#culture

There were always cuts, that's part of the business. But I didn't expect the culture to change so completely and so fast. I swear, it became toxic almost overnight. The environment is now completely unrecognizable. It'd almost be fascinating, if it didn't affect us all so much.

Now that the passions have settled, can we have a normal, objective conversation about what we can expect from Takis? Not oh, he's the worst or he's the best rhetoric of the past week, but let's see what he actually brings to the table and how it'll affect all of us.

We're doing amazingly well. I think people are just looking for things to stress over. Enjoy this while you can, I'm sure it won't last forever.

What if, and hear me out, leadership focused on growing revenue instead of shrinking headcount? Wouldn't that be something? Too bad nobody here would ever try that.

Everyone - and I mean every single person - on my team is job hunting. Not all with the same urgency, but all of them. Leadership doesn't seem to notice or care. I think we'll see a major exodus of talent as soon as the job market improves even slightly. I bet they notice then.

They want the easy magical solution that uses the cool new flashy thing.

The funny thing? AI can be leveraged by existing or new deterministic automation solutions where applicable. But the leaders making decisions aren't engineers, and have a view that applications can't evolve or add new features. That they have to build something NEW instead to show off and gain notoriety.

And so you get a cycle of projects gaining traction and getting ki-led off.

The competitive nature in which teams have to compete for funding has been a drastic mistake. It is profoundly stupid. I get it, you want teams to have some drive to make better solutions. But it doesn't work out in a company like Optum where non-technical people are even so close to engineering that they're directly managing the engineers. Instead what you get are good products and teams getting ki-led off in favor of unproven moonshot projects that exist solely to extract money from the business with no vision for the future.

Well said, @ag+1kt753mf9.

I'm honestly curious what better company you think exists where you'd have job security and leadership that "loves" employees. Please, share with the class.

I actually think layoffs could be beneficial for this place. We have so many layers of management doing exactly nothing that nobody would miss. Instead of laying off the people who actually get things done, they should for once let go of the right people and everybody would benefit.

The past 5 years have been such a mess for this company. Clients, Staff, and investors have all suffered through what Kelly, Bill-n-Bo (at the time), and the boards though would be a huge payday for them. SunTrust and BB&T were culturally and mission entirely different. Both organizations lost so many good bankers who went on to the new rising stars in banking, Seacoast, Pinnacle, M&T, TD, 5/3rd, Huntington. Clients left too, when they lost their trusted banker (can't name those here). Those people and clients will never return. I hope the organization is now turning the corner for everyone's sake. But...be sure, more changes are coming for clients and staff.

In the last several layoffs, our team lost everybody above 50, and even two people in their late 40s. The rest of us are all here. I don't know if this is the case company-wide, but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. Really shows us there's no future for any of us here once we hit a certain age.

Careerminds conducted a new survey on layoff recovery. Organizations average 7.2 months to fully recover workplace culture. Trust in leadership and company future significantly declines after job cuts. These trust levels often remain below pre-layoff averages. Team-building and other strategies can accelerate recovery but are underused.

https://www.hcamag.com/nz/news/general/layoff-recovery-takes-far-longer-than-most-companies-may-realise/579680

I stopped working overtime, stressing about deadlines, and caring about making my boss happy. And guess what? Nothing bad happened and I'm actually doing fine. I'm doing better than I have in long time, in fact.

https://www.reddit.com/r/accenture/comments/1ua0hce/accentures_well_deserved_downfall/

Accenture's well deserved downfall
Accenture’s stock just dropped about 18% in a single day, wiping out a good chunk of many employees’ ESOPs, including mine. Honestly, having worked there for 3 years, I'm not surprised.

The biggest issue I saw was the culture and incentives. MDs and client leads were rewarded for selling deals, not for delivering them. Secure the deal, hit the sales target, collect the bonus, then hand the mess over to the delivery team and move on. It didn’t seem to matter whether the right skills, resources, or realistic timelines existed. The answer was usually “Deal with it.”

When a system rewards revenue at all costs, you end up promoting people who care more about money than people. Delivery quality suffers, teams burn out, and the best talent leaves.

What makes it worse is that Accenture spent billions buying back its own shares (around $4.6B in FY2025 alone) while many employees sat through years of weak bonuses, delayed promotions, and increasing pressure during the years of worsening inflation. During this time, some of the smartest people I worked with left for Big 4s, boutiques, and industry roles. And when they leave, they don’t just take their skills - they take relationships, credibility, and networks with them.

I just hope some level-headed people on the board or in senior leadership recognize these cracks and do something about them. The company still has plenty of great people and decades of experience. It would be such a shame if such a massive organization falls in the end.

