounts with a high-priority banner if the customer's immediate need is not a confirmed purchase (e.g., they need a simple phone activation, a non-committal upgrade quote, or troubleshooting). This is a direct abandonment of the core principle that customers are the lifeblood of our operation.

Skewed Performance Data:
This avoidance strategy does not reflect an increase in sales; it merely creates an artificially inflated "close rate." If an account with a high-value opportunity is never opened, the company still fails to capture the potential revenue. The resulting data gives a misleading picture of our sales effectiveness, suggesting we are performing better on these opportunities than we actually are. This is not salesmanship; it is data manipulation.

Unrealistic Expectations and Pressure:
The immense pressure placed on front-line staff stems directly from unrealistic expectations set by executive leadership, who demand near-perfect closure on every flagged opportunity.

This lack of realism ignores the fundamental reality of the sales process, which inherently includes customer deliberation, declines, and service-only interactions.

Furthermore, this intense focus and pressure are applied despite the fact that successfully closing a high-priority banner sale does not typically result in increased commission or compensation compared to a standard transaction. This disconnect forces employees to endure significant stress without adequate incentive.

The Call for Change!!
The mandate to avoid customers based on a potential sales banner is a betrayal of the stated core values of the organization, particularly integrity. True success is measured by serving every customer need honestly and driving organic sales, not by fabricating positive performance metrics through systemic avoidance and data manipulation. This practice must be immediately reviewed and reformed to align our operational goals with genuine customer care and ethical sales practices.

Do leaders in certain parts of the business talk to you about resume building, career progression and stuff if there is a chance that there is a RIF pending?

The department I am in had one with SM a few days ago. It's odd that they are talking about it after the announcement and the time is getting closer to the 20th.

She was going around to each team under her and talking the same talk.

The next wave isn’t some mystery, it’s already baked into our strategy. When leadership pivots this hard into AI, it isn’t because they suddenly care about “efficiency.” It’s because they’re building a structure where human labor becomes optional.

Once the next round is done and AI systems hit their next iteration milestone, the company will need another injection of savings to justify the spend. That’s when the follow-up layoff is planned. Everyone will be surprised. It won't be because the market shifted overnight. Because massive automation projects always demand a second cut to “realize value" it's the only way we make the money from it.

And the pattern is predictable:
• automate what you can,
• offshore what you can’t,
• shrink the org until the balance sheet looks cleaner.

People keep saying, “AI can’t replace us.” But that’s exactly what these systems are being trained to do, absorb workflows, mimic decisions, and reduce headcount. It won’t replace everyone, but it will replace enough roles to hit whatever targets leadership promised the board.

We’re watching a slow-motion restructuring disguised as innovation. Employees feel it long before leadership admits it. Pretending otherwise doesn’t protect anyone, it just blindsides people who could’ve been preparing.

Leadership has already set this in motion and they know the next outcome but they're going to work you harder than ever so the AI gets trained on good data practices as you all help to make the AI perfect.

At least we don't see any government regulators coming down to regulate AI and save jobs....oh yeah, probably because the top AI company's own the AI conversation right now and they need to move fast before they lose control.

Good luck to all

These major changes being executed by Verizon's new CEO, Dan Schulman, are way overdue at the obscenely bloated and underperforming telecom behemoth. Relentless price increases, undifferentiated products & services, absolutely horrible customer service and sheer corporate arrogance has driven many customers away at a time that competition has intensified in the mature telecommunications industry. Speaking as a customer it's about time this rotten and miserable company gets shaken up! Best of luck to all my career compadres going thru this period of upheaval at Verizon. P.s., Knowing Dan Schulman personally, I told you this was coming!

Verizon's Layoff Plan Exposes Growing Divide Between Investors and Employees

Verizon's New CEO Sees the Need to Implement Aggressive Changes Including Job Cuts

14 November 2025, 2:29 PM GMT

New Verizon CEO to intensify cost transformation and expense base restructuring, including job layoffs.
Verizon's sweeping cost-cutting plans are triggering sharply different reactions from the two groups whose futures hinge on the company's next moves. Investors see the restructuring as a long-awaited correction—one that could streamline operations, protect dividends, and lift a stock that has lagged behind competitors for years. But inside the company, employees describe a climate of mounting fear and uncertainty as reports of mass layoffs circulate with little internal guidance from leadership.

