Why are these "leaders" laughing like mental patients?
GE is sinking, employees are worried about their futures.
Capital allocation?? Come on..this is about workforce reduction. stop the spin.
And if that new finance lead say "reset" one more time...
I left this 'meeting' after 20 minutes feeling totally disgusted with the way those overpaid individuals are not taking this company's decline seriously. A bunch of out of touch prima donnas laughing and joking like everything is great while the rest of us are trying to determine how to keep our homes and feed our kids once this company implodes.
"Flannery released a video apologizing for the happy tenor of the video and acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. Give him a credit for humility, rare in a CEO."
i dont think that was due to quiet reflection on his part and more likely a result of his PA reading the comments section of the video
OMG. Who does these videos? Were these fools given an guidance on how to act on a live broadcast? That was really bad.
Don't attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by ignorance or apathy.
that broadcast was just pervert. but you may think, they showed themselves intentionally as idiots to make employees run away, and so the number of layoffs would go down. in the end they'd say "oh look we saved the company and did not fire many people". investors should send all these guys home, take back their salaries and put capable people in charge
For people on here defending cannery, you can not be more wrong. The fact that he doesn't even realize the gravity of the situation is terrible . Obviously he is about one thing, his own reputation and money. When I'm front of cnbc cameras, it's all about the company and his employees. When he doesn't have to worry about public image, screw it lets talk about vacations and joke around. If he cared about employees, he would have actually put some thought into his videos. Good luck everyone, GE is just about dead. By the way, how can you completely misjudged a power market like this.... goodluck having faith in long-term planning and execution
Amazing how our top leaders are disconnected from the company's employees base. Cannot believe they did not think for a moment about how badly a "light" (to use JF's words) tone of the broadcast would be perceived. Disproportionate egos boosted by fat salaries, herds of yes-men around them, job titles that make them think they are smarter than ALL of their employees. In a sense, they can be forgiven: it takes a hell of a strong character and self-confidence to stay humble when you have those jobs and those salaries. Too much to take if you are not an exceptional person, leader, human being...
To be fair, JF's apologies command respect. I think he was sincere (but I accept someone may disagree). As a minimum, I think that the amount of negative feedback was so massive that he had no other choice than to publicly apologise. Let's give him credit for this. I do not think his predecessor would have done it.
They were laughing because they know our salaries will soon be eliminated allowing more money in their pockets. That’s very exciting for those type of people.
"vanity metrics" LOL
I sincerely hope that Flannery's second video tonight wasn't just part of Deidre's crew doing damage control. I hope we will see more of Flannery from the second video down the road. Cannot imagine Immelt giving a speech like this.
In an effort to make the leadership team more relatable to the average employee, Flannery asked a few feel good questions at the end of the session.
Flannery: "So Russell, where do you like to vacation?"
Russell Stokes: "Maui. Of course. Because if it doesn't have sun, and palm trees, and sand, it just doesn't count as a vacation."
Great answer Russell. Practically any other answer at all other than that would have been a better answer. The right answer, if you wanted to inspire me, would have been something simple like "Spending time at home with my family." The honest answer was what you gave. So while I appreciate your honesty, it only reveals how out of touch you are with how serious employees feel about the state of the company & their place in it. It was the least inspiring answer that anyone could have given. I've loved working for this company for many years. I've had a lot of optimism that Flannery and this new team can get us out of this. But you guys all lost me today. For my employees and their peers, I was completely embarrassed by our leaders.
The comments on the Town Hall, given as feedback to JF, were almost as brutal as those here. He and Stokes have each sent out 2nd videos messages apologizing.
Give credit where it is due, at least he acknowledged the mistake and apologized.
Flannery released a video apologizing for the happy tenor of the video and acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. Give him a credit for humility, rare in a CEO.
To OMG - the brutal replies were the overwhelming response of those who viewed today's townhall. The employees were looking for concrete direction from leadership and got college frat-party banter instead. There are many in the company taking the daunting task ahead seriously and there was no seriousness or managerial expertise on display. If the Board of Directors and major investors are serious about rebuilding GE's financial footing, they would seriously consider whether these 5 are fit to lead, following their display today. BTW - I was giving Flannery a chance to make good, but after today, I do not see him fit for the job.
Seems like Flannery read this thread and send another video
We used to have great town hall meetings in Power. Informative presentations, fun, and a sense of pride. This meeting was the complete opposite. Feeling sad.
OMG. These comments are brutal. Attended the same call but came away feeling supportive for difficult task for whomever remain behind to rebuild the company. This should have happened 3 years ago we have been lying to ourselves by creative vanity metrics. Now the party is over and rebuilding has to begin.
I wish the leadership team well and hope the tone changes from pitchforks to more candid constructive dialog. Laughter was not mean and mostly it was self deprecating at the people on stage.
Give ourselves a chance to reclaim GE pride folks! It was a great company last year and it will be next year. We need to rebuild trust and these comments don't help.
To add to the high level of insensitivity and incompetence exhibited by Flannery and Friends, this clusterf*** was actually posted by Corporate on the internal news (aka propaganda) site, both replayed video and a transcript. The comments were equally as negative as this thread and not anonymous. Regular GE folks let Flannery have an earful of negativity. Amazing that corporate leaders had no idea what a nistake they made. I hope GE can rebound, but it will need the 5 in today's video out the door to have a chance.
