#culture

I’ve watched good people suddenly get nitpicked to death, with every small mistake magnified and every project second guessed until they finally give up and leave. It always feels personal, not professional. Nobody turns from an exemplary employee into a bad one overnight, even though management sometimes tries to make it seem that way. I’ll be honest, I’ve been walking on eggshells to avoid the same thing happening to me.

Exxon seems to have a grudge against every employee equally. No one is safe, no matter how hard you work. There’s this pervasive sense that management actually enjoys playing games with people’s livelihoods. Whether you’ve been here a year or twenty, it’s all the same. I swear there’s just a bunch of sadists at the top.

Let’s be honest, how much worse can it get than it already is? I don’t know about you, but for me, it can’t. Things can only improve from here. I’m willing to give this a chance before deciding the world is ending or whatever else.

Need tips.

Layoffs are something that happens everywhere, we're not special in that regard. And I still think this is a decent job if you're lucky to have a good team and a good manager. Just my 2 cents.

Over the past few days, we have been hearing about quite a few people who had dedicated their lives to Juniper. These people spent upwards of 80hrs a week in supporting the organization grow and deliver.

As this acquisition is taking shape, we are being informed that these folks do not have a place in the new organization. This is beyond comprehension. How can our SVP's EVP's make such decisions and completely ignore these individuals in favor of the new team. Some of these people let go have a resume that's longer than the age of these new members.

I'm beyond stunned today as I hear about a specific individual who worked tirelessly in delivering the results, appreciated repeatedly and making our SVP/EVP successful in the eyes of our CEO. If this isn't betrayal I don't know what is..

Today, I can say that I no longer have any respect left for this person's previous supervisor.

Apart from CEO.

I really thought that after this phase that I would find reason to believe in the firm again. The opposite happened. It’s clear to me that this is not a place I want to work.

Even though I’m safe, my faith and trust in leadership is broken forever. The way they kept demotions/grade drops under the radar intentionally and their handling of the six-month layoff process generally is inexcusable and riddled with unforced error after unforced error from the disastrous, word salad, tone-deaf firm town hall to the callous superficially transparent corpo comms.

The results are also a complete failure. I don’t see any efficiencies gained, just unnecessary confusion with all the middle management boneheads still around bloating the org chart. And the people they decided to promote? Nearly all are brown nosers or obviously unqualified.

On top of that i no longer feel any job security. What’s to stop the firm from arbitrarily dropping my pay a year or six months from now? Now that leadership has the taste of blood, it seems they like and will return for more. I don’t want to be here when that happens and I don’t have to be.

I didn’t think it would come to this but I’m going to start actively looking. The firm can do what it wants and I am sure will be just fine but I want no part of this new culture where employees are seen as less than human cogs to be broken, switched around internally or cast aside on management’s whim. No thanks.

Hey y’all! Hoping you had a relaxing Labor Day weekend - I hope this Labor Day allowed you what I call the “3 Rs” - it brought you time to recharge, reflect, and reconnect with what matters to you most. My fourth “R”? “Remember” to sign your severance or demotion package today by 11:59 pm CST.

Enough about a holiday that celebrates the American workers contributions. It was Women’s Equality Day last Tuesday so I wanted to celebrate a few of my favorite heroines in “Herstory” (aka History). But before I do, I need to address a question I keep getting. You all know I didn’t take the last name of my husband. That would not be progressive. Many of you ask, “Penny, why hasn’t he taken your last name?” Well…I’ve been championing this change for years but he’s a stubborn man!

Let’s look back in time to a few females I respect:

Marie Antoinette - she is famous for saying, “Let them eat cake”, when the French people were starving, and living in inflation, and many in squalor. For some reason the French citizenry didn’t like the royal coffers being filled at their expense. What? I call that “Penny Economics” or what some of you may call trickle down theory - demote and take away the current peasants earnings and use those funds to pay people’s severance. Oh…I’d be remiss in not saying this…”Cake” means “Crumbs” so when you are trying to put a Christma…I mean a Holiday dinner on the table, you can tell your kids and spouse, “Let them eat cake!”. One foot note - I’m not a fan of how the French people treated her. She was a visionary.

