#badleadership

Jones has a proud legacy…100+ years of being a truly client and associate oriented firm. As an associate of this firm who has also had extensive experience outside of the firm, I can confidently say THESE DAYS ARE OVER, and I highly recommend reconsidering your affiliation with this firm.

What happened? It’s not a unique story to EJ, but the downfall has been swift and it’s rooted in one phrase: Failed Leadership.

Back when Penny was appointed Managing Partner in ‘19, the MP talent bench was already weak to begin with - she and Ken C were the only viable choices the firm had internally and there was no appetite to go outside. If I had to chose from that lineup, I would have taken Penny any day and twice on Sunday - as Ken C has no business leading a function, let alone the entire firm.

On its face, the choice of Penny wasn’t entirely terrible - she is intellectual, well spoken, been an advisor, broad based in the firm’s business - and the first female MP. And she dresses to impress, of course!

But Penny’s weakness was on full display in her track record - picking talent around her. This would be a knockout gap for a CEO candidate in any company, let alone one leading a business transformation.

Over the next 5 years, this gap became amplified in a massive way:

She kept inept legacy leaders in key roles - Ken C, Lisa D and KJ among them - allowing them pull her into their own ineptitude. She promoted truly horrible talent like Andy M, Suzan M who are small time at best. And she hired some outside talent like Hasan and David C that while intellectually strong, were “scratch and dent” leaders in their prior companies - deemed not promotable because of narcissistic or egotistical behavior. And that says a LOT at places like Citi or Goldman.

Bad leadership ki-ls companies. If you are a client, consider the decisions being made affecting you and your money:

• Raising fees you are paying to line the pockets of greedy executives
• Sending your personal information overseas as part of outsourcing projects to drive higher profits
• Treating employees and branch teams who handle your money and services like they are second class citizens - including not paying market wages.
• Technology that doesn’t work half the time and that your branch teams are helpless to fix

If you’re an associate, you feel the impact of this leadership everyday - the visceral disdain ELT members demonstrate for you as associates. You’ve heard it directly from David C’s mouth in town halls - but it’s even more evident in action: Pathetic wages/benefits; targeting firings of anyone who dares to challenge; promotions for toxic but loyal leaders; poor quality front line managers. The disdain is so strong that some say it feels like ELT places the blame for their own failures on the backs of associates. The paradigm is that associates are entitled, overpaid and underworked.

The company is not bankrupt financially, but I can assure you that it is from a leadership perspective. Rest assured one will blend with another over time.

I sincerely hope if you are a client or an employee that you reconsider your affiliation with Edward Jones - for your own good.

I really want to get done some right things for the customers but I get so frustrated when all these middle managers are too incompetent to take a decision and too power to block your progress.

I am mentally quitting unless Dan present some radical ideas tomorrow to weed out these middle management employees ( Directors and above) .. even AD are not good but they are not that powerful and willing to hear.

Does Brian think we're stupid?

Surprised it took so long to occur. That last crew did not perform at all. Did a lot of bad stuff to lower ranks - intentional or not. Stock price at $1.38 today.

Why is Medidata, or even Dassault Systèmes, not being honest about zero profits and all the layoffs? A major reorg happened and another round of layoffs of very seasoned, high paying roles (yet again) just happened.

This company has the worst leadership and bad senior hires in the last 2 years, and the signs are pretty clear.

I said clown shows 6 yrs ago. now its truly become one. Congrats all! we did well.

The time has come for Dell employees and the company to realize the future won’t include either

Well, it’s finally happening. Word from the top floor is that SF is officially getting the boot.
An exec (who shall remain nameless) confirmed that the Board of Directors spent most of last week in a "closed-door" session. The vibe was tense, and the topic was simple: the stock price is in the basement and someone has to take the fall.
It’s not exactly a surprise. The whole "AI on top of legacy tech" pivot has been a total disaster. We all saw the Zafin integration turn into a massive headache, and it looks like the Board finally lost patience with the "trust the process" narrative.
Expect an "official" PR-friendly announcement soon, but we all know the real reason why.

