#corporateculture

Corporate real estate is under pressure nationwide. Companies are downsizing footprints, unloading space, writing down office valuations. The market is screaming that centralized office demand has structurally changed.

And we’re committing billions to a brand-new headquarters tied to a five-day RTO mandate that the workforce has overwhelmingly pushed back on.

This isn’t vision. It’s denial.

When capital is expensive and the market is shifting toward flexibility, you don’t double down on fixed costs and hope behavior bends to your preference. That’s not leadership. That’s forcing reality to conform to ego.

We’ve already lived through massive strategic swings that were sold as bold and transformative, only to require years of cleanup. At some point, repeating the same pattern stops being bad luck and starts being a decision-making problem.

You can’t build the future of work by anchoring yourself to the past. You can’t demand innovation while ignoring market signals. And you definitely can’t call it culture when the people you’re trying to attract are openly telling you they don’t want it.

Yet another talented colleague who was hired in the remote-first era has left. They couldn't get promoted without agreeing to move to Minnesota. They were hired in the "Work Your Way is permanent!" era, and were assured during the hiring process that they could get promoted without having to relocate. Our current policy says that exceptions may be made for key positions, which my colleague's absolutely is, but our EVP is gutless and afraid of doing anything that would anger the CEO. I don't know whose retirement I'm anticipating more.

when is corporate bonus payout date. i didn’t get it yet

They always want us to be all in, committed, loyal. But when it's convenient for them, we're just numbers on a spreadsheet. Don't preach teamwork and family to me when you treat people like this.

belk corporate wants to make pto as difficult to take as possible
that is their goal.
now managers have spoken up about it.

This company cares about nothing accept blinding customers and robbing everyone. Evil to the core

Removing people with seniority = removing OLDER employees. It's always the same. When they do a "reorg" with layoffs, they slice and dice the data to hide the age impact. Then they rinse and repeat every couple of years. They don't care about their "teammates." They routinely clean house of the older, more experienced and expensive workers to make the company's financials look better for "The Street" and try to improve the stock price. Most of those folks have 3 years worth of unvested restricted stock that they LOSE when they get laid off and then those shares revert to the company's coffers. They give people NO NOTICE, knowing 99% of them will sign their sh---y severance agreement waiving their right to sue because they need the money. It's horrible the way they treat people.

Good post, it should be in its own thread. The original poster is @7jc+1kd557pb0.

WOW. Where are all the Ellison cheerleaders who were claiming that he was a super woke lib who was going to keep a huge distance from his Uncle Donald?

Seems pretty obvious that Davey made some promises (and surely some bribes) when he was at the White House, in exchange for government interference on his behalf.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/paramount-skydance-hires-trump-lawyer-rene-augustine-svp-global-public-policy-1236662748/

Are they just going to keep slashing our benefits bit by bit until people get fed up and quit? It's a cost-effective way to reduce staff without the bad press of mass layoffs. It feels calculated and cruel.

Wow if you search Corporate Risk In-Office FAQs in teamworks, they are posted - right down to guidelines on how long to stay in focus rooms.

Over 800 people are being laid off with 60 days to figure it out.

…then outsource and contract all office and desk work.

Verizon, run by non Verizon people.

While the initial reaction may seem positive, looks like investors are wondering why TD pays so much for marketing execs and brand campaigns that are incongruent with reality. TD is not More Human, in fact, internally it is less human than ever.

Lied to everyone last December. They sat on that stage and told us layoffs would end after Q1.

NOT TRUE!

Layoffs will continue throughout the year. Not at the same level as we are experiencing now but every quarter will be tightened and tweaked. More of us gone in a corporate version of The Hunger Games.

Workload will increase, timelines won’t change, but fewer people doing the work.

Avg job search is about 9 months right now. Be proactive and start your search, get ahead of the curve.

It’s only a matter of time before we are all impacted.

The only tech trend that SAP will ever be on top or in front of is "SAP." We hold ourselves back in regard to real progress, implementation, innovation because we can't do a damn thing without stopping to talk about it. We are rewarded not for our tangible contributions but for our ability to blend in with broader tech culture. We work for children who have a pretend business. Not a company of responsible businessmen with ideas and proper ambition.

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5726509-valuable-employees-corporate-layoffs/amp/

In 2024, every single person in marketing that took FMLA or Short-term disability was made redundant! Everyone!

Okta is not about talent it is about authoritarian obedience!

Following are brief recommendations on how Managers may approach Strategic Realignment discussions with associates:

1. Opening Remarks (Smile, but not too much)

• “Thank you all for joining today’s discussion about our exciting next phase.”
• “This initiative is part of our commitment to agility, efficiency, and other words that sound positive but mean ‘change is coming.’”
• “I want to reassure you that this is not a layoff. It is a realignment. The difference is mostly semantic, but Legal insists we say it.”