Catherine the Great - ahhh…now let’s talk about humble swagger. She was the empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. Talk about moxy! And I like the ring of her title…”Penny the Great”. I digress, apologies. She is often included in the ranks of the enlightened despots…like me! But, just like me, an evaluation of her foreign policy was completed and it was considered a dishonest one. Catherine failed to reach any of the initial goals she had put forward. And just like me - Catherine lacked a long-term strategy and from the very start was characterized by a series of mistakes. She imposed a comprehensive system of state regulation of merchants’ activities. It was a failure because it narrowed and stifled entrepreneurship and did not reward economic development. Catherine called in “Russia Reimagined”.

Those are just two women I wanted to celebrate since we missed recognizing last weeks holiday. Next week I’ll highlight Amelia Earhart’s exceptional aviation skills.

As I wrap up and focus on business, I wanted to share a few more changes in 2026:

• The “Toast to Ted” will be retired and there will be a mandated “Toast to Penny” at regional events.
• We are working on standing-up a BRG for the Demoted.

Enjoy Labor Day today as you reflect on your years of service and don’t forget. “Qu’ils mangent de La brioche”

Ignore Ipulse, let's tell them what we think here, no holding back.

And why? Layoffs happening this often shouldn’t feel so acceptable. We hear about them, stress through them, move on for a month (or two if we’re lucky), and then rinse and repeat. How did we let things get so very, very wrong?

The recent CEO and Board are a bunch of cowards plain and simple. Total lip service and many even bought that lip service. Look what has happened. Beyond a sad day for many people. They say the only constant things in life is change and paying taxes. But change doesn' t mean to sell out to VULTURES. You FAILED as leaders ...but what do you care. You get a lot of money..That is what is it all about right. But also many of you voted for this. You RUINED a respected... what was once a pretty good company. A fact is a fact. Just terrible.

A bad sign?

It's an older podcast interview with Richard Davis.
https://www.bankdirector.com/article/a-second-act-for-richard-davis/

3 minutes in he gets to US Bank culture and how he put employees first before even customers and shareholders and how employee satisfaction drove customer happiness which drove shares up making the shareholders happy.

That all seems to have disappeared quickly after he left. It's time to go back to that philosophy. If anyone in the C Suite is reading this, pay attention. Richard Davis was the golden era. Learn from him.

If the job market weren’t as bad as it is, I’d honestly consider those laid off the lucky ones. I’ve worked at several companies in this industry, and this one is, hands down, the worst managed, most impersonal, most dehumanizing, and least efficient by far. Funny how all those negatives always seem to come together. The worse you treat your employees, the worse the company itself becomes.

Thanks for dedicating your life to ntap. I just got here and am going to sc--w you without even buying you dinner. thanks for your pto, what used to be an amazing place to work is now awful. Your awesome Wissam, gfyourself from everyone at ntap that made this company great.

I wish they'd offer voluntary exit to all depts. Remember all that put in won't get selected for it. This would get older employees out of here. Leave more jobs open for the ones that need to stay. Just because it's offered in your area don't mean all will be selected for it. They can't let everyone leave that wants too or they would not have enough employees left. Sad but so true. If it's ever even offered to any area I'd be surprised. This place is all about sc--wing over it's employees. No pension for new hires is a better deal they can move jobs and roll it over no pension building tieing them here. Unfortunately SF doesn't contribute as much as a lot of employers. And our pension is not that great.

The idea of being laid off, or being stuck at Nike in this culture and environment for years to come? There was a time when this would have been a no-brainer. Now, I honestly can’t tell which I dread more. If the job market were any better, I’d embrace layoffs in a second.

State Farm here! Come over and read our posts about what this sh-t hole is doing to its people! Your CEO has set the pace/tone for all the other CEOs to fall in line! They attend the same meetings, talk to the same consultants and run in the same circles. I've been at SF 30 years and need a couple more to retire. If you happen to have SF insurance cancel that cr-p, it's too expensive, service su-ks and all you are doing is giving 10-15% of your premium to a SF Agent. I'm about to move all of my internet and cell away from AT&T after your CEO sent that letter to employees basically telling them we owe you absolutely nothing and we expect absolute conformance and loyalty to AT&T! Same sh-t hole people no matter where you work in corporate America.

