#corporateculture

Another week of high profile corporate exits. Head of channel (VP) out after just 5-6 months in the job. 5th channel leader in 18 months. Replaced by 2 senior directors.

Marketing leader leaving Dec 31.

It seems that this reorg was mainly corporate. Very little in the field (sorry to those impacted). It went from building consolidation, massive layoffs etc to very few. If this is the end FOR NOW they should announce that.

The slow pace of widespread job replacement by AI is not a reflection of AI's capability, but a direct consequence of organizational dysfunction. Current "agentic AI" systems are only as effective as the structured workflows they execute.

The reality in most legacy corporations like Verizon is a landscape of fragmented, siloed organizations operating under conflicting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This structure is the root cause of systemic inter-departmental conflict and blame-shifting.

An AI agent does not engage in finger-pointing; it issues a clear error code indicating a break in the designed workflow. Crucially, that error will persist until the systemic gaps are reconciled and the workflow is made functional. Many legacy companies are littered with years of broken processes, often obscured by anecdotal reporting, polished presentations, and manipulated performance metrics.

These old habits will fail when faced with systems built on hard, fast rules.

Therefore, the initial push for corporate restructuring—the mass simplification and removal of organizational layers—is not just about efficiency. It is the necessary preparation. Once these fundamental workflow gaps are addressed and optimized, the corporate architecture will be ready for large-scale agentic AI implementation. The organizational cleanup precedes the technological deployment. Get ready for the next phase.

The executives at Verizon who announced their retirements are getting big bucks to leave at the expense of employees. Most who leave have do-nothing jobs with no direct reports until they're off payroll, then get 60 weeks of severance with full benefits. These are the people who made the bad decisions, like buying Yahoo, over-supporting volunteerism, DEI programs, ERGs, Super Bowl parties, private jets, big consultant spends, etc. etc. F them.

The atmosphere at Verizon is now marked by unprecedented hostility and desperation, reflecting the deep impact of organizational change. The coming months will reveal the true nature of workplace relationships under duress.

To those departing, you were part of Verizon’s most successful years. Be grateful for the skills you acquired and view this transition as a funded escape from what will likely be the company’s darkest period. Leverage this moment to build a new, appreciative career or, preferably, establish your own business, which may offer greater long-term stability.

To those of us remaining, Dan Shulman’s business decisions are necessary to stabilize the company, but the full collateral damage is not yet understood. November was the start of sweeping changes that will test the character of your peers.

Remember this fundamental truth: the workplace is an exchange of time and talent for resources. Morale-boosting efforts are irrelevant against the cold reality of corporate restructuring.

Your mandate is self-focus: Secure your finances, deliver maximum value, and prioritize your personal well-being and family. Get your money. Build your empire.

God speed.

Under Corporate risk - Credit Risk - Risk modeling.

Massive cut yesterday.

Most of these guys are Quants making over $250K

The rumor is lots of Quants and risk analytics in corporate risk are in the chopping block early next year

A good post from “Neo” in the Citrix Systems forum:

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1kc3j9256

You work for wealthy people that invested 16 billion dollars to make a substantial profit using whatever playbook is at hand. That's just business.

Clearly and contrary to the vision of the founders of Citrix, they are just interested in low effort approaches because they are efficient money wise. Making everything cheaper and simpler to manage in order to pursue a financial Eye Candy effect, for an eventual sale or a return to the public space, is an example.

There is no interest in keeping strong teams or long term plans for product innovation, its just paint. Layoffs are not personal (and not particular to these guys), they just don't care about keeping you because you are the negative term in their growth/profit equation. So they will minimize you (head count) with all the techniques available in the book (forced % of layoffs, silent firing, colleagues competition for forced rankings, internal divisions, fear, you name it)

So where are you positioned in this game? You are the exploited employee they (or any other company) will squeeze until the product is at visible risk. You will willingly accept recurrent extra loads of work, cause you are scared to loose you livelihood and you have no other choice. Also you are the next person to be laid off (its about when, not if) On the other hand you also have free will, knowledge and skills (don't buy into the AI BS, you are needed), and dignity.