1. Key Messages to Deliver (Without Laughing)
   A. “We are evolving as an organization.”
   This means:
   We are eliminating roles, but we’re calling it evolution so it sounds like nature’s fault.
   B. “We are aligning talent with business needs.”
   This means:
   Some of you are no longer aligned with the business.
   Or the business is no longer aligned with you.
   Either way, alignment is ending.
   C. “We are optimizing our global footprint.”
   This means:
   Your job is moving to a place where the company pays people in gratitude and snacks.
   D. “We are committed to transparency.”
   This means:
   We will tell you everything we can, except the things we can’t, which are most things.

2. How to Answer Employee Questions (Without Actually Answering)
   Q: “Is my job safe?”
   A: “Great question. What I can say is that every role is being evaluated for future alignment.”
   (Translation: No.)
   Q: “Why did my performance rating drop?”
   A: “We’re using a new calibration model to ensure fairness and consistency.”
   (Translation: We needed numbers.)
   Q: “Why didn’t we issue a WARN notice?”
   A: “We are fully compliant with all regulations and are executing changes in a phased, thoughtful manner.”
   (Translation: We sliced the layoffs into tiny pieces like a corporate ninja.)
   Q: “Why is my role moving to Pune?”
   A: “We’re leveraging global centers of excellence to maximize efficiency.”
   (Translation: Labor arbitrage.)
   Q: “Why do I have to return to the office when my team is remote?”
   A: “RTO strengthens collaboration and culture.”
   (Translation: Attrition tool.)

3. Tone Guidance (HR Requires This Section)

• Be empathetic, but not so empathetic that employees think you can help them.
• Be supportive, but not so supportive that employees think you know what’s going on.
• Be confident, but not so confident that employees think you’re safe either.
• Avoid humor, unless it’s the unintentional kind created by corporate jargon.

1. Phrases You Must Use (Even If They Make No Sense)

• “Future‑ready workforce”
• “Talent optimization”
• “Cross‑functional agility”
• “Global alignment”
• “Strategic redeployment”
• “Enhanced operational cadence”
• “Employee‑centric transition pathways”
• “Right‑sizing for long‑term success”
  (Note: Do not use the word “layoff.” HR will appear behind you like a ghost.)

1. Phrases You Must Avoid (At All Costs)

• “Layoff”
• “Firing”
• “Job elimination”
• “Cost‑cutting”
• “Offshoring”
• “WARN Act”
• “Unemployment insurance”
• “My badge didn’t work this morning either”

1. Closing Script (Read Slowly, With Forced Optimism)

• “I want to thank each of you for your continued dedication during this exciting period of transformation.”
• “We are confident that this realignment will position us for long‑term success.”
• “Please check Workday for updates to your role, location, reporting structure, job title, and employment status.”
• “If you have questions, please reach out to HR. They have been fully briefed on how to not answer them.”

1. Manager Reminder
   If anyone asks you a question you don’t know how to answer, simply say:
   “We’re still finalizing details.”
   This phrase is legally safe, emotionally neutral, and universally applicable.

CFO left, Chief counsel left.
Last years allegations by Gotham Research chicken’s are coming home to roost. Marty was cooking the books.

I have talked to several Betriebsrat members and HRBP. I also had a conversation with a member of the supervisory board. Here’s my perspective.

Layoffs are a last resort. CK and the board intend to resort to them only if the share price falls below €150 in Europe. This would enable them to push it back over €165, which would be a relief. Otherwise, it serves as a bargaining chip.

How does it function as a bargaining chip? The executive board members lack empathy. They often say so many inappropriate things about employees that they spend a significant portion of an earnings call apologizing for their previous comments.

Layoffs can decrease the number of elected Betriebsrat and Supervisory Board members.
Layoffs foster a submissive workforce that complies with management directives.
Layoffs are particularly challenging to implement in Germany, France, and other European nations.
Layoffs are costly and will diminish the funds the board wants to allocate for share buybacks.
Layoffs will attract negative media attention and lead to expensive PR costs.

Even if layoffs occur, they will NOT target the highly paid executives and area heads and managers earning over €250k annually. Their backing is too crucial for the board. Therefore, if layoffs do take place, SAP will likely let go of thousands of employees who are not deemed worthy. Like you and I.

But then how is it a negotiation tool? Well, it's what made performance management possible. It allowed them to cancel or reduce almost all benefits. And it enabled them to decrease salary budget this year. A lot of job postings have been pulled and we're in a semi hiring freeze. Travel budget is close to non-existent for teams yet executives and managers are able to travel a lot.