Not sure if it is just my team/ leader or it is coming down on all other teams / Fidelity as a whole but there is an obvious added micromanagement since the start of the year. Whoever is dictating this will be looking at higher turnover ratios before the end of the year as the associates are humans not machines. Nothing enjoyable or rewarding about working here at this point. Sad to see this happening at what has been a great company to work for until recently.

He’ll blame this latest stock debacle on forces beyond our control. His usual victimhood.

That doesn’t explain the fact that he had a complete id--t running the product organization for 10 yrs who had neither the capability nor the temperament for the job.

Not to mention one disastrous acquisition after another, including the final nail in the coffin, Neustar.

One of the worst 2FA softwares ever.

And here we have the Nuvia boss leaving...nobody likes gladiator and Su-k.ash....for the good of the company they must be fired

In 2024 they hired Deloitte to do an 'audit' after which they went through the organization with a chainsaw on nebulous promises of AI doing all the work. Unproven promises at that. Then hiring consultants and contractors to replace the fired staff, and not even at lower salaries.
They of course kept vertical stacks of deadwood who made life difficult for everyone. The kind of people who stop productive work and su-k up to upper management without doing productive work themselves.
I've received a few small settlements from class action lawsuits for their bad practices.

Convinced him to buy failed companies and waste $ and do cuts

Every one of the leaders should ask THEMSELVES this question and think about the “deposits” they’re making with the employee base. You have no “money in the bank” with the employees since you fuxed everyone over with 5 day RTO.

It seems like he came into the CEO role with strong credentials on paper, but they don’t appear to be translating into effective leadership. His messaging shows little curiosity about, or interest in, how employees actually experience the firm, which is a sharp departure from a company that once cared about being a great place to work. Of course maybe that’s the point and the leadership style the firm now supports.

What’s clear is that he does not seem equipped for the human side of the job at all. Am I missing something, or is there something impressive about his leadership that I’m just not seeing?

I can always get behind a culture that pushes you hard to grow. I can’t deal with one that disrespects everyone and belittles anyone based on rank. It’s stupid. A job here isn’t worth any dollar amount. Bill is a creepy dude. Why work here? What does that say about you? I’m out of here.

Investors have already lost patience with HPE, the worst performing AI hardware play. Neri has zero vision for growth and McDonald keeps shrinking his own business unit. The two must go. Rami isn't all that good either, missed the cyber security bo-m to PANW and FTNT and failed in CSP to ANET, but he's still better then Neri and McDonald.

Bill is incredibly pompous and smug. Dude is out of touch and needs to resign ASAP!

Good luck all. The C-level execs need new yachts I guess so sc--w the employees.

She doesnt know anything!

My son is friends with the son of an ex Finance VP at Dell whom quit last year. We were chatting about dell and he basically said that the company is run by 4 people, none of which are MD. JC being one of them, Doug Schmitt I think was another and I forgot the other two lol... MD just cares about his billions and whatever needs to be done to increase his money is told to those 4; basically.

This is all a "DUH" but it was interesting to hear this from an ex finance VP.

But he was saying that no matter high up you are, what you want or say is moot unless these 4 people say it's not "moot." They dgaf about anyone or anything except the mass amounts of money they earn. MD only cares about his billions, and If it hurts their bank accounts then they will lay off thousands with no concern, cheap out on raises/promotions, etc etc etc...

Promotions are impossible to get now and those who get them are in countries that aren't the US. In Role promotions are basically non-existent as well. Not impossible but just not likely.

Long story short, the "main" people running the company only care about THEIR money. Not you, or any of the tends of thousands who make them that money.