This widening gap between Wall Street optimism and workforce anxiety has become the defining feature of CEO Dan Schulman's early tenure. As the company prepares for what could be the largest layoff in its history, workers say they are bracing for a painful transformation, while shareholders look on with cautious approval. The result is a company moving in two emotional directions at once: confidence at the top, and unease on the ground.

A Gloomy Christmas for 20K Employees
Christmas 2025 will be different for an American telecom giant and gloomy for its employees. News reports say Verizon Communications will implement a massive workforce reduction of up to 20,000 as soon as next week. Also, up to 200 stores will be converted into franchises to be operated by independent owners.

Verizon is downsizing, and the twin news regarding job layoffs and new business direction are the initial moves of Dan Schulman as Verizon's CEO. The former PayPal chief assumed the post on 6 October 2025.

On his first day as CEO, Schulman already laid out his priorities. 'We are going to maximize our value propositions, reduce our cost to serve, and optimize our capital allocation to delight our customers and deliver sustainable long-term growth for our shareholders,' he said.

Aggressive Transformation
During the Q3 2025 earnings presentation in late October, Shulman shared his vision on how Verizon will return to growth.

'We are going to take bold and fiscally responsible action to redefine Verizon's trajectory at this critical inflection point for our company. We will rapidly shift to a customer-first culture —one that thrives on delighting our customers,' Schulman said.

'These will not be incremental changes. We will aggressively transform our culture, our cost structure, and the financial profile of Verizon in order to put our customers first, compete effectively, and deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders,' he added. His predecessor, Hans Vestberg, was network-first focused.

Financial Highlights
In the three months ended 30 September 2025, total operating increased 1.5% to $33.8 billion compared to Q3 2024, while net income climbed 48.2% year-over-year to $5 billion. On a year-to-date basis, the bottom line increased 18.1% to $15.2 billion from a year ago. After nine months, free cash flow reached $15.8 billion, up 9% year-over-year.

Total broadband connections rose 11.1% to more than 13.2 million versus the same quarter last year, including 306,000 broadband net additions. The partnership formed with Tillman Global Holdings' Eaton Fiberlast October will expand Verizon's broadband offering.

Schuman notes that, for the past few years, Verizon has relied too heavily on price increases for financial growth. He believes that over-reliance on price without subscriber growth isn't sustainable. He vows to discontinue the strategy.

Instead, the customer-first culture will simultaneously drive a much more efficient cost structure that fully supports incremental investments. Customers will delight in this without the decline in margins.

'My top strategic imperative for Verizon is to grow our customer base profitably across our mobility and broadband subscription businesses.' Schuman said.

No market success
Schulman acknowledged that Verizon's stock performance has been disappointing for shareholders. The share price stands at $41.11, up less than 10% year-to-date, with a three-year total return of 31.35%.

Despite this, Verizon, with a market capitalization of $172 billion, has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years. Current shareholders benefit from a 6.71% dividend yield following the September hike.

Largest Layoff Ever
Verizon has yet to confirm the shocking news about the impending job layoffs. If true, 15% of the total workforce will be out of the company payroll. Remember, Schulman emphasized at the onset that aggressive change is needed through cost transformation and a restructuring of the expense base.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/verizons-layoff-plan-exposes-growing-divide-between-investors-employees-1754943

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/in-the-age-of-ai-ceos-quietly-signal-that-layoffs-are-a-badge-of-honor/ar-AA1QqxWA

In today’s CEO Daily: Geoff Colvin on how CEOs are becoming bolder about replacing human workers with AI.
The big story: White House considers reducing tariffs on food imports.
The markets: Down bad.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. The wave of layoff announcements over the past few weeks is telling us something, most importantly, something that isn’t as easily measured as the number of jobs eliminated. It’s a change in the business environment. We can see this especially in big-company culture, a shift in what is OK and even virtuous to say out loud. Just maybe it’s signaling a new norm for employment and leadership. At its foundation, of course, is AI, regardless of whether companies say so directly.

