#morale

Paying $7 a gallon for gas, to spend $40 a day for parking, to sit in a cube and speak to no one in person. Meanwhile, other people in comparable roles, living slightly farther away are forced to work remotely with impact to their raises. This is nothing like pre-COVID because no one I work with is in my walled-off neighborhood, and everyone in my neighborhood is incredibly bitter to be there. Not too hard to see why, when this week there was an armed guard overseeing the parking entrance, asking people where they worked prior to being able to take an entrance ticket. How is this effective or responsible - fiscally, environmentally, productively, strategically, or in regard to safety? Why even have salaried employees if you intend to treat them like hourly employees? It disincentivizes them from being in the field or going above and beyond in any capacity that isn’t tracked by IP. What happened to, “We put people first,” in a culture of “do the right thing”? If the MC thinks this is the “right thing” it does not speak very highly on their behalf. Obviously, we all know they don’t really care about their team’s actual lived-experiences, but they could do a much better job of making their mandates make sense. The Talk to Us Surveys, employee banking, and PAC solicitations, in an iron-fist culture, are ironic (if not insulting) at this point. By the numbers annually: approximately 440 more hours of commuting and nearly $6,000 spent on parking alone, for a job that can be done more effectively remotely, with zero reasonable reasons given other than, “because we said so.” Bonuses are very nice, but after taxes and annual RTO hard cost expenses, the math is not mathing on the take home pay. At the bare minimum the bank could negotiate fair parking contracts in all HUB markets - public transit is not safe for many.

It won't change anything, and there will still be the associates who still want to do everything by the book in hopes that ELT will spare them. But, what if June 1st the home office was damn near empty and everyone either called out sick or WAH for some emergency reason. Imagine the signal it would send to those d-mb bags of sh!+ that sit in the corner offices. I'm sure we would all be collectively punished or lectured, but we outnumber them. They can't fire all of us, and they need us more than we need them. The 80/20 rule. 80% of the GPs and directors could take a month off and nobody would notice. 20% of home office associates who actually do the work could walk out that door and the whole thing grinds to a hault and would make a media headline. So glad to be driving 4 days a week during and energy crisis, I thought this company was all about the environment and saving the planet?

Strong story doesn't save companies. Strong work do!

I like that and He's correct—companies survive on output, not narrative.

But that's a principle for stable times.

When the house is already on fire, "just keep working hard" starts to sound less like wisdom and more like a way to keep people holding the hose while the roof caves in. It won't save anyone.

...but CVS can't afford to give a cost-of-living increase to their employees.

https://www.moomoo.com/news/post/70410806/cvs-health-cvsus-director-sells-us-317-47-million-in?level=1&data_ticket=1779459073784388

https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/CVS/insider-trades/

Trust me, after doing it for over 25 years for T just to be kicked out the door...don't do ANYTHING over the bare minimum for T, they won't recognize nor reward, they don't give a S about you, just remember that.

Staff at Southern Berkshire schools received layoff notices on May 19. Superintendent Brian Ricca confirmed 21.3 full-time-equivalent positions are being cut. The district faces a budget deficit exceeding $1 million for the upcoming fiscal year. The teachers union president reported widespread anger and a sense of betrayal among staff. Ricca plans to propose rehiring some laid-off staff using available excess funds.

Sheffield, Massachusetts

https://theberkshireedge.com/layoffs-deepen-crisis-in-southern-berkshire-regional-school-district-as-mood-turns-really-really-miserable/

Just from an ethical perspective. People who feel entitled to clean out the snack bins are demonstrating the quality of their character. It is like the wait staff test - how people treat wait staff is telling you a lot about who they are.

Some Senior Managers were laid off today.

They are cutting deep, one deserved to go.

No point in investing in this place. Look at who they cut - nobody is safe, and hard work clearly doesn't matter.

I'm kind of sick of my department, it's a constant rush to new ridiculous deadlines every day all with the threat of being offshored, it's exhausting

Comment on how you feel being isolated, while others wait their turn for next round. This happens every round, laid off employees dropped off the bus, while ELT preaches Cisco impressive leadership, AI prowess and caring for employees.

Nice touch. Great empathy.
Announcing 4.000 people being fired, while wearing a 250.000$ Richard Mille watch

I found Robin Vince’s LinkedIn post last week… fascinating. He calls it a “full circle moment” with his Goldman buddy Lloyd Blankfein, yet it plays like another round of leadership cosplay. It might even be touching if BNY employees weren’t here describing a workplace stitched together with fear, offshoring, and corporate theater. Nothing says “excellence” like inviting a billionaire mentor to discuss humility lessons learned at Goldman while thousands of his BNY employees beg for clarity, stability, or even basic honesty.

Vince praises Blankfein’s lessons on uncertainty and values — meanwhile BNY’s workforce is drowning in ambiguity, morale is on life support, and “risk taking” mostly means gambling with people’s futures.