This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you got a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying:
'This Is a Large Crisis'.
I wonder if this bunch was put together just to highlight diversity.
reminds me of about five years ago when a big bunch of power execs all went to Turkey and they thought it would be so high tech to have a daily blog like all the cool kids do. every morning I got to read about all the amazing and interesting things the entourage saw and places they went. It was astonishing to me how completely tone deaf and out of touch they were to think that was a good idea.
Each one of the people on that stage have multi-million severance packages awaiting them. I’d be laughing too I suppose.
Loving every minute of the stock drop. I quit GE a few months ago to start my own business and you'd all be wise to get out now while you still can. I was only at GE about two years as a Director of Product in Healthcare IT, but was clear that the VP, Sr VP/GM levels there is no clue how to right the ship. I can only imagine today's all-hands, but sounds like it was another debacle.
Lots of good folks work at GE, but unfortunately leadership is utterly incompetent. I've worked at two other Fortune 10 companies in the past and GE is BY FAR the most poorly run; I was absolutely shocked to see the level of mismanagement. Get retrained and get out. Flannery is just another GE "lifer" in the exec ranks that knows nothing about leading a 21st century corporation.
Unbelievable, I did not expect this so... A very sad day, for one who does his best every day for GE and is ready to fight for it. We had all gathered expectantly, unfortunately, my colleagues have gradually left the room until I did as last one also not endure it anymore. I could scream and cry at the same time .. I hope this post helps to recover from this experience.
The Company is sinking, people are laid off and leaders are laughing as mentally ill.
Nothing but more GE propaganda. People don't beleive this bullsh_t anymore. Lets talk about what is on everyone's mind instead of cutting jokes and talking about sports for an hour.
Flannery on 11/13: "LAYOFFS!!!"
Flannery on 11/16: "...people matter, looking at each other matters, optimism, care, personal relationship matters..."
What a hypocrisy...
Absolutely terrifying how out of touch these guys are with the direction of the company and where their employees are coming from:
Softening in the Power Market??? Google "Climate Change" and see if that helps you understand.
Your employees?...Think... Will I have a job next year? Will I get a raise anytime soon? Can I afford healthcare for my family? Will I ever be able to retire? PLUS...Someday I'd like to go to Maui too!
Put together a meeting that answers these questions and I'll watch.
I have been to many such meetings over the years. I have always been loyal and tried to believe in the company. But that was the worst meeting by execs i have every heard. Laughing millionaires telling us to help them out. Vacation in Maui. I had to cancel my vacation cruise because of reduced bonus and no raise. I don't know if they can turn things around but i wish them the best. But please no more such meetings unless you are telling us we are going to get raises and bonuses. Even a small X-Mas bonus would help swell the tide of negativity.
Total waste of time for those who watched the video. How much does it cost the company? Got to be millions of productivity loss.
Giving that colossal pig Immelt that $100m retirement package is like Pearl Harbor giving the Japanese Empire in 1941 $100m to honor their visit.
What was that? If you were not worried before, now would be a could time. The one women almost put down the U.S.A. It's really nothing to laugh about folks!!!! No Information + No Information = 0
Is the board and the executives attempting to purposefully bankrupt the company and tank the stock? If any investor were to see these all hands meetings, they would sell their stock and tell everyone else they know to do so as well, as GE is not acting like a company that is well run, or even cares to be.
Unbelievable, that these are GE leadership. I once thought that there can be a turnaround without I Melt but man, I run all hands better than these jokers.
"Do you guys really expect an all employee meeting to be approached with a negative attitude with discussions of layoffs and a pension freeze? They have these to try to keep hope amongst the employees. Yes, I'm tired of these repetitive, scripted, and disconnected meetings but the point of them is not to give you the true insight of a failing business."
YES! When we are 4 days out of a terrible investor results meeting and people want to know what's going to happen to their jobs. I absolutely did expect this meeting to actually tell us something and not just laugh and tell jokes. It was ludicrous.
Do you guys really expect an all employee meeting to be approached with a negative attitude with discussions of layoffs and a pension freeze? They have these to try to keep hope amongst the employees. Yes, I'm tired of these repetitive, scripted, and disconnected meetings but the point of them is not to give you the true insight of a failing business.
If you watched this and still are proud to be at GE, you should start getting your trips to the shrink in now before they cost more in 2018. They should make the video available as a weight loss supplement on the RX program, I vomited several times while viewing. Think I'm down 5 lbs.
I liked the pilgrim outfit the CFO was wearing.
Did anyone notice how many times she touched her nose? We all know what that is a sign of......stretching the truth.
Such and inspirational ending showing actors, who by the way aren't real. They are Fake. How about ending with people that made or are making a difference, Konrad Zuse and Alecia Boler-Davis come too mind
Atrociously out of touch employee info. The tone used here just 4 days after a very disappointing shareholder meeting and a share price dip to $17.50 was so wide of the mark, by the end of the call I was just enraged. No other way to describe it.
Would love to know the cost of the copyrights on the movie clips used - would really like to know how much was paid for Willy Wonka to appear as a motivational speaker. Stunned at the poor judgement of decisions such as this at a time when thousands of jobs are on the line and pensions are shockingly underfunded.
Right, I'm off to get me some electrons.