Now, if you know the game, the players, and the rules, you would likely be better off using this platform also to bring ideas on what can be done to make it a bit more fair to you and your colleagues and to minimize irrational expoitation, unethical meassures, and everything else everyone has been posting here. (Never forget this is Corporate America, don't expect miracles)

Complaining, and spreading subjective fear (distict from useful info and heads up) will only work against you as that is the expected behavior.

There are problems, bring ideas to help solve or make them better.
After all, you were all hired for your problem solving skills and intelligence.
Use it!

PD: This post encourages fairness and ethics. Expect pushback, misleading statements, and attacks from some players in the comments section.

You work for wealthy people that invested 16 billion dollars to make a sustantial profit using whatever playbook is at hand. That's just business.

Clearly and contrary to the vision of the founders of Citrix, they are just interested in low effort approaches because they are efficient money wise. Making everything cheaper and simpler to manage in order to pursue a financial Eye Candy effect, for an eventual sale or a return to the public space, is an example.

There is no interest in keeping strong teams or long term plans for product innovation, its just paint. Layoffs are not personal (and not particular to these guys), they just don't care about keeping you because you are the negative term in their growth/profit equation. So they will minimize you (head count) with all the techniques available in the book (forced % of layoffs, silent firing, colleagues competition for forced rankings, internal divisions, fear, you name it)

So where are you positioned in this game? You are the exploited employee they (or any other company) will squeeze until the product is at visible risk. You will willingly accept recurrent extra loads of work, cause you are scared to loose you livelihood and you have no other choice. Also you are the next person to be laid off (its about when, not if) On the other hand you also have free will, knowledge and skills (don't buy into the AI BS, you are needed), and dignity.

Now, if you know the game, the players, and the rules, you would likely be better off using this platform also to bring ideas on what can be done to make it a bit more fair to you and your colleagues and to minimize irrational expoitation, unethical meassures, and everything else everyone has been posting here. (Never forget this is Corporate America, don't expect miracles)

Complaining, and spreading subjective fear (distict from useful info and heads up) will only work against you as that is the expected behavior.

There are problems, bring ideas to help solve or make them better.
After all, you were all hired for your problem solving skills and intelligence.
Use it!

PD: This post encourages fairness and ethics. Expect pushback, misleading statements, and attacks from some players in the comments section.

I’m over the whole “we’re one big family” nonsense Capone tr--s out every chance it gets. The minute trimming heads boosts numbers, whole groups vanish like they never mattered. The slogan is just a guilt trip to keep us quiet while they cash in. There’s nothing family-like about any of it.

If you're smart enough to read between the lines, you should see BIG changes coming up on the horizon

What piece of art would you select - I vote for we are a family...

Corporate teams just spin papers, PowerPoint and wage a lot of time in meetings
Look at all failed product launches, marketing initiatives, strategic bs, bad acquisitions.
Yet its regions who have to pay the price

Good Morning Plano and TPC R&D!

We know some of you may be included on Distribution Lists outside of the R&D-DL and may have seen a note sent to North America specific functions regarding restructuring this week. To clarify, this message does NOT apply to Corp/Global employees. As a Corporate Function, R&D employees should continue to come into Plano and TPC offices this week.

Apologies for any confusion and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Have a good week.

From where I sit as a person who worked for a company that TU acquired a few years ago, almost all of the technical engineering staff with knowledge and experience of major technical systems that keep the business running have been laid off now. All of the TU staff (mostly contractors from other countries) that have stepped in to learn things still have no clue of how things actually operate even at a basic level. Most don't care to learn or don't possess the right technical and business skills and they rely on those who actually built these systems from the original companies that were acquired to do the real work. But now almost all of those original individuals from legacy companies are gone after many rounds of layoffs.

