#culture

I’m in the process of interviewing at Humana with a panel scheduled soon, in the Quality space. What is the culture and vibe like? Humana used to be the market leader in Medicare, the envy of all payers and after looking at this job board, stock prices and Stars ratings I’m surprised to see that things have not been as stellar? Any insights would be appreciated.

In recent interactions, I’ve noticed a shift in leadership approach where supervisors are prioritizing directive control over collaborative friendliness. This manifests as micromanaging daily tasks, decisions, and workflows, which can feel overly authoritative rather than supportive.
While clear guidance is appreciated, this “bossy” style risks demotivating employees by limiting autonomy and trust. It may lead to reduced creativity, higher stress levels, and lower job satisfaction, as team members feel their expertise isn’t valued. For instance, constant oversight on routine matters can stifle initiative and make the work environment feel restrictive rather than empowering.

Name anyone.... Bruce Lee and Elvis are OK too.

Why are these guys in such a rush to receive all of the negative feedback they’re going to get through this survey? Pushing to have 100% completion in the first week and giving drps to the first teams to do it. I can’t wait to get my free shirts after trashing the company in every question like I do every year since mission one started! Maybe we’ll even get another useless team morale building cookout!

A few years ago, I joined the PMIC located in San Diego with a sense of excitement and optimism. The interview process had gone smoothly, and the role seemed technically aligned with my skills. The recruiter was persistent and enthusiastic, and that consistent follow-up played a big role in my decision to accept the offer.

Early on, things seemed fine. The technical work wasn’t particularly challenging, mostly basic bench testing, but I was eager to contribute and learn. Over time, I noticed signs of favoritism and occasional exclusion, including colleagues using their native language during meetings, which made collaboration difficult at times. However, over time, I began to notice some underlying issues; a subtle subculture that didn’t sit right with me. There was clear favoritism among certain members of the group, and at times, colleagues would speak in their native language during meetings and in the lab, which excluded others from the conversation and undermined collaboration.

Despite these red flags, I stayed professional. I treated everyone with respect, including those who weren’t particularly kind to me. I chose not to engage in office politics and instead kept my focus on work. I participated in discussions and meetings when needed but otherwise kept to myself.

Unfortunately, that approach didn’t go over well with certain individuals who seemed to be on a power trip. Some began bad-mouthing me behind my back to upper management with the intent on undermining me. They started nitpicking my work and creating conflict over petty issues. I maintained my composure, but deep down, I knew this wasn’t a healthy environment for me.

For the past 15 months, I’ve been actively applying for new roles. I’ve had a few interviews, three phone screens and one onsite, but none felt like the right fit. In fact, the onsite interview was with a lower-ranked company where the interviewers seemed unprofessional and insecure because someone who works at Qualcomm is interviewing with their low rank company, one of the interviewers said that to my face! The hiring manager even took personal calls during the interview, which was a clear red flag. I declined the opportunity, I won’t jump from the frying pan into the fire.

Meanwhile, the job market has been rough. Fifteen months of consistent effort hasn’t yielded the right opportunity yet.

More recently, my current manager, who was born and raised in the US for a reason that will be clear later, began pressuring me to engage in small talk with coworkers about personal matters, like the details of what I have done over the weekend. I was surprised when my manager requested that, and I explained that I prefer to keep my personal life private, especially my time with my wife. and I don’t see that as a requirement for professional collaboration. For context, I do attend all team-building events, even though they’re outside work hours and take time away from my personal life. I respect team cohesion, but there are boundaries.

I recognize that in some cultures, people spend the majority of their time at work and see coworkers as family, often placing their personal families second. But that’s not how I was raised, and come on we live in the US.

When my manager told me that failing to engage in more casual conversations could negatively impact my performance review, I felt that line between professional expectations and personal boundaries had been crossed. I feel like manager is just breathing down my neck constantly. It is unbelievable that he sold his soul to those foreigners. He is so weak, useless and I have lost all respect for him. At this point, I’ve chosen not to involve HR, most people know how that typically plays out.

I know I am on my way out forcibly, I am just here to vent and see if others have had similar experience and could give some tips on how to navigate through this tough situation.

