#culture

Today when the bell rings. The final reckoning begins. Nike is going to reap what its owed. The years of woke advertisement, DEI, the coverups, the bad choices they kept making. It's all boomeranging back. The allainating of the man in the street, it's over.
Today it begins, and October 1 it ends.

It’s gone pretty quiet lately on the race to pick up after the mess Penny is leaving behind. What’s the latest odds?

Is “Mr. Hustle” Chewy still several lengths ahead?

I can’t imagine anyone is still talking seriously about David G or KJ?

What about the dark horse of Andy M?

So many (poor) choices, but the one thing you can bet on is whoever it is will be stuck draining the ELT swamp (Suzie M, KJ, Cella, Lisa D, etc.).

This entire organization is a mess.

This is what happens when you let a banker, a lawyer and a boozer run a pipeline company.

Anyone have a map, I’d like to see where we are going?

What do relationships managers really do?? Because at this point I belive their job is to just redirect their responsibilities or even misdirect. Do your job and stop making others do the work of three depertments!!! Its infuriating!!

What’s the point of having HR people that their only response is go to red? And that thing never has answers. So tired of getting zero support from people that have no idea what they are doing. They don’t do talent scouting, they don’t give support and they keep messing up the simplest activities of their position.

EL has no vision and no plans so we just sit idling with a failing brand.

They are absolutely breaking their backs to keep major incidents from spiralling yet they get no acknowledgement from the customer or their own management.

Is this how it is across the entire business? Would it be feasible for us to get our own side hustle despite working on site five days a week?

This is still one of the better places to work. Yes, there are issues, but some of you can't see the forest for the trees. With everything happening in the world, I'm willing to overlook a lot for good pay and benefits, and I still get that here.

I've worked in some difficult places, but Dell has been the most frustrating by far. The management, processes, and supposed performance based pay all fall short.

When we made toys every kid wanted to have? When layoffs were not something we had to think about all the time? Can we go back to those times? I miss them.

They really conditioned us well, didn't they? To the point where knowing there won't be layoffs during a given week seems like something out of the normal.

I went from really liking my job to dreading it. And it happened in six years I've been here, which is not that long for such a drastic change.

Some people talk about sixty hour weeks as if they're proving how committed they are. I don't see it that way. If you're spending that much time working, you're giving up a huge part of your life for the job that will most likely reward you with even more work and nothing else. That's not a lifestyle I envy.

Where would culture be without it?

https://www.ft.com/content/41539aaa-2f83-4bc2-a1d1-ffadcab11827?utm_campaign=feed&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio

I've been working at Intel for over a year, and I've increasingly felt excluded by my teammates. I am also the most new hire in my team. I'm often left out of projects and team discussions, and whenever I offer to help, I'm met with hostility or behavior that makes me feel isolated. They ridiculed me even in front of team meeetings by demeaning my work, keeping me out of loop and excluding me from team chats. Things have gotten worse since two colleagues returned from leave and started working closely together. I feel like they've created an environment where I'm deliberately excluded from opportunities and collaboration.
It's becoming emotionally exhausting to deal with this kind of workplace politics. Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you handle it? I started to look for other opportunities but I need to sustain here till I get another one… please help I am so mentally exhausted…

I’m new to the company, and I’ve already had two project managers tell me they’ve been told they have “VP potential.” One has only been here three years. I’m trying to understand how anyone can be identified that early, and realistically, how many VP roles ExxonMobil even needs. Based on what I’ve read and with the current low CLS structure and retirements, it doesn’t seem possible.

The new Plano campus will have an on-site mental health and wellness center. What does that say about the “culture” of this company?

Mental health and employee well-being are absolutely important. However, the company continues to highlight this mental health benefits and this new center as a “look what we did” response to the health and well-being survey results. It raises a legitimate question: how much of the mental health and well-being issues employees are experiencing are actually a result of working for T in the first place?

Addressing the symptoms is important, but shouldn’t we also be asking what is contributing to the problem?

Sorry but everyone tries to find the unintended worst in everything. This isn’t like the golf ad with violence on women. Sneakers free floating or dangling has long been a thing.