Hey Penny Pincher Pennington! The thin veil you put in front of every HO associate’s face will most certainly backfire! Hiring a ton of offshore associates for cheap won’t magically fix your problems!!! We tried it in the past! It doesn’t work!!! Ever heard of the law of diminishing value?? Welp, too late now!!!!!!!

Low Point: Being told to stress how amazing Walgreens Cash is and to turn ourselves into a marketing mouthpiece if/when asked by family&friends how the latest shift in Walgreens is panning out for us all. Ew.

Concept of an executive chairman also seems spooky in practice with that much punching power over a standard board member. To be determined though if that’s ever leveraged too casually.

High Point: I’ve rarely ever heard Stefano pop in for one of these. But he came off the most genuine and straightforward out of anyone who spoke. Everyone else was sweating bullets, meanwhile Pessina’s all “bibbidty bopiplity, I Italian man, we used to be American only, that worked before, so welcome back.” Maybe it was just the language bit that made his simplicity seem that mindful? Half fell asleep for everyone else’s segments.

Left the dump recently. Took me a few months to get an offer. After a month, I cannot think of a single thing that is worse about new company. Very eye-opening.
This makes me wonder: has anyone else left U.S. Bank and realized just how bad of an employer it was?
The bank also appears to have slashed the salary range on the backfill listing.

Posts here get hundreds of views. Social media statistics indicate only 3% engagement. (Of 100 viewers there's 3 commenters) And then there are comments deleted "magically".

I don't have a point. Just acknowledging the engagement and concern. I see it in quick hallway looks. I hear it on calls. I know most people care. And I know they don't feel cared for.

Please enjoy the long weekend if you can.

Sampath’s post is pure smoke and mirrors. “Transformation in months”? Please. The only thing that’s transformed is how fast leadership churns out buzzwords while frontline employees are buried in RTO nonsense, broken systems, and nonstop cost cuts.

“Once in a lifetime opportunity”? For who — the execs on stage collecting fat paychecks while the business bleeds customers and morale tanks? The Value team isn’t setting a new standard — they’re just the latest props in Verizon’s never-ending PR circus.

Growth? Sure, in empty slogans and staged photo ops. Out here in the real world, Verizon is shrinking.

Hi all. My partner works in design and I’ve been hearing stories about leadership and making his job harder. Just curious-who is responsible for leadership? Who’s making sure they are doing a good job?

Organizations are being forced to mark more than a quarter of their teams low in performance reviews as low achievers, or inconsistent or however they want to work it. People are being marked low in the overalls to satisfy HR demands, but if they looked closer would see nothing in the categories are marked low. Teams are being told to "pass the pain around" so that no one hopefully gets terminated. HR forcing this is utterly ridiculous, and if they looked closer at the notes and other performance reviews they would see that teams are just playing this d-mb game. This turns employees sour and makes everyone feel undervalued. I'm sure the Detroit Freepress and others don't care either since they love to run Farley Love pieces constantly. This forced ranking stinks of Farley. He openly talks about how incompetent the employees are. I hope his contract is not renewed.

Hilarious - absolute garbage numbers and she’s trying to put a spin on it. This place gonna sink like a rock as the job market turns around

Good look for the Value org. Nice off-site in Miami dressed up in tux's and dresses while the business is cutting left & right.

Cater to those who can't afford postpaid but they can throw a good party for themselves. Nice!

There’s been some chatter about internal roles being posted with a ‘preferred candidate’ allegedly already in mind. Supposedly, certain leaders have a reputation for giving opportunities to people in their inner circle, and many employees feel it creates an uneven playing field.

On top of that, the culture in parts of the firm (some say CRM and even more specifically compliance supposedly) is described by many as having ‘mean girl energy.’ If you don’t play the game (feed egos, camera on head nodding in agreement, don’t mention the fake glamour headshots), you risk getting up blackballed often times with the support of HR (supposedly).

Some have said there is one specific leader who stands out in this regard, allegedly she gets worse every year because she’s been getting away with it for so long. Apparently, she’s great at managing up, but for those in her world that dare challenge her perspective, the experience has the potential to be miserable (supposedly).