We're talking about extremely technical systems that interface with thousands of other companies that we have legal contracts with to receive information from and process it every day. Millions of records which generate millions of dollars for TU are being handled by a skeleton crew of incompetent TU staff and contractors now. Not to exaggerate but its now equivalent to a McDonalds fry cook doing complex brain surgery in a blindfold. Yet all of the middle-management play it down by saying, oh it's easy, it's not complicated, and we can handle it. Yet even years later, they still can't complete 99.9% of their tasks without the help of those who were laid off in recent rounds who wound up doing all of their work for them. No matter how many times they were "trained" on something, most still don't grasp what is going on and don't understand these parts of the business.

I have a feeling that very soon those poor companies that partnered with TransUnion to use products and services are going to quickly discover that TU has made blind upper level decisions with no real clue of how things actually operate, what actually they do, how much money they are making them, or who knows how to run, build, and maintain these systems. We were told years ago that this OneTru thing is the answer to everything that all the legacy systems would be migrated over to it within 1 year. Well it's been several years now and we are still operating on the same legacy systems with no end in sight for OneTru. And TU has no one left now that can properly support the legacy systems, fix partner issues, and keep them running after layoffs. Luckily many legacy systems were finely automated, but who is going to be there now when something breaks and partners of TU are going to be ringing the help desk phones off the hook? Are they going to answer and say the truth? "yeah, sorry about that, um we just laid off everyone that knows how to fix your problem, sorry but we can't help you."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is bad business 101. If you want to know what is keeping your business up and running between your golf matches, then talk to the actual people that have their hands in it daily and keep things running for you instead of laying them all off. Don't talk to middle management because all they're going to say is what you want to hear which is a farce, "No worries boss, we got it all under control. Sure, we can do that, we can do anything you want, go ahead and make your cuts, no problems here." Middle-management here is the worst I've ever seen. Have you seen the movie "The office", TU would make the perfect sequel.

Being laid off this round would have been better than staying. The difference between those who were laid off and the existing TU people is that we actually care(d) for our partners and our customers. We treat them like family and bend over backwards to help them when problems arise. We realized the value in those relationships. But all I've seen from the TU staff is incompetency, delegation and arrogance. They just keep playing their corporate games and it's going to bite them hard real soon when the ship starts sinking and everyone who knows how to keep it afloat has been laid off. Mayday.... Mayday... Mayday...

This was too good to stay buried in the replies. The OP is @rm+1kbn0zf88.

If this wasn't so serious and affected so many employees livelihoods, it would be funny. Why are this bunch of clowns still at the controls? I afraid it's now too late to do anything about this. The plane is too close to the mountain to take evasive action.
I'm lucky, I managed to jump ship in 2024 after 36.5 years and don't regret it one bit. I met so many good people at Xerox in that time and can remember when the staff were seen as the most highly prized asset the company had. To hear the CEO now suggesting the lack of success is down to those same employees and that they need to prioritise the company over their own well-being, clearly shows he has no idea of what it meant to be a Xeroid. The bulk of those he has insulted would have previously, (I've no doubt) worked unpaid hours to fix a customer machine or pulled out all stops to make sure equipment is delivered and installed before month/quarter/year-end. They would have been to ones working at weekends, putting their customer and the company before their families. So how have the suddenly become a lot of work-shy slackers? The answer, Steve B, is that they haven't, they have not been lead by a competent SLT for years. To all my ex-colleagues I say, I hope you have as good a Christmas as you can and that 2026 is kind to you. To Steve B I say, you had the golden goose and you and your fellow clowns have fu---d it up. I hope you have trouble sleeping at night.

Nothing like going into the week before Christmas and being laid off! What a CR-P company! Looks like it is the Corporate support teams but who knows what areas will all be hit! Has this always been a thing for this company? If so, why do people stay or even start here? Is the severance worth the anxiety? Not sure if I should wait and see or try jumping ship now!

We’ve spent a lot of time polishing ads, colors, and confusing campaigns for clover, but very little time shaping what our name stands for. Brand isn’t the shade of orange we use. It’s the instinctive belief customers have about whether we’re reliable. Right now, too many people see our name and expect inconsistency. It’s like the difference between a car company you trust and another you don’t trust. Whether or not the perception is fair, one brand is trusted and the other isn’t. Until we deliberately cultivate reliability as part of our identity, no campaign will overcome that perception.