I hope you're all doing well. Have you noticed how our Chief People Leader (er... Eater) recognizes World Mental Health Day by celebrating our contract partnership and collaboration with Spring Health and how this is powering our culture? Spring Health, for its part, is also quick to point out the partnership and how wonderful it is that BNY recognizes and prioritizes mental health concerns by offering employee coverage.

What's truly astonishing in all of this corporate speak, though, is that BNY senior leaders fail to publicly acknowledge their role in contributing to associate mental health challenges caused by a toxic BNY culture in the first place. Something's definitely wrong with how the narrative is being framed.

We should be celebrating our people and sharing stories about what the company is doing to provide further assistance. Celebrating our vendor relationship with Spring Health and bragging about facility unwind rooms on social media is simply not the best message for what is being done to create an 'amazing work culture' for our associates.

Quoting @fx+1k79fcw84

Centralized control is the result of inexperienced leadership, lack of accountability, resources that aren’t qualified, and resources unable to learn and grow because of the revolving door of people coming and going, along with being in a continuous state of re-organizing. Culture is throw bodies at it —- very, very wrong. Speed comes from quality, and quality comes from experience, experience comes from learning … and over arching it all is having people that care. Currently caring about doing things right, calling out what’s broken, what’s not working, what’s costing the company $’s - is very much discouraged because anyone perceived as rocking the boat is somehow ‘bad’. If everyone just follows the party line, things will not turn around. Wholesale changes? Above my pay grade, but leadership inspires, it does not degrade, denigrate, or make high performing individuals that are experts at their jobs feel like sh-t every day as they see the waste, inefficiency, incompetence, and their colleagues discarded like cattle. Is a lot of people that care, but their hands are tied. We can be so much better. Focus on Sport? Awesome… but let’s focus on our Customers, fixing what’s broken, and treating employees like what they are - the single most important resource. How are people going to be inspired when they see 1-2 people laid off from a team that are replaced by 30-40 outsourced resources, that do nothing, fix nothing, and dump their issues on the fewer & fewer resources remaining that can actually get stuff done, understand both Tech & Business, etc. Is like having a soccer team full of stars & journeyman pro’s, and replacing it with your cousin’s brother’s middle school rec squad. Cheaper isn’t better - nor is it ever really cheaper, because is just shifting the work somewhere else.

Lately, there’s been a noticeable lack of leadership and engagement from management. The tone and approach in communication often feel short, dismissive, or lacking in encouragement.

Our senior leadership were visibility angry when they shared the results of last survey, we've even were told to leave SAP if we weren't happy and not to fault them as leaders. This survey I am not going to even bother answering. They have a target on the number of responses and I am not going to help them. As per the comments, they are worth nothing, I've hold roles close to leaders in the past and leaders didn't do a single thing rather than making calculations and trying to guess who answered what. If I am still here by when the survey is launched, I am going to ignore the email and the 200 reminders I'll receive after.

Everybody should do the same as @bp+1k7bwjdxa. I certainly plan to.

Employers say they want people with integrity, loyalty, and to become really good at their jobs in order to serve the clients/customers with exemplary service and products. But, they reward people who do whatever it takes to advance. They tell FA's to push products that are fee based when those products are not in the best interest of the client (lack of integrity and ethics). They preach loyalty yet they bring in people from the outside and pay them more than paying long tenured employees because they know the current employees will stay without a competitive merit increase. They also preach customer service and job performance. Yet, when they think they need to restructure to be more competitive they just run analytics and cut with a machete instead of doing research to keep top performers with the plan to hire people back when they have finally decided what roles the firm will need. I understand this is what most employers do. However, this is not what Edward Jones has ever done. Penny and the rest of the ELT has decided to do this and therefore has made Edward Jones just another run of the mill employer. Edward Jones used to be a destination employer. A place where quality talent wanted to get to and stay. That is why Ted decided to have your profit sharing vest one hundred percent on day one unlike most employers. Now, Penny has decided to just run the company like any other. Top talent will not choose to come here. Top talent will not choose to stay here. Penny has decided to destroy the culture of this company from the inside out. The fall of this firm will not come from an outside threat. It will come from the inside. I believe the time is now. I believe her name is Penny Pennington.