They won. They created a hostile atmosphere where everyone is scared to speak up. And they will continue to threaten us with layoffs till there is no spirit left in anyone at the company.

But this is just my theory and I don't know this for sure. What are your thoughts?

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/04/corporate-dei-index-hrc.html

When is Shell going to end its involvement with the HRC racket?

Last year leaders were told to remove DEI targets from their GPAs but were told to keep it under wraps. They're trying to play both sides of the fence on this stuff.

This company answers to shareholders who want massive profits. You are just the means to get there and if you are in the way they remove you. It’s how companies that are publicly traded operate. If stock prices go down, they cut people. And in this case, replace with cheaper labor. Nothing and no one is going to change this. Hard facts.

What the he-l are these jokers on about? What even is "the culture"?

"Bringing back a notion of taking that extra step."
"You need to have a way of thinking about health care that is different from other products."

"It's a different culture than just a commercial culture."
"To be more explicit about that, we were calling that out because we were way too tense and needed to define who we wanted to be."

Could you have used more words to say nothing, sir?

https://x.com/lizziejohnsonnn/status/2019083204133609846

Phillips 66 continues to argue that midstream is a stabilizing complement to refining—a business that smooths volatility and anchors the portfolio. That framing sounds reasonable until you look at how differently these businesses actually behave.

Refining and midstream do not share the same economic logic. And forcing them to coexist inside a single company increasingly looks like a strategic mistake.

Refining is short-cycle, market-driven, and highly sensitive to commercial decisions. It rewards speed, focus, and deep market intuition. Midstream is long-cycle, contract-driven, capital-intensive, and exposed to recontracting risk and asset aging. It rewards patience, cost discipline, and steady reinvestment. These businesses pull management attention, capital, and risk tolerance in opposite directions.

That tension is now visible.

In the Permian, midstream assets require ongoing attention just to stay competitive—compression, power, integrity, and producer concessions are now part of the operating reality. In the Mid-Continent, aging infrastructure demands capital to maintain reliability and compliance, not to grow. These are slow-burn, infrastructure-heavy challenges that sit uneasily inside a company whose core identity and investor appeal are still driven by refining cycles.

Anchoring midstream to a refining core distorts both.

Refining leadership is forced to coexist with a business that consumes capital steadily but delivers returns slowly. Midstream leadership is tethered to a parent whose valuation, volatility, and investor base are dominated by refining swings. The result is a portfolio where neither business is owned by the right shareholders.

This raises a more fundamental question: who should own these assets?

Midstream assets are better suited inside a company—or structure—where they are the core business, not a supporting act. A standalone midstream operator, or a peer whose valuation and strategy are built around infrastructure economics, can manage recontracting risk, aging assets, and margin pressure without competing for attention with refining performance or commercial trading outcomes.

Phillips 66 shareholders, meanwhile, have a bundled exposure that they have to manage. If an investor wants refining risk, they can get it more directly in VLO or even PBF. If they want midstream infrastructure exposure, they could choose it more directly—through a pure-play midstream company—without carrying refining volatility along for the ride.

This is where the breakup argument becomes compelling.

Separating midstream from refining would:
• Allow each business to be valued on its own merits
• Let management teams focus on what they actually know best
• Reduce strategic tension and competing priorities
• Give shareholders the ability to build their own portfolios instead of inheriting one

Keeping midstream inside Phillips 66 no longer looks like integration. It looks like inertia.

The company has already proven willing to simplify in other areas. Midstream should be next—not because the assets are bad, but because they are mis-owned.

Refining needs clarity and focus to improve capture and reduce volatility. Midstream needs patient ownership unanchored from refining cycles. Trying to force both into a single equity story satisfies neither.

The question isn’t whether midstream is valuable.
It’s whether it belongs here.

Right now, the answer increasingly looks like no.

Paying a non-ceo $15m with the company and stock in this state seems irresponsible, at best.

To the esteemed leadership of Chevron,

Let's cut through the corporate bullsh-t for a moment. Your recent memo about "strategic workforce restructuring" is a masterpiece of cowardly doublespeak. You're outsourcing our jobs to India for pennies on the dollar, then you have the gall to force the survivors into a four-day-a-week office commute, all while feeding us the steaming pile of horsesh-t that it's "for collaboration." It's not for collaboration. It's so you can flex your shrinking empire in person while you systematically gut the American workforce that built your fortune. The only thing more pathetic than your transparent greed is the insultingly stupid lie you're using to justify it. You don't care about your people, you don't care about synergy, and you clearly don't have a single functioning brain cell between the entire lot of you. We all know what you're really like when the sun goes down—a gaggle of closeted, si--y lady-boys prancing around in secret, desperate for an outlet because your public-facing personas are as hollow and fake as your promises. So you can take your RTO mandate, your outsourcing plans, and your entire board of directors, and shove them straight up your collective as--s. Go fu-k yourselves.