Wow, the business world has made AT&T C-suite and BOD look like a bunch of imbeciles. Buying assets above market price only to sell those same assets for pennies on the dollar. Can they really be that inept? T CEO Stankey and Stephenson are notorious for getting "hoodwinked" and beat out of billions. It almost rises to the level of a conspiracy, other companies raiding the AT&T coffers. How these guys can even show their faces in public is beyond me.

Go Go has a new video on LinkedIn where he talks about great leadership.
It’s very short and he just repeats a lot of the same stuff he’s said before.
What gets me is how many “likes” it gets from employees.

CEO Dennis Mathew’s said TWO weeks ago that the Optimum name is more than a name change, it’s who we are and where we are going, and that the organization was deepening its commitment to customers, employees, and the communities it serves. LOL. What a lying sack of 💩. Guy said that knowing this was happening. He can never be trusted again. Management’s word is meaningless. Hapless man, garbage company.

Not a good look to clinicians, clients and internal staff. Paints the company in a negative light.

Had my PMP this morning, and my supervisor confided that he felt I deserved 2 EEs, but that he’s discouraged from giving 2. When I asked what i could do next year to improve my odds, he said nothing, that’s it’s essentially not allowed. Welcome to the new Chevron everyone!

Anyone’s guess how much money has been spent on constantly renovating corporate over and over again? And why? Everyone hates going into the office.

Welcome to BNY Mellon, where corporate communication is less about informing employees and more about testing their tolerance for absurdity. Think of it as a daily improv show where the punchline is always the same: we don’t believe you.

At the top of this spectacle sits Robin Vince, delivering pronouncements with the solemnity of a statesman and the substance of a clown balloon. His memos promise transformation, transparency, and trust, but associates know these are just corporate Mad Libs—insert buzzword, ignore reality. If they say “transformation,” translate it to “chaos.” If they say “transparency,” read it as “fog machine.” The safest approach is to laugh first, then check if your department still exists.

HR, Public Relations and James L. serve as the Ministry of Spin, ensuring every announcement glows with positivity so artificial even Eliza would blush. “BNY Mellon is thriving!” they declare, while associates quietly check their workloads and wonder if thriving means "dodging HR land mines" or “running on fumes.” Employees now treat official communications like parody scripts, reading them aloud in dramatic voices for comic relief.

Then there are the Directors and wannabees who rush to LinkedIn to applaud these corporate fairy tales. Their posts are the digital equivalent of clapping at a bad magic trick like a trained harbor seal: “Amazing leadership!” they gush, while everyone else mutters, “You do realize the rabbit was stuffed in the hat the whole time, right?” These cheerleaders don’t inspire confidence; they inspire memes.

Inside the company, two realities coexist like parallel universes. In one, associates slog through toxic culture, opaque decision-making, and a daily grind that feels less like a Fortune 500 firm and more like a reality TV show where no one wins. In the other, leaders announce breakthroughs, cultural transformations, and “authentic transparency” with the confidence of actors who forgot the audience already read the spoilers. The result is cognitive dissonance so bad and so intense employees could qualify for dual citizenship: one in the land of lived experience, the other in the fantasy realm of executive spin.

Distrust has become so pervasive that employees now play a game called “Spot the Lie.” Every new communication is dissected for euphemisms and omissions. “Restructuring” means layoffs. “Efficiency” means budget cuts. “Innovation” means someone discovered Teams has GIFs. The prize for winning? A sense of smug validation and the knowledge that you’re not crazy—the memo is.

BNY Mellon’s leaders may believe they’re shaping perception, but in reality they’ve cultivated a culture where disbelief is the default setting. Credibility isn’t just low; it’s subterranean. Employees don’t ask, “Is this true?” They ask, “How false is it, and how quickly will it collapse under scrutiny?” Cynicism has become the lingua franca, the coping mechanism, and the unofficial brand identity.