He talks about embedding values “every day,” yet avoids the very public concerns about layoffs, offshoring, collapsing trust, and a workforce treated like expendable inventory in a never-ending transformation cycle.

The real full circle moment won’t be a photo op with a retired Goldman titan. It’ll be when Vince realizes that inspirational quotes and curated leadership moments don’t fix morale, don’t slow attrition, and don’t rebuild credibility.

CEO’s don’t give a shard about you or your family if they terminate you to make them more money for their pockets.

Best of luck 🤞 to everyone.

And it stinks

It felt completely stripped of any clear message or real leadership. It looked like it was generated completely with AI or rewritten so many times by HR that there was absolutely no purpose to it. No numbers, no changes, no future. How did NetApp lose so many important people while the entire leadership team stays onboard?

Glad that George also got a $15M raise yesterday for all his hard work: https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/NTAP/form-4-net-app-inc-insider-trading-activity-d08f092e431a.html

Playing the fiddle while Rome burns.

How they always manage to target the very people the team depends on is beyond me.

Will we at least get a few months to recover from all the stress?

It didn't look like it on the all hands, lots of red but we will get there they say

Don’t give me all that double talk about needing a job and all.
You are grown human beings. You should be able to do something else, and clear yourself of this mess here.

Why do you keep doing the same thing every day, yet expecting a different result? At this point you are beyond being able to justify why you stay here to anyone or yourself.

Just a P.S.A. that bears repeating: Even though it feels like it would be better to quit since EJ has become such a toxic work place / environment, do not quit. If you do quit on your own volition, you are giving up many legal protections. Make them fire you. Learn the code words for ageism in disguise: "over-qualified," "passing the torch," "new perspective or cultural fit," "fresh energy," "doesn't want to learn the new technology" to name a couple. There are more and the company will dress it up as a compliment.

HR is NOT your friend.

They're leaving in droves now before it gets worse. Which is hard to imagine. Better get while the gettin's good folks.

Nobody trained me. You're simply expected to know things, then get blamed when you don't. The mood is terrible because everyone is only here out of necessity. Corporate talks a big game about safety and standards but won't fund what it actually takes to meet them. They'd rather rearrange the shelves than make the job manageable for the people stuck doing it.

I lost count of how many layoffs have happened in the past 8 years. Today's is the worst. Our already skeleton crew was cut in half. All of us are already over worked. This place is going to be a disgruntled sweatshop in day or 2. And they layed of the folks with a future. 3 of us are close to retirement and informed our managers that a layoff would be welcome for us. Nope, they skipped us and went for younger generation. Who is going to carry this company forward? NetApp... where stupid thrives.

Days like today are always tough. When smart, hard working and loyal, good people get let go from doing their jobs to assuage the hubris at the top. Every single layoff has a personal and professional impact. I think there is growing frustration at NetApp that GK, our President and SVP of Comp to name a few continue to be here despite years of stagnant growth, lack of vision and being completely disconnected from field teams and customers. Everyone with a brain cell knows $10B by 2028 is not happening yet GK and executives keep pushing the same BullS*** narrative. Unless we get acquired or acquire a company it will not happen organically. Why not make $8B a realistic goal and stop the gaslighting. It's time for Executive leadership to be held accountable.

After years of being expected to do more and more with less and less, now I just show up for the money. I stopped caring a while ago. How can a place change so much so quickly? Or am I wearing rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Medtronic of five to ten years ago?

If you been here a year or you been here 15 years. You know that Verizon doesn’t give a cr-p about you. You are a number. Always have been always will be. My issue is, at least they used to hide the fact you didn’t matter. It was not as apparent as it is now. Employee morale is at an all time low everywhere. Unless you’re making six figures of course. Leadership is so out of touch with reality. Put them in front of a computer or tablet and ask them to sell. They would look at you cross eyed. Let alone hit these insane quotas that they are putting in front of us. It’s everywhere. Retail r2b V2B b2b. Let’s change commission. You’ll make more they said. Lmao. All of us that have been around long enough know that’s a crock of shi* anytime commission is changed it’s to line the pockets of the C suite. The ones that have zero clue.

The cost of living is at the highest it’s ever been and we can’t even get a raise enough to cover it. It’s actually a pay cut with the rising cost of insurance.

Funny we have not had a pulse survey for quite a while. Not that they matter. They just change show you the good results and say “you asked we listened”

We got so accustomed to being the “best” carrier. Now, T-Mobile and AT&T are laughing in our faces.

Run while you can. If you can. This is a sinking ship.

Honestly, I never thought the current Bank President would have such a devastating impact on USAA Bank’s culture, organization, and people leadership. I knew him when he was an ED, watched him move up through the ranks, and genuinely congratulated him when he was selected. At the time, I was happy for USAA because I believed he might help restore the culture many of us remember from before 2018, etc. I never imagined it would turn out like this.