Wells Fargo is such a different company now under Schart. Managers don’t truly care about their teams. Last minute assignments. Nitpicking. Lack of employee engagement. Worthless middle managers that don’t do anything. Huge disconnect between India employees and U.S. Employee surveys but no changes just town halls that make it look like it for optics. It’s a $hit show. I don’t really know anybody that’s truly happy at Wells Fargo, just comfortable.

https://techrights.org/n/2025/10/12/Weekend_Discussion_About_How_IBM_s_Bluewashing_of_Red_Hat_Will_.shtml

I left Wells Fargo, and now that I’m at another bank, I can really see how weird things were there. No constant process changes, people aren’t as burned out, and managers actually care. If you’re feeling drained, maybe look around a bit before you start thinking that’s just how it has to be.

The tech team’s culture is a masterclass in exploiting the need for networking in the field while treating actual engineering like a thankless chore. Most “management” here are too busy kissing up to non-engineers and flaunting their “connections” like they’re auditioning for a C-suite reality show or getting a millionaire customer on the books. The company leans hard into the field’s obsession with who-knows-who, we-ponizing it to reward political players at HO over producers. Meanwhile, engineers who grind out solid code and keep the systems humming? We’re just background noise, expected to bow to the schmooze gods. Skip a “networking” DEI event to debug a critical issue? You’re “not strategic.” It’s a ridiculous game where pleasing non-techies and chasing clout trumps building anything real. Time to value the code that drives the business, not the connections! 😅

Good expose on the mistakes that have led to stagnant growth and culture. Geoff comes across as dismissive and defensive, nothing is his fault. Do you think it’s true in your group that engagement scores are up since 2019? I’m not seeing it!

Got an offer today after several months off. Couldn't believe what I was seeing. The company offers profit sharing and an employee stock options plan. Sounds like a company that cares about its employees. Not sure why Dell couldn't...or better yet, wouldn't do this for its employees. There are better alternatives out there.

Hey anthem, you will not force or coerce me to volunteer to your chosen causes just so you can can get brownie points where ever you are trying to get them….. I volunteer and have for years, the way people are supposed to….. not for credit!

Reading in one of the posts that there are “reservations” about the helpfulness or productivity of GT EMEA teams hits hard, especially now, in the midst of layoffs that are already testing our collective resilience.

Having overseen cross-geo value delivery teams for years, I can say with confidence that many EMEA teams have matured into highly effective, fast-moving, and quality-driven units. We’ve delivered value; not just outputs, by staying close to our consumers, our business partners, and each other. That’s not a claim; it’s a lived experience!

What I’ve learned from working in a global domain is this: when leadership becomes micromanagement, when governance overshadows trust, and when agility is reduced to a checklist, we lose the very essence of what makes teams thrive. We lose people. We lose purpose.

Simon Sinek puts it well: “You can’t manage people. You can manage a process, a project, a schedule, but you lead people.” Leadership is a human function. It’s about care, inspiration, and connection, not enforcement.

And yet, we’re seeing the opposite. While we speak of agility, we’re letting go of the very people who embody it. While we claim to value empowerment, we’re centralizing control. While we celebrate Nike’s people-first culture, we’re eroding it from within.

This isn’t just about GT EMEA. It’s about what kind of global team we want to be. If we truly care about value delivery, let’s start by valuing the people who deliver it.

I recently had an epiphany of sorts.

Someone on this page shared that many ex ATT employees went to a company called WTT. When I went to their company website I saw a smaller company that thrived by saying it valued its employees. The quote by the CEO was encapsulated within background photos of happy employees. When you look closer at the faces in the photos, you can see genuine happiness.

Here’s the quote.

Our employees are the foundation of our company's success and how we run our business. That's why we are invested in them and their well-being, and why we strive to create a culture that empowers, supports and celebrates all people."

Jim Kavanaugh, CEO and Co-Founder

I said to myself, I remember working for a place like that. Then it hit me. Why am I still here?

I liken it to the frog in the pot. You don’t know you’re cooked until one day you wake up. It happens slowly so it’s hard to see and feel the change. Little by little they’ve been turning up the heat on the stove and I can now feel myself starting to cook.

The question now is, when will I be done? The thought is already placed in my mind.

I can do better. We can all do better.

I’ve worked for a number of media companies but Paramount is, by far, the worst as of late. I’m counting the days until I’m out of this toxic place on 10/31 and thankful that I’m able to retire. For anyone thinking of joining this company- DON’T!

Can we be done with the “proud to work for Cargill” posts on social media? Who are you fooling really?