The running joke that helps get many of us through the day is pulling up the Schweb and laughing at what appears to be a heavily AI-filtered glamour headshot. It’s hilarious and also perfectly on brand for how fake the culture feels these days. And with layoffs and constant uncertainty hanging over people’s heads, we all need a good laugh!

For those who’ve worked at Dell (past or present), how would you describe the culture? Is it collaborative and supportive, or more rigid and numbers-driven? How does it compare to other places you’ve worked?

Curious to hear real perspectives.

Also from the main thread, morale is rock bottom and the culture has changed:

• "It's been a constant rocking boat the past few years... I used to say I liked Kroger for the stability. Funny." (Diskonnected, Post ID: @pz+1k3eddae2)
• "Hard to plan life when arbitrary layoffs happen every 3 months." (Danica, Post ID: @p8+1k3eddae2)
• "This is why no one should be ki-ling themselves everyday for these corporations. They don’t give two fu--s about the everyday people doing all their work." (Anonymous, Post ID: @kr+1k3eddae2)
• "Very sorry to everyone affected... the company is spiraling. It’s a shell of the company it once was." (Anonymous, Post ID: @m7+1k3eddae2)
• "Prayers to the parents, children, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends—we’re all in this journey together." (Anonymous, Post ID: @kv+1k3eddae2)
• "I wish I was one of you. I'm ready to get off this boat." (Diskonnected, Post ID: @pz+1k3eddae2)

Quotes from the main thread:

• "they're utterly stymied by broken process, bloated egos and MGMT who's only concern is their own portfolio." (Anonymous, Post ID: @qg+1k3eddae2)
• "Kroger values people who say 'Yes, Yael, great idea! We can do it on that timeline!' more than why other skill." (Anonymous, Post ID: @q3+1k3eddae2)
• "Yael is such a fake corpo loser. Hate his stupid voice... all of these clowns are spineless cowards who don’t care about people." (Anonymous, Post ID: @h7+1k3eddae2)
• "HR isn't for the associates. It's designed to protect the company from legal issues with the associates." (Anonymous, Post ID: @ma+1k3eddae2)
• "Jim looks like a frog." (Anonymous, Post ID: @km+1k3eddae2)
• "Some of the VPs that survived are a joke and have caused this 'product led' mess." (Anonymous, Post ID: @pt+1k3eddae2)

If only HCSC cracked down on nepotism and favoritism the way they are cracking down on RTO and the ridiculous 3 days average in the office.

Simple yes and why or no and why not will suffice. Just curious.

Worth trying to transfer into SAI? How's the culture?

One common theme about Canon is clear: it doesn’t matter which building you work in, the problems are the same. Canon doesn’t suffer from a lack of talent.. it suffers from a lack of leadership. Employees show up, work hard, and carry the company forward, while management hides in endless meetings, promotes favorites over performers, and makes decisions that protect themselves at everyone else’s expense. Supervisors are handed titles without the skills to actually lead. The facade of care may look good on paper, but the reality employees live every day tells a very different story, no matter how polished the corporate messaging may look

It’s because our leadership doesn’t know how to lead. Extremely poor communication upward and downward. Probably the worst in the industry. It’s why we are perpetually in the position we are in externally and internally. Literally All of them need to be removed for folks better suited to these roles. We are effectively leaderless with just some puppets occupying those positions. The senior mrgs, heads of x and dept are the worst at this. No bad people just horrible mgrs and leaders. And truth is they are comfortable they don’t want to change or for things to change.

OP: @b6+1k3kqvjzn

This is definitely the root of our problems. Bumping the post up for visibility.

Is there really no other way to improve the bottom line? What kind of incompetent leadership is running this place?

Hi - I'm looking for new opportunities and may consider Cigna. Very few companies seem like great places to work. But it seems like employee dissatisfaction is comparatively low.

Any thoughts on taking a job here?

I get that jobs aren’t meant to be fun all the time, but dreading every Sunday and counting the hours till Friday isn’t normal. Why have we just accepted misery as part of the deal? Shouldn’t there be a better balance than this?