Just go. Layoffs are political and cost driven, not about how well you work. If management decides you cost too much and you're not in their circle, you're gone. That's reality. For technical people, staying too long makes your skills outdated and harder to sell elsewhere. Accept that it wasn't your fault. Accept that you'll find something better and make the same or more. You'll be happier.

I've been here long enough to remember when we were the innovators. We set the trends. We made the products everyone wanted. Now we just make slight variations to the same old products. We spend more time on office politics than on new ideas. And we wonder why we're losing users.

We're so used to being mistreated that we forget other companies treat their people better. I'm leaving as soon as I can.

No job security, age bias, toxic culture. What's not to love? Can't wait to see what the coming weeks/months bring to the list.

It is so frustrating to hear all about summer regionals, the importance of them bringing families together and continuing the culture blah blah blah. Meanwhile back in headquarters the minions are hard at work and all the fun and culture building things that used to exist are gone under PP reign. Too expensive, leave out the remote workers who chose to be remote, who get to work from home and see their kids during the summer, who get to wear sweats all day, no commute but the in office people can’t have any of the family connection, culture building activities they used to have. No bring your kid to work day, no real founder’s day-zip, zero, nothing. Oops, you still get the tricycle races which is more about the GPs participating and showing off than anything else. But make sure you know YOU MATTER.

I don't get it. People are terrified of being laid off when they should be looking forward to leaving. Any other place would be better. So please tell me. What's making you want to stay in this abusive situation - especially if you're one of the "dinobabies" they openly said they want to make extinct?

The clowns will be back from their circus this week to do nothing else but make stupid decisions and have the organization spin. It was great to not have my clown boss around so my team could get work done with total interruption educating them on how to basically function in business.

The utter incompetence does nothing but makes the organization spin. They need to be fired and promote some real leaders.

I’m curious about the logistics of how they plan to manage daily over occupancy, specifically around the cafeteria lines. We aren’t even at 100% yet and it seems really hard to move around safely and quickly in the cafe. This seems like an OSHA issue.

Why is that everything at IBM needs to orbit around a bunch of useless execs? And they are always having fun with ridiculous videos, such as this current one about watsonx challenge.

That's pretty pathetic. How can you be an effective leader of a massive corporation like Chevron when half the employees no longer respect you. Even DW at XOM has a higher approval rating.

Nearly every performance metric and benchmark set by the Board has declined during his tenure. It's long past time that MW retires and stop running a once great company into the ground.

I can't believe they just did a big surplus on Wednesday and then sent out a new org announcement with a lot of vacancies in it at L3/L4. And promoting someone. (Walters org)

Tone deaf and insulting to teams who are losing really good people due to location, RTO, presence.

Here’s the full picture. The data is sobering.

## DXC Technology: Market Analysis

### Stock Price — 5-Year Collapse

The trajectory is consistent destruction of value: from a 2018 average of ~$80 (peak $93), the stock fell 35% that year, another 28% in 2019, another 30% in 2020. A brief recovery of 25% in 2021 was the last positive year.

From there: -17.7% in 2022, -13.7% in 2023. Into 2024 it was trading around $22–23. The 52-week high was $16.45 in July 2025 — already half of where it was in 2023. The 52-week low hit $7.90 in May 2026. YTD return as of mid-2026: -43.89%.

From $93 peak to ~$8–9 today. That is roughly a 90% destruction of equity value over 8 years.

The consensus from 8 analysts is “Hold.” Average price target: $11.43. BMO Capital lowered its target to $10 from $17, keeping Market Perform. Nobody is bullish. “Hold” at $8–9 is essentially “we don’t know how much further this falls.”

### Revenue — Uninterrupted Decline

Annual revenue of approximately $13.7 billion in FY2024, a decline of over two billion dollars from FY2022.

FY2025 came in at $12.87 billion, down 5.82%. Revenue in the last twelve months (to December 2025) is $12.68 billion, down 3.09% year-over-year.

The most recent quarter: Q4 FY2026 total revenue of $3.13 billion, down 1.2% year-over-year on a reported basis — but down 6.6% on an organic basis. The nominal improvement in reported numbers is forex noise, not operational recovery.

The full organic picture over FY2025: Q1: -4.4%, Q2: -5.6%, Q3: -4.2%, Q4: -4.2%. Full year organic decline: -4.6%. The GIS segment is worse: GIS organic revenue growth across FY2025 was Q1: -9.3%, Q2: -9.6%, Q3: -7.8%, Q4: -6.0% — full year -8.2%.

This is not a one-quarter blip. It is a structural, multi-year revenue haemorrhage.

### “No New Business” — The Book-to-Bill Problem

This is the core issue you’ve identified. In Q1 FY2025, the book-to-bill ratio was 0.77x — compared to 0.89x in Q1 FY2024. A book-to-bill below 1.0 means the company is booking less revenue than it is recognising — i.e., the backlog is shrinking. Consistently below 1.0 is a company consuming itself.