Over the past two weeks. we’ve learned that Amazon will eliminate 14,000 jobs with plans to eliminate more. Target will cut 1,800 corporate jobs, the company’s biggest layoff in a decade. United Parcel Service reported it had eliminated a staggering 48,000 jobs so far this year. Verizon will lay off 15,000. Nestlé said it will cut 16,000 jobs, mostly white-collar, in the next two years. Why all those mega-layoff announcements in just a few weeks? The usual reasons don’t explain it. The economy hasn’t suddenly changed significantly. Companies could conceivably be bracing for a recession, though it’s far from clear when or if that might arrive; the Wall Street Journal’s October survey of economists shows growth increasing next year. The traditional season for general “slimming-down” layoffs is December and January.

The obvious explanation is AI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had already warned employees what was coming: “In the next few years,” he announced in June, Amazon “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.” The recent announcement emphasized “removing layers.” Target COO Michael Fiddelke (becoming CEO in February) didn’t say “AI,” but he said the company had “too many layers and overlapping work” and would “accelerate technology.” JPMorgan Chase isn’t announcing layoffs but is taking a stance to avoid hiring even as the company expects to grow. The company has “a very strong bias against having the reflexive response to any given need to hire more people,” CFO Jeremy Barnum told analysts recently. “There are definitely productivity tailwinds from AI.”

Note the language. It isn’t defensive or apologetic. Just the opposite—it’s direct and confident. Among Fortune 500 CEOs, having fewer employees is becoming a badge of honor. Call the new model Human Capital Lite, or from employees’ perspective, Right Sizing, Left Standing.

In January 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year when there’s a one-person billion-dollar company—which would have been unimaginable without AI and now will happen.”We’re not there yet, and we may never go there. But we’re getting closer.—Geoff Colvin

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

I'll be brief, here are Qs that are on my mind:
(A) Who delivers notices
(B) Who is considered expendable
(C) Which tiers of leadership are already being notified

IBM has become such a dysfunctional relic that the most merciful thing left is for the company to sell itself to someone who actually knows how to run a tech business. Years of clueless leadership, bloated acquisitions, pointless reorgs, and nonstop layoffs have turned the place into a slow-motion train wreck where innovation goes to die and the employees who keep the lights on get punished for it. IBM isn’t “transforming” — it’s circling the drain. A sale might be the only shot this dinosaur has at survival.

So new board chair was on CNBC and spoke about the need to act and why. The story was factually incorrect though- why overly dramatize the doom and gloom? Yes, VZ has had a problematic trend and yes the company needs to alter strategy to address it, however he stated VZ has gone from 1st to 3rd in bond ratings (false, VZ still enjoys better bond ratings than TMO and ATT), market cap (pick the day and T/VZ swap between 2nd and 3rd, so not entirely factually incorrect), and marketshare- additionally share has fallen 30% over the last 8 years (false, share is not down 30% and VZ still has the most wireless customers- assuming that is what he was referencing). Change was/is needed, but the company isn’t failing- the income and cashflow statements are enough to prove that point. As a boardmember, executive, etc the focus is almost universally to drive confidence in the company- highlight successes, vision, strategies for growth, etc so that investors and others see the positive story (even when the true situation is more of a mixed bag). Why go on the largest business network and bash the company you chair with false facts? Either he needs to spend more time understanding the company he chairs, or this is to sandbag and lay the groundwork and justification for an absolutely unthinkable scale of change in the short/intermediate term. The later is unfortunately the likely answer.

15,000 jobs gone. A ‘streamlined’ future promised. Yet executive pay stays sky‑high and friends get hired into new divisions. If we truly want transformation, let’s stop cutting the backbone of the company and start listening to the people who actually make it work.