The next time you see shoes hanging from a clothes line or power lines are we going to claim racism? If I tie my shoes together and toss over my shoulder do I support public hanging now?

This world is getting ridicolous. The fact this was even apologized for is nonsense. It shows Nike fears the negative press and being on the offense is no longer a thing. The big bold in your face brand is nothing more than fluff now.

Nike = be on the defense always….

Nah.
You're hiding now
$30 million disaster.

Fire these azzholes involved in the cover up immediately. Name them and shame them.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/nike-staff-accused-trying-to-cover-up-teen-athletes-s-xual-as--ult/283-c10bc24d-7da8-49bf-94ec-c17ec19dc5cb?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_KGW-TV&fbclid=IwdGRzaAUbihRjbGNrBRuJVXBkb2YBZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEePNDyBX_EiIz16nJAmm6W8UA225MLvyYZtaFD-FiI4c_JSBTGXhI_sV-9g4k_aem_Qb6FZrLlvcrEQYBnhypWhA

When Rome is burning

There’s been a sea-change in the cellular industry since the introduction of the iPhone. Years ago the industry was profitable and growing. Feature phones were roughly equivalent, cheap to make and none of the vendors had pricing power. If Motorola tried to overcharge, companies could strike a better deal with Samsung or any other competitor. The vendors and the employees benefited from this rising tide.

Fast forward to today and smartphones have impressive capabilities but are much more expensive and brand loyalty means companies like Apple have pricing power. At the same time the increase in data consumption has required much larger investments in cell sites and spectrum. As a result, service providers are squeezing their suppliers and their employees as hard as they can to remain profitable. Sure, Lowell, Hans, and company made huge mistakes but the overall change in the industry is equally important if not more so.

I don’t foresee an improvement in this trend and I think it’s no longer worth it for those of us who aren’t ED, VP, or CEO to remain in this industry.

I wanted to share a serious concern regarding the toxic work culture and ongoing mismanagement within our organization.
Over the past three years, we have been trapped in an unsustainable cycle. Leadership consistently chooses underperforming vendors who fail to deliver on their commitments. It is an open secret that these vendors are missing deadlines because they lack the capability, and many suspect that commissions are being funneled behind the scenes while the internal team is forced to pick up the slack.
Because of these poor strategic choices and mismanaged feature implementations, we are constantly being thrown under the bus. We are forced to work consecutive weekdays and weekends to cover for failing vendor deliverables. Specifically, leadership figures like sen*il, SD OMR, Rjt, SD Arn, and their directors foster an unreasonable environment where everything is expected immediately, with zero regard for employee burnout or the root causes of failure. It is the same cycle across the board—giving contracts to vendors who will later benefit them personally.
This mismanagement is now severely impacting our products. Visible is one of the best digital prepaid brands we have, but as part of the NSA migration, they are currently migrating the legacy Visible system to postpaid NSA. That system is fundamentally flawed; if it goes to production, heaven knows how many customers will face issues. Additionally, our VXP platform system is also flawed, and provisions are not even working.

I hope Dan see this post many because all of theses fat leadership our VZ brand losing the market share

... Cleaning up on DVN talent. The really good talent. Folks have more faith in Kate and Justin, which is saying something after the Hager years.

Everyone will be a VP soon. The org chart is bloated with VP's and the VP's themselves are bloated. Talent gets you nowhere in Telecom management especially in Uniti/Windstream culture. About 75% of all VP's are crony appointments and the others are Telecom lifers with talent but waiting for their severance package.

VP's! It's VP's ALL THE WAY DOWN! The job title bloat is unreal but what do you do in a shrinking industry full of telecom lifers.

Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.

IT team su-ks.. the business architects seem clueless. Zero technical ability. It's a miracle thd company is still afloat.