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?

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

If you’re in Global Ops you received a 226 page document that apparently shows the entire nation of India got a title promotion. Wild stuff.

Let's be real: we're livestock to management. We're here to be worked, monitored, and eventually culled when we're too expensive. Our "value" is fixing old mistakes to avoid penalties. The goal is shareholder value, not employee well-being or customer service. This is the game, and we're losing.

Take a look, the new corporate leadership and SWN personnel have added way more costs and increased anxiety across the organization, own up to a wrong doing for the long term and put these people in their place

Nothing has changed. Every year, at the same time, the horrid feeling of what’s to come. Here’s my 2 cents:
It’s only getting worse in tech.
Corporate doesn’t care about you.
HR doesn’t care about you.
Yes, HR is ‘secretly’ invited to the meetings - they want to make sure you show up and you may not if you know it’s a goodbye call.
Again,
Corporate doesn’t care about you.
HR doesn’t care about you.
Get out if you can and stop the stress.
I left before they had their way with me, and it was the best thing I ever did. I thought about waiting for severance, but then they would’ve really won wouldn’t they have?
Find a better way. It’s not worth it.
You are better than them. They might not care about you, but you have others who do.

V

Run, hide, we are all doomed!

I’m really regretting my decision not to take the voluntary early retirement because I feel like the inevitable is going to come anyway. I put my heart and soul into this company for over 20 years, and it feels like a punch in the gut that we are so disposable. I hope someone speaks up during tomorrow’s open mic meeting to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind. How do the corporate executives feel good about taking multimillion dollar bonuses and raises every year while the real workers that helped to make Cigna the corporate giant that it is today suffer. They should be ashamed. I have to wonder what would happen if everyone remaining banded together and refused to report to work for just one week, it would cripple them. They are too arrogant and greedy to see that we are the ones that make this company work.

RTO is the industry standard---Live with it

For anyone who mentioned over the past couple of years that they were waiting for a severance package, what’s the plan now? Just curious because I was in the same boat, and honestly, the job market is rough. My current strategy is to switch things up and play the corporate game. Thankfully, I got a meets this year. I did 40% less work, so now I’m planning to step it up and do 20% more than last year, and fingers crossed I can keep that meets.

You think you're safe? First Bank inquisition, then RTO5. Next people quit, then the layoffs, then finally copilot instead of YOU.

PNC truly cares about their customers...money. Not their employees, not even Pittsburgh residents.

So, the mothership over at USAA finally decided to "loyal" me right out the door. It’s funny, I spent 26 years hearing about "service and sacrifice," I just didn't realize my entire livelihood was the burnt offering for the CEO’s year-end bonus. 🫡💸

Since I'm now a free agent (and by that, I mean I’m officially over-qualified and under-severanced), here’s my guide to the USAA wreckage:

• The "Remote" Bait-and-Switch: I was hired as a remote employee—a role defined by pajamas and productivity. Then, in a fit of "culture-building" (read: real estate tax breaks), they decided I needed to waste 15 hours a week in San Antonio traffic to sit in a beige box four days a week. Nothing says "innovation" like forcing people into a 1990s office layout to do Zoom calls with people in the next building. 🚗⛽️
• The Automated Betrayal: I’m honestly surprised my layoff notice didn't come with a pre-approved, high-interest personal loan to cover my final month of rent. "We're nuking your career, but have you considered our award-winning insurance for the house you're about to lose?" It’s not just a layoff; it’s a cross-selling opportunity. 📉
• Core Values (For Direct Reports Only): I’ve been meditating on "Integrity" while looking at my final pay stub. Turns out, "Service" is a one-way street that ends abruptly at the executive suite. They talk about "The Mission" like it's a calling, then treat the workforce like a line item on a spreadsheet that needed to be deleted to make the "Military City USA" branding look a bit shinier. 🧐
• The LinkedIn "Synergy" Trap: My new job title is "Recovering Corporate Martyr." I am officially allergic to any company that uses the word "family" as a smokescreen for "we will fire you via a template email if the wind blows sideways." 🏢
• The Commute-to-Couch Pipeline: I’ve traded the "Business Casual for the Cubicle Farm" look for "Professional Resentment." The commute from my bed to the kitchen is much shorter, and unlike the office, my kitchen doesn't require a badge-in to prove I'm "collaborating" with my toaster.
  To my fellow survivors: May your severance be fat, your non-competes be laughed out of court, and your next boss be someone who doesn't think "culture" is synonymous with "parking lot congestion." See you at the virtual happy hour—where the only thing "bundled" is our collective trauma! 🍻✨