In the end, BNY Mellon has achieved something remarkable: it has turned corporate communication into performance art, a theater of the absurd where every announcement is greeted not with applause but with laughter, sighs, and sarcastic memes. The Executive Committee may think they’re leading a financial institution with great vision, alignment and execution, but associates know the truth: they’re trapped in a long-running satire, and the punchline never changes—we don’t believe you.

Opinion by David Bookbinder. opinion contributor

American consumers shouldn’t have to pay twice for the damage done by multinational oil and gas companies — once through the harm their products cause to our health and our planet, and again when those same companies use lawsuits filed by local communities as an excuse to hike prices at the pump.

That’s how these billion-dollar companies work — and the industry’s fake outrage over it says everything.

Recently, The Hill published an opinion piece from an industry-backed front group calling itself the “Consumer Choice Center,” claiming I support imposing a back-door “carbon tax” through climate liability lawsuits. That is not true. What I said is that the multinational oil companies, not the public, should be the ones to pay for the damage their products cause.

Another publication had to run a correction because they ran an op-ed from an energy industry advocate that falsely claimed I am currently representing Boulder County in their climate lawsuit against Suncor and ExxonMobil. They also implied that the Environmental Integrity Project is involved in climate liability litigation, which is not true. But the pattern is clear: industry-backed pundits have been misrepresenting my words, and their spin machine has gone into overdrive.

But let’s be honest about what’s really driving their outrage: discomfort. The oil and gas industry doesn’t like anyone saying plainly that their product causes harm — that they have built a business model on avoiding accountability. When someone points out that elephant in the room, they panic, because the public might start asking why they have gotten away with it for so long.

Big Oil’s executives have known for decades that their products are damaging the climate and public health. They have spent tons of money to deny it, delay action, and deflect blame. And whenever someone tries to hold them accountable — including cities and counties hurt by wildfires, flooding, and other climate-related damage, as has happened in recent years — they are likely to pass those costs on to consumers at the pump, claiming that lawsuits “hurt consumers.”

But it is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers.

Gas prices and climate change policy have become political footballs because neither party in Congress has had the courage to stand up to the oil and gas lobby. Both sides fear the spin machine, so consumers get stuck paying the bill.

Oil lobbyists and their front groups have always been adversaries of American consumers, hiding behind patriotic slogans and “consumer advocacy” campaigns that exist solely to protect industry profits. Their latest op-eds are no different — corporate spin masquerading as populism. The Consumer Choice Center’s own website admits that it has been funded by the chemical, nicotine, alcohol, and cryptocurrency industries, among others. That’s not really consumer advocacy.

The fossil fuel industry’s reaction to my comments is straight out of a very old playbook: deny, distract, and discredit the whistleblower. It’s the same tactic that protected tobacco companies for decades. Big Oil is just the latest in that long line of industries that can’t stand accountability — and that always try to externalize the costs of their own wrongdoing onto consumers rather than paying the price themselves. They twist words, inflate outrage, and flood the press with talking points to avoid responsibility for the damage they cause.

Without accountability, oil and gas CEOs will keep making the public pay for the pollution they create. Americans deserve better.

David Bookbinder is a longtime environmental attorney and climate policy expert. He is writing here in his personal capacity.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/opinion-why-big-oil-is-panicking-over-accountability

After 15 years at Verizon leading AI initiatives, I was swept up in the latest RIF which was ironic, given that one of my current projects was highlighted in Dan’s recent AI pitch.

I began transitioning responsibilities to a senior colleague, only to be told today that I should now train a new hire in India. Same title as mine, brought on last week, fresh out of a 2021 graduation, yet his resume reads like he mentored Sam Altman. Apparently, “worked exclusively with US companies in India” is the new definition of deep experience.

When I asked my Sr. Director for clarity, the response was : “This is out of my hands. More org and budget changes coming soon.”
Translation: brace yourself, the outsourcing wave is just beginning.

Let’s be clear, Verizon isn’t cutting costs by hiring “cheap labor.” as I see some oblivious people saying, these contracts start at $40 an hour and can climb past $60, often padded with fantasy resumes. The difference is they’re remote, from small towns where overhead is low, while Verizon keeps cashing in here in the US.