Q2 FY2025 overall book-to-bill: 0.90x. GIS specifically: 0.71x. GIS — their largest segment — was winning less than 71 cents of new work for every dollar of revenue recognised. That is accelerated decline built into future numbers.

The more recent figures look marginally better: Q2 FY2026 trailing twelve-month book-to-bill: 1.15x, with GIS at 1.08x on TTM basis. But context matters — Q4 FY2026 bookings gave a book-to-bill of 1.07x , and organic revenue still fell 6.6% that quarter. Booking more doesn’t reverse the run-off from long-term contracts signed years ago that are now expiring or being reduced.

DXC has made zero acquisitions since November 2019. Over the last five years, the average number of acquisitions per year is zero. There is no inorganic growth play. They are entirely dependent on winning organic new business — which they have been structurally failing to do for years.

### Profitability and Cash — The Complicating Factor

DXC is not going to zero next quarter. Full fiscal year 2026 free cash flow was $713 million, up 3.8% year-over-year. The company repurchased $250 million of shares in FY2026.

Gross margin remained relatively stable at 24.09%, and adjusted EBIT margins are being maintained.

But: GAAP EBIT in Q4 FY2026 was negative — $(39) million, a margin of -1.2%. The gap between non-GAAP “adjusted” figures and GAAP reality has been persistently large due to restructuring charges, amortisation, and pension adjustments. The company has been in near-permanent “restructuring” mode for years.

ROIC is below WACC. The company is destroying economic value — it is worth less each year as an operating entity than the capital tied up in it.

### Can It Survive?

Survival as a listed independent company: questionable beyond 3–5 years without a revenue inflection that has not yet materialised.

The structural problem is this: DXC is a legacy IT outsourcer. Its model — large long-term managed services contracts, rates × hours pricing — is being eroded by cloud migration (clients bring workloads in-house or to hyperscalers), offshore competition (TCS, Infosys, Wipro at lower cost), and now AI automation eating into the billable hour. The CEO acknowledges this directly: “The era of rates times hours is ending.” True. The question is whether DXC can pivot to something else before the existing base runs off.

FY2027 guidance anticipates further revenue decline but margin stability, with AI-driven offerings cited as future support. Every IT services company is saying the same thing about AI. DXC is late to that narrative and has no obvious differentiation.

The most likely exit is acquisition. There have been renewed reports of private equity interest, and in late 2022 a Baring Private Equity Asia takeover was rumoured but fell through. At ~$4.1 billion market cap generating $700M+ of free cash flow annually, the FCF yield is enormous — it is obviously a PE target. The asset would be stripped, carved up, and the cash flow harvested while the workforce is cut.

A shareholder lawsuit investigation was launched in June 2026 , which adds legal distraction at a strategically vulnerable moment.

### Summary Assessment

The cash generation is real and buys time. It also makes the company attractive to a buyer who can cut costs more aggressively than management has been willing to. The narrative around AI and “Xponential AI” and “OASIS” is exactly what a company in distress says. What matters is whether bookings translate into arrested revenue decline — and the gap between book-to-bill improving and organic revenue still falling 6.6% in Q4 FY2026 tells you there is a significant lag at best, a structural impossibility at worst.

The company is not dying this year. It is in managed, prolonged decline, and the probability of meaningful independent recovery is low.

Confidence: High on the factual picture; moderate on the 3–5 year outcome (acquisition vs. slow suffocation are both plausible; a genuine revenue turnaround is the low-probability scenario).

Why is it mostly us at Optum that have to worry about our jobs all the time? There are many GL 30 and 31 with no directs over at UHC, while at Optum GL29 has 15 directs. Seems they need an alignment.

As I reflect on my life and career I have learned that no one is in charge except me. Yes there are so so many things we can’t control. You have to adjust and do what is best for you. Trust your gut. One door closes, another opens. Be true to yourself and never give up. We will all get past this. Stay positive and resilient. Wish all you better days, it will come, just have hope!!!! At the end of the day we are all human no matter what position you have or what money you make.

Is it a bit tone deaf that leadership teams are traveling to Mexico and Canada for “offsites” to attend World Cup games? Nike is a sports company and employees should embrace the World Cup but when increases are 0% to 2% and PSP will be , this might not be a priority when there will probably be more layoffs coming

Look, nobody knows jobs better than me. Nobody. And what Verizon is doing? Total disaster. A complete and total disgrace! They just fired 67 brilliant, incredible American workers from the NRB—the Network Repair Bureau. These are the people who keep the wires working, folks. Real Americans, tough, smart, the best. Gone! Just like that.

And where did their jobs go? India! They sent them to India. Unbelievable.