How did we get here?

I’ve worked in this industry for more than 35 years, and this is stunning. Employee exhaustion from perpetual cost-cutting cycles has become so normalized that people now seem to accept it as a fact of life.

I understand capitalism. I understand the need to make a profit. But at what point did we remove the human element from the workplace, all while increasing our use of slogans like "people first" and "we’re a family"?

We've became a sick society.

This treatment of depression staff has happened under Ryan's watch, and Rajat Taneja is complicit. It was never like this with Al... remember the lockdown tears and family-vibe he instilled? Now a climate of fear.

Question is, is it purely down to Ryan (being a salesman, not CEO material), the shareholders, Rajat... or would this have happened under Al but he saw it coming?

so sick of every tom, di-k and harry reminding us to complete it, been here 20 plus years and never had anything good happen from that stupid survey
another waste of time

It is not about expecting a reward. I actually get a real sense of satisfaction from doing a job well, no matter where I am or who I work for. But here is the thing all of us have to accept. Do not expect loyalty back. Do not expect appreciation. Do not expect any of it to protect you. When cuts come, you will be out the door just as fast as the person who does nothing. Maybe faster. Whatever corporate culture this place supposedly had is long gone. If it ever existed at all.

Two talented people are gone from the team, but the clueless, passive-aggressive manager survived. Lucky us.

Emplyoyees have lost:

1. Company paid medical benefits
2. Profit Sharing
3. The monthly possibility of promotions. Now done only annually
4. Company contributions to 401K with each pay check. Now done only annually
5. 2% or less raises
6. Your own desk. Now having to come in each day to seek a desk with hoteling.
7. No personal file space.
   Employees have gained:
8. More work due to layoffs and resignations of colleagues, and job uncertainty

So how does management expect to keep and attract employees under these circumstances?

I wrote this poem when I got made redundant from Verizon in November 2015. Still relevant today.

It Was my Final Day – The Bard of Verizon

It was my final day.
I looked around the office.
At all the empty desks.
I could tell.
The building was now an empty shell.

Where is everyone ?
Tom, Di-k and Harry my good friends all now gone.
I wondered if ?
Just like me they had been hit by a RIF.
I shake my head in disbelief and want to cry
That must be the reason why.

Meanwhile at Verizon HQ.
Fran Shamo's latest financial report was sadly nothing new.
We must do something radical to improve our profit margins as they are still down
He said with a frown.

The board racked their brains for hours.
And even more hours.
Until Lowell McAdam jumped to his feet he had a brainwave.
"Eureka I have the perfect plan.”
"That's why I am the top man."
“How about if..."
"We have another RIF ?"

There was whooping, smiling, laughter and high fives all round.
The company’s profits would soon rise a solution had been found.
Lowell McAdam then said "Ring The Bell for a job well done we deserve some praise."
"Let's also award ourselves a well deserved 20% pay raise."

The board couldn't care less.
If the RIF made their minions lives a mess.
The poor Verizon staff.
Unlike their leaders could neither smile or a laugh.

Once they were many now they are just too few.
Lowell McAdam's grand plan would give them all more stress and work they could do without.
That much they knew.

Their future is not going to be that bright.
All doom and gloom probably describes it just about right.
And yes they work under a cloud constantly worrying if ?
They are going to be a casualty of yet another Verizon RIF.

Only time will tell, but no one has a good feeling about Zayo

This isn’t working. RTO isn’t working.

The conversation internally is still focused only on badge swipes, presence reports, five-day mandates and 10% sweeping layoffs while the stock slides, morale stays low, and leadership takes new debt and pushes expensive long-term office bets nobody wants.

Markets don’t care about the unnecessary and expensive RTO facade. It just destroys value by forcing out top talent and plummeting productivity.

They don’t care about micromanaging badge data.
They don’t care about forced commutes that reduce available working hours.
They don’t care who sat in a chair 5 days this week while watching Netflix at their desk.

They care about execution. Growth. Costs. Talent retention. Confidence in leadership. All the things we aren’t focused on right now.

At some point the board has to ask hard questions and decide to make some real changes to turn things around.

Because the falling stock price, disengaged employees, and doubling down on unpopular policies isn’t a strategy. It’s self inflicted destruction.

Please stop doing layoff. We are only 80k employees which is very less then your competitor. Still you continue doing layoff . Not even a single employee is happy over here. Please make your existing employee happy.

How much of a lack of character, conscience and morals do you have to be a leader at Chevron? The way it seems you cant have any and only care about yourself. MW and team see all the hardship, chaos and stress they are putting this company through and they still do it. They are affecting people's health and dont care. Must be a terrible upbringing. They DO NOT HAVE TO give everything to rhe shareholders. No law that says they have to. They can have some human decency but choose to have none! Don't put in an ounce of extra effort for these sc-m bags!