Finished another week some how. State Farm is just a horrible excuse for an employer and represents all that is wrong with corporate America. For my first 15 years at State Farm I can honestly say I looked forward to going to work just about every single day. These last 10 years have been an absolute clown show. I thought it was bad but it is accelerating at an alarming rate. Everything they do sets you up to fail and ultimately sc--ws the customer over. I'm embarrassed most days to go into work. If we didn't have soo much money State Farm would be out of business within the decade. Please let it be known that 2026 will be the year of a huge exodus (voluntarily and involuntarily) for most people at State Farm. They are trying to get as many people to quit over stress leave. Horrible changes are coming at every turn from the pension, time off, health care benefits, return to work mandates and more unadulterated pressure. They are too cowardly to treat people appropriately and will just continue to destroy lives and careers. There is a special place in h-ll for these people making these decisions. Sold their souls to the devil. Run away as fast as you can, it gets worse!

In the few times the dfw area event has been cancelled there was usually a message about it. Don't recall seeing one this year, not that we go. Just an observation.

I’ve lost count of how many meetings end right where they started. So much talking, no real direction, and when someone actually offers something useful, it gets dismissed. Why is it that the people running things can’t tell the difference between noise and insight?

Someone is finally saying the quiet part out loud https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/i-ll-never-work-under-an-indian-chinese-manager-qualcomm-whistleblower-slams-anti-american-bias/ar-AA1O3jEh?ocid=BingNewsSerp

For 10 months I’ve been working for a new company, here is a summary of my experience.

Managers are nice, especially in snr exec positions, humble too.

DXC is antiquated - the Tech in the real world is far more up to real world standards

The company I work for has proper salaries for employees, £70k for a PM Lead 4 days a week

Better staff benefits package, similar to perks at work but better discount %

Company paid meals

Manager said casually on a day we were going to be on site that we will go for a meal, I have the company credit card. And it’s not Nando’s!

Company paid Xmas meals (menu ordering)

Company paid fitness classes after work and lunch hour

Company paid proper well being session with people on site

Any training request is approved

Free EV charging on site

Barely any town hall meetings

If someone leaves or retires - the whole company gets an email with a thanks

No expectation to work stupid hours

They are genuinely shocked at my strong work ethic, DXC put you in a constant state of fear, and we have to work damn hard to not show on the redundancy radar, they think I work very hard and super productive.

If you’re under 60, you are wasting your years away here. Apply for jobs, and if you get an opportunity don’t look back.

BAE staff rejecting annual over 3% rise, most people in DXC haven’t had 3% in 10 years. Let that sink in.

Our host today is none other than the '5 o'clock shadow', and today’s question is:

What makes me excited to come to work at BNY every day?

Survey says…
The PEOPLE! (ding, ding, ding . . . great answer!)

Yes, the same people who’ve been driving our culture, transforming our engine, and—plot twist—being systematically offboarded to optimize shareholder value!

Because nothing says “culture” like a quarterly spreadsheet of headcount reductions and a celebratory bell ring when the stock ticks up 0.3%.

Culture now comes with 4 daily badge swipes per week, 54 hours of required new training, and a ghoulish labyrinth-style corn maze set up to ensure your non-compliance with HR and BNY Training policy requirements. Can you say: "NO SEVERANCE FOR YOU!"

Let’s break it down:

• People drive our culture.
  -- Especially the ones who remain after the reorg, the re-reorg, and the “strategic realignment.” Survivors of the Hunger Games: Finance Edition.

• Culture is the engine behind our transformation.
  -- And like any good engine, it runs lean, burns out occasionally, and is replaced every fiscal year with a cheaper offshore model.

• Transformation is our purpose.
  -- Which explains why every team meeting feels like a live-action episode of “Who Moved My Org Chart?”

So yes, I come to work excited—excited to see which department has been renamed, which colleague has vanished mid-email thread, and which new acronym we’ll pretend to understand until it’s sunset in Q2.

Because at BNY, we don’t just value people...

We VALUE them, DEPRECIATE them, and then WRITE THEM OFF — all in the name of transformation — VVV style.

So for all you kiddos out there young and old ... Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween!!!

This is a term used when convenient, but not one that represents reality.