So don’t fall for the AI fairy tales or the “Verizon values” slogans. The reality is simple:We U.S. employees are being replaced, while our politicians & news outlets are busy with nonsense and the greedy companies keeps pocketing the profits.

Someone needs to investigate Verizon and it's executives. There's no way they aren't hiding things that would get them thrown in prison. Stock manipulation, earnings manipulation, growth manipulation, taking bonuses while laying off employees, allowing outsourced calls centers to steal customers information to then be used by scammers (which we all know come mainly from overseas), ECT ECT. I'm sure the secrets they hide keep them up at night. Enough is enough!!!

I’m so sick of the AI slop on Penny’s Page. Real interesting how all these em dashes started showing up after generative AI advanced. Disrespectful. Just stop posting instead of pretending we are all too stupid to notice.

GCAS moving to a functional accountability model, head of CIM APAC is gone and will be overseen by a US head. Honestly this is a good change because CIM APAC has been a disaster for years with no accountability or desire to follow required internal or regulatory processes.

Our annual shutdown will take place from December 25, 2025, through January 2, 2026, with a Day for Me on December 26, 2025. This time away gives us a chance to recharge and focus on what matters most — you and your family. The shutdown also helps Cisco reduce its carbon footprint, saving more than $6 million in energy costs and 22,500 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the past seven years.

The shutdown also helps Cisco reduce its carbon footprint, saving more than $6 million in energy costs and 22,500 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the past seven years.

CISCO forcing everyone to burn AI token for every stupid tasks using 1k tools at the same time is very concerned about footprint haha

They say they are going to change, but dear God in heaven when is one iota of change for the better going to happen?
This is like the worst bad relationship your parents told you about.
They say they are going to communicate more… they don’t. When they do it’s more words, less action.
They have made you lose a lot of good friends aka coworkers, for reasons you still have no idea of. There are still way too many bosses.
So help me if someone tries to say they are going to bring Tar-jay back I am going to scream. It’s over. It’s like Mean Girls and Fetch. Stop trying to make it happen. These are NOT your guests anymore. Why can you not understand this?
And speaking of not understanding your guests, you really had a great idea
with the grab bags, but you failed. Aside from the winners, I cannot even fathom who would be impressed or happy with what was in that bag. There is better and more sh-t presently in my vehicle than what was in that bag. And you hyped it up, to our guests. Who waited for it, thinking it was something great! You couldn’t even load it with snacks? A $5 gift card? Jesus anything? My kids birthday gift bags are better and we are poor.
I feel like you are just sabotaging the company now with these decisions. Trying to tank all of us.
There are so many of us who still and who did bust their a-s for this company, and for what? THIS?!

Be real. Wells Fargo made money in up years and bad years. It was due to the various lines of business they had. It was a highly conservative and well balanced business plan. Norwest Bank, and then Wells Fargo, was a premier place to work and to put your trust. Until the new management and "new profit" centers were brought in. At that point, the bank, which had been steadily profitable, and a great place to work, began to break down. New managers, who's only thought was the latest FAD, were put in place. Accelerate that to today's situation, and you can see that Wells Fargo has become just another Citi, just another big corporation that is only organized to make money for shareholders. Many long time employees have left. Many have been terminated. Many have been laid off.
You can see where this is going. Fast forward to some unknown economic issue, and the bank is caught flat-footed. Losses. Huge losses. Due to new direction and lack of diversification. All straight line responsibility to the "new management" that have arrived, similar to locusts. Yes, locusts. You see, they bring their fellows. you know, the "yes men" who give good subservience but don't call out the risks. And then, everyone is surprised when the dominoes fall.
What a joke.

Can we talk about how awful the company culture and military like the culture is at Schwab?

Along with the constant broken promises for career growth to employees feels fraudulent!

They have been playing all kinds of dirty tricks on employees to push them out aggressively.

Hard to believe some of the latest managers are long term employee and have no clue about the basics of the oil and gas industry. Instead of the old managers from just a few years ago who would be in the field shoulder to shoulder with us, we now have managers that fly in from Houston and go to the field for 30min and brag about it on social media and in the townhalls.