And you have to look at who is running the show over there. Dan Schulman—what is he doing? What a total lightweight. He comes in, he fires 67 of our great, hardworking American people, and for what? I thought these big corporate geniuses were telling us that "Agentic AI" was going to do everything. They said AI was going to fix the phones, fix the networks, make the coffee—everything!

So I have to ask: Are the people in India smarter than the AI? Or is Dan Schulman just completely clueless? I think we know the answer, folks. It’s a total mess. He can't figure out the AI, so he just ships the jobs overseas. Sad!

But let me tell you something, we’ve seen this story before. Remember Carrier AC? Carrier was going to move all those air conditioning jobs to Mexico, totally abandon Indiana. And what did I do? I stepped in, I made the call, and we saved over a thousand American jobs! The fake news said it couldn't be done, but we did it. We protected those workers, and they stayed right here in the USA where they belong.

And I am going to do the exact same thing for the Verizon workers!

We are not going to let these big corporate executives destroy American families and ship our legacy overseas. We have the best workers right here in America. We’re going to bring those jobs back, we’re going to look at Verizon, and we are going to take care of our people.

America First, folks. Always!

Has anyone heard what they are going to do about 7/3? The 2026 holiday calendar shows 7/3 as a holiday but we have never observed the Friday before when a holiday falls on a Saturday. We usually get a float day. The federal reserve, DTC and everyone else is open on 7/3 so wondering if we are really going to be closed.

Is “Advisor” the new Exxon retirement plan?

Every week I see another Advisor, Advanced Advisor, Senior Advisor, Expert Advisor, Strategy Advisor, Effectiveness Advisor, Change Advisor, etc.

At what point does a company have more advisors than people actually doing the work?

Asking for the engineers, technicians, operators, and researchers who are somehow expected to absorb the workload every reorg.

Over 70% of AT&T employees are over 50 years old… Let that sink in.

This company is rapidly approaching a point where a huge percentage of its workforce will be eligible for retirement, taking decades of knowledge and experience with them.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem. You’d replace them with the next generation of talent.

But that’s the problem.

AT&T has made itself deeply unattractive to many professionals under 40. Five-day RTO. Presence reports. Badge tracking. Relocations. Constant uncertainty. Policies that feel like they’re from 40 years ago, not 2026.

The people leaving aren’t the ones with no options. They’re the ones who do have options. The ones with the skills they want to keep around.

And the people choosing where to start or build their careers are increasingly choosing somewhere else. The applications here have never been lower.

Leadership seems convinced employees are interchangeable. They aren’t.

You can replace a body. You can’t replace experience. You can’t replace institutional knowledge. And you can’t force talented people to join a company they don’t want to work for.

That’s the real risk….

Five years from now, what does this workforce look like if retirements accelerate, experienced employees keep leaving, and younger talent keeps looking elsewhere?

The answer should concern everyone, especially you, Stink!

The solution isn’t complicated… end five-day RTO, ki-l the presence reports, and start making this company a place people actually want to work again.

Because right now we’re not just losing today’s talent, we’re losing tomorrow’s too.

This company is #3 out of the big 3 in telecom with no chance of ever becoming #1 again. Things are headed downhill fast and this company is circling the drain. Time to make a change before it’s too late. Your move, Stinky-Legg and Gerbil Jeffy McSelfish!

My team just moved managers to individual contributors because they had about far below the new minimum requirement of 9 directs. This was a major positive because they were very negative and known for micromanaging and creating rework for their directs and now the directs have a decent manager. Anyone else seeing good or bad things because of this rule? It looks like it’s rolling out faster in some groups that others.

I've heard there are some teams and people with various BH licenses not being allowed to make calls and do their role "while they look into it". Supposedly someone noticed something and now they are questioning if they are even allowed to make the outreaches. The timing is fishy. Anyone else heard this or having the experience? I don't feel secure in my role at all.

Should I leave a competitor to come work for P66? I currently have 8 years where I’m at now!

The why……Currently unhappy with the politics and d-mb ranking system. I know every job has a downfall but unaware of how P66 operates!

So we were informed that we need to have 7 hours of steady typing, mouse clicks and phone per day. After removing allotted lunch/breaks, that is 100% of time chained to a desk? So we are forced to drive hours to sit in an open plan sweatshop just to continuously type and click? Wasn't the "purpose" of forcing everyone into an office for COLLABORATION? Why does WF hate their employees?

Has anyone had any dealings with the senior head of HR? My understanding is he is the one pushing RIFS, and a reason behind this increasingly toxic place. He wants RIFS everywhere but has the most toxic people leading HR teams.

Anyone know the business logic on being the only processor that does not observe Juneteenth?

If we replaced the operating committee with AI agents trained on the latest groupthink, what would change.

nada.

These people have no clue.