"One thing that you begin to notice when you spend a lot of time around people who perform at a world-class level is that they are more prone to anxiety. So when you shake things up, you’re most likely to rattle the very people you can least afford to lose and who can most easily leave."
https://www.fastcompany.com/91384291/how-to-truly-change-your-organization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_PPdjD6mg

What’s going on in Procurement these days? The team seems overloaded but it’s unclear what real value is being delivered. The group under Sekar has become almost impossible to work with — rude, defensive, and constantly shifting blame when scope or deadlines are missed.

Everyone knows about the behavior, yet nothing changes. Sekar openly says “Dave has my back,” and it shows. Where is Priscilla in all this? Why is this being tolerated? The lack of accountability and respect is getting out of hand.

Is anyone else experiencing the same issue or hearing similar feedback?

Out of all the things people gripe about on here, it appears the only thing that gets taken down is when you talk about the CEO of Xerox, or make reference to the post being taken down (so this post may disappear).

So I'm assuming these are the only posts Xerox is complaining about to the moderator of this site?

How sad?

So basically, legal, or a a SLT admin, just trolls this site all day looking for SB related content to take down, and all the other horrible (BUT TRUE) things people have to say about Xerox are fine? This is why XRX is headed towards bankruptcy, the only thing they really care about is insulating SLT.

We can’t control who leads Chevron. What we can control is our attitude about our sphere of influence. Nothing you do to improve your skills or deliver results is without merit. At the end of the day you work to provide and honor the one that has given you the intelligence, skills, and work ethic. We may be humble servants, but we’re not servants to Mike, the ELT, etc. If we’re meant to be elsewhere, then so be it.

In the current "Wortwechsel" he is towing the line. 1-2% seems okay for him.

On the other hand he focuses on the importance of culture. "Growth culture" is, according to him, soooo important.

Am I the only one who sees a certain amount of contradiction here?

At least he apologizes for the "brutal" remark, the tooth brushing (both DA) and the statement "at least my job is secure" (SS). Something at least.

I propose that there is a mid management level cull throughout NOV. Managers at the top are clueless and ineffectual, always have been/always will be. The mid level have neither direction nor personality - we require these to get back a culture of support and team focus.
“This is the way”
Children of the watch

I am new and joined 3 months ago. I am a fresh grad engineer and came to exxon for experience and to learn. Every other employee treats me like an outcast and does not interact with me. I have tried to talk to these people and they just ignore me or say they are too busy to be bothered. I am learning nothing from my time here at exxon. I was put on the United way committee and tasked with bugging employees to complete their contributions. I was told that there were groups or clicks at the site In am at. I reminds me of the caste system in india. I am like a untouchable dalit caste indian at this place. I was warned by an older employee that is ready to retire about the toxic culture and dysfunction. Everything he told me has happened to me. He also told me about this layoff site and I have learned a lot. If I had read these post before I joined I would not have come. I am hoping to last at least a year but want to leave right now. I feel that I will be nsied or piped because I am not doing any real engineering work. I have been nice to everyone I have met but no one has reciprocated the niceness. So now I just avoid all these je-ks and sit in my office and hide out. I find it easier to avoid them then interact a feel stupid by talking to them. There is definitely a huge toxicity problem and behavioral problem at exxon.

Ge-z reading all these posts it's clear there are a lot of s-xist pigs at the company. Many probably put on a nice exterior in the office as well but put a keyboard in front of them on this forum and you see what's really there.

Liz is retiring from Chevron, and the Earth itself may need a moment to recalibrate. After 36 years of finding oil in places most people wouldn’t even vacation, she’s finally trading seismic data for actual peace and quiet. Somewhere, a basin is weeping.

Chevron’s official statement praised her “collaborative leadership” and “global impact,” which is corporate-speak for “she made miracles happen while we reorganized every six months.” Liz didn’t just lead exploration—she led the delicate art of pretending budget cuts were strategic pivots.

Her successor now inherits the impossible task of filling her boots, which are rumored to be made of titanium and sarcasm. Good luck, Kevin. May your PowerPoints be short and your dry holes even shorter.

So here’s to Liz: the geophysicist who could read rocks better than most people read emails, who survived more reorganizations than a filing cabinet, and who now gets to enjoy a life free of acronyms, alignment meetings, and the phrase “value creation.” May her retirement be rich in irony and poor in bandwidth.