Verizon still has an a deeply rooted anti-customer mindset that needs to be rooted out. The company’s employees are very internally focused (painfully evident on posts to this site & elsewhere online).

That ingrained problem (both conscious) can't be corrected by simply throwing money at the problem (e.g., Network improvements, addressing IVR routing, etc.).

What Verizon should do is require every Manager and Occupational to have a full rotational assignment (i.e., 1 1/2 - 2 years) in Sales or Customer Service!

P.s., If Verizon Leadership is monitoring online feedback this suggestion needs to be immediately taken back to Dan Schulman & The Board. In fact, I think I'll send this directly to Dan's Office.

When are we going to call out this company for doing small layoffs to stay under the WARN number to keep it quiet and implementing RTO to make our lives miserable so that the EC gets the attrition they are looking for? Rick said no plans to change RTO in 2025 because he knew he was going to change it for 2026 and no large scale layoffs because he has a bunch of small scales ones planned. He doesn't want to be called a liar like Walt was but I'm tired of them not being transparent about what they have planned. This place used to care about employees but now its the same corporate McKinsey nonsense we see everywhere else. Executives getting insane amounts of stock compensation and trying to make it sound like we are getting a good deal getting less than three percent raises and an extra 10 percent bonus. 100k comp is comparable to 54k 20 years ago

I hope when Dan and the other execs watch Christmas Vacation this holiday season, they realize that they are essentially the a-hole president of the company, Mr. Shirley. In the movie, even the guys wife found his actions to save a quick buck at the expense of his employees was disgusting. I hope Christmas Vacation is on every channel, on every TV this holiday season, and they are forced to watch that part over and over with their families.

At least Mr. Shirley redeemed himself in the movie, Dan will be an Ebenezer Scrooge in real life. Dan has no excuse to say he simply inherited a bad situation, and had to make a tough decision to right the ship. He's been sitting on the board for the last 8 years operating in lock-step with Hans, one disaster after another.

Instead of propping up the stock price by increasing the dividend, Dan should enroll the shareholders in the Jelly of the Month Club and use the cash flow to pay down the debt from previous failed acquisitions and golden parachutes.

Today marks the end of ExxonMobil's presence in France, with the change in control for all remaining assets owned by US major to North Atlantic. There will only remain a tiny commercial structure with less than 20 employees. Esso France is dead, long live North Atlantic Energies.
Rejoice! This is the end of all the corporate bullsh-t people had to swallow for years (and keep smiling as if they liked it), the end of decisions made from 30'000 ft with limited knowledge (if any) of the local context, the end of dysfunctional organisations, having to deal with the incompetence and carelessness of “service” centers supposed to support you, the end of underinvestment in industrial sites making them more and more challenging to operate etc. etc. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
To all those in the EM world facing the same prospect (i.e. being dumped by big mamma): DON’T BE AFRAID. There is a world outside the fence of the prisoners' camp... 😀

For those of you too young to remember, he's the basic history of Corporate layoffs in America that all started with the government mandated breakup of the AT&T Bell System telephone monopoly on January 1, 1984 ("Divestiture" of AT&T's local Telephone Operating Companies, including Bell Atlantic).

AT&T Information Systems (IS) layoffs started in January 1984 that impacted ~25,000 employees with literally dozens of major rounds of cutbacks at AT&T following well into the 2000's. When it first began to happen it was literally a feeling of disbelief by not only by AT&T employees and their families, who were used to the benevolent Bell System ("Ma Bell") work culture, but also by Americans at large who couldn't fully grasp that the "contract" of employment for life was over at major companies. IBM soon followed suite and once they did the floodgates opened up on mass corporate layoffs which soon became commonplace and continue to this day.

What do current and former IBMers have to be grateful for ?
More layoffs (to come) and more jobs going to India on some flimsy pretext or the other.
And of course, Arvind getting more medals pinned on his chest from Modi for services to the Indian Republic. That is gratitude.