You can’t say anything or do anything out of step. Theyre all rule following goody two shoes

New Year new round of layoffs. It was done very quietly and most are afraid to even talk about it. We all know more are coming. The push to rely more on dealers, cutting sales offices, service, and warehousing. Moving towards direct to customer aka drop ship. Jobs being sent overseas for cheap labor. Push for automation and focus on using AI. All geared to eliminate as much of the US workforce as possible. Then act surprised that moral and engagement are so low. Upper Management focused on stupid rules like camera on for calls and more in office days while sales numbers tank and existing customers become more angry. How much time and money wasted on Kickoff meetings and surveys just to sp-t in the face of the workers. Just holding on until I get a new job. It's a sinking ship, man the lifeboats.

Every WFH request has to be reviewed now and approved by our CEO himself. Little baby Lord Farqaad throwing a tantrum because his servants didn’t want to risk their lives coming into the office. Heard there were multiple injuries be they didn’t bother to treat the parking lots. Pathetic.

Oracle is making a mistake by choosing cheap labor over quality. By hiring fresh graduates to save money and moving work offshore, the company has stopped improving its products and is now just maintaining them.

The experienced people who actually know how things work are being ignored or are waiting to leave, while the bosses at the top keep doing the same old things just to keep their jobs. New hires are using AI to write code, but they don't truly understand the systems.

People are worried stock will drop more because Oracle doesn’t have a strong cloud or AI strategy. Even its financial strategy is poor. No mo--n will go for such a big debt immediately.

To fix this, Oracle needs to analyze stagnant projects. Rework on talents. Get rid of the stuck leadership at the top, and start rewarding the real experts who can actually innovate. Remember Oracle pays low. If it layoff and hires back its going to be another challenge.

Give them none.

Skeletor, Cuervo Swerve-O, and SD have no compunction about making our experience as employees worse. From cutting our 401k match to delusional AI boosterism, they've demonstrated they are incapable of leading.

Mock them for the hacks they are whenever you can.

Your salary is past the mid point. Just another FU from this sh-t a$$ company. Can’t wait to leave

Performance reviews here are a joke. They will shamelessly give good workers a bad review.

since when did USAA become so brutal. It's very traumatic and damaging mentally of someone escorted out with hundreds of eyes staring. Nobody wants to be shamed publicly.

The irony - People who were responsible to lose the contract are rewarded with continuing employment and perhaps bonus while all people not even remotely connected are fired.

CEO and their cronies - "I take full responsibility and willing to sacrifice 2500 wonderful and talented colleagues for my stupid mistakes"

Absolutely the worse company on this planet. They are all liars and it filters out like a plague. Thousands in positions they have no business in being in.

Serious question: after all the cuts and chaos, does anyone actually work for a manager who knows what they're doing? Feels like all the good ones left, and the ones left are either checked out or clueless.

The fat cat CEO's are earning millions and billions in compensation, while the normal Joe who's making a meager salary gets laid off or hours/pay cut. Time for a universal revolt to overthrow the corrupt capitalist systems embedded through and within government corruption.

In all my years here, the leadership has never been worse. They consistently make poor decisions that demoralize everyone. How do they keep their jobs while the company suffers?

Please remember this if you’re second-guessing yourself. You were not fired. You were removed because of lousy leadership that can only make itself look good by getting rid of as many people as possible to make the numbers look better. That’s all this is about.

And those of you laid off are going to be in way better spots and laughing at the decisions being made today by terrible people who are so shortsighted.

During the all hands meeting we had the other day the VPs were saying they were looking to change current employee roles to, essentially, lower level roles. They’re basically giving out demotions but saying they’re good opportunities for growth.

They’ve already started doing this by forcing engineers and coordinators into drafting OSP designs.

Sadly not many people are complaining or raising concerns, and an oddly large amount of people are “excited” to provide “value” to the company.

They're cutting skilled workers and veterans, even people in critical roles. Where's the logic in that? This short-term profit boosting through cuts is always incredibly short-sighted.