Hello everyone ! I’m back and I hope you’re all happy and healthy including the negative ones that bad mouth Medtronic.. lol It’s been 4 mos since I got riffed since May 5th and I I’m living the dream but I have to admit I left my heart in Medtronic..I did not have a high paying job or position but honestly I was happy. The only drawback that I hated was getting up at 5 but nevertheless i had a great job with some of the best people I will ever meet in my lifetime. I think that was the best part of my job to be honest with you. They always helped me see the good in everything no matter how bad it was . I would have never known this if i had never worked there . You can call me whatever you want , bootlicker and such but in your face I’m one proud one right here . And if given the chance I would take my job again in a heartbeat . God bless Medtronic❤️

You know you work for a bottom feeder when:

1) SVPs of finance confidently says we always go down x%/year (instead of a one-time restructure like a normal company to align capital allocation with market opportunity)
2) SVPs of Print still think they 'run the company' despite secular market decline
3) An interim CEO for 9mo+ and no permanent in sight

For a company full of people climbing over themselves to push AI ideas - I have a challenge for you. Ask AI what the actual impact of forced low ratings in a major company. Not to steal the thunder here but - it’s a total failure - across the board!

It brings -

Terrible supervisor behavior
Crushes morale
Encourages disposable practices
Invites lawsuits
Extreme cost from turnover
Moreover - these impacts are worse at a company like P66 because of the annual cycles of cuts, the layoffs, outsourcing, and automation.

What’s so bad about it? Consider this situation:

You are in a group of 60 people, no supervisor has more than 6 people, some have only 3. Because of the continuous cutting of the “worst” since 2012 and the outsourcing or automation of many entry level jobs - your group is comprised of seasoned professionals. You supervise 4 people, all improve their work processes, find opportunities and add value. Through the year you stretch your people and have challenging targets. Almost all are hit. And - this is a big one - you have no reason for substantive performance conversations through the year.

At year end, as you “calibrate” you are asked for your bottom performer. You choose the person who missed 1 of his stretch goals - knowing that this person had a great year, they just happened to be at the bottom of your group. You know they don’t deserve a “3”.

Through calibration, your group of 60 must have three people to hang “3”’s on. Last year, you had 2 people in the larger group who were very deserving of “3l ratings and one more that made sense - they all left the company. Now, as calibration moves on, you realize that your employee is in the running for bottom 5 of the group.

Let’s pause here - because this whole process is built on the idea that each supervisor is as good, as active, as honest as the next. Surely each supervisor is as diligent in giving stretch goals to their employees - right? Surely none of them have employees who do the minimum but don’t mess up - thereby flying under the radar?

Back to calibration. At the end of the session, all of your peers and your people leader agree that your person is the third “3”. Now, after a successful year, you get to tell them they underperformed and are going to have negative impacts to their compensation as well as be put on a performance improvement plan.

This, in various forms, is what forced ratings look like. In every instance you must assume that people who did not earn a 3 will get them. And when that message is given - what will the supervisor say?

An honest comment would be “I believe you did a great job, however, in calibration the group determined you to be in the bottom 5%.” And what would you tell him to work on, exactly?

HR will say you need to “own the rating” and you cannot say they don’t deserve it - but pull all that apart for a moment. Your true feelings, the ones you expressed at calibration, is that this employee does not deserve a 3.

This process cannot exist at a company that claims to care about employees.

Impact

The forced 3 should motivate this employee to look for a job. There is a high probability the supervisor may also be more open to leaving - having seen the true character of our policy. If they leave, how do you know we get someone better, and, when? Many studies show that turnover costs as much as 1 year compensation! Seems pretty short sighted.

Add to this that we don’t have good pipelines for development unless you are hiring from CapGemni!

Legal risk

Why is there legal risk? Because we are rating people low not because of their actions. In many cases, there will have been no negative feedback in the year from the supervisor. When this occurs, especially against a protected class - bad things happen. Use AI to see how many companies have been sued for this practice and how many have stopped because of litigation threat - it’s a lot.

This is a terrible idea - a horrible idea - and it impacts all but the highest level employees.

My hope is that a rigid core of supervisors will ask themselves honestly if each person who is hung with a 3 deserves it. If they do, they should have been given ample notice through meaningful conversations which are documented. If, however, you are a supervisor who is tasked with hanging a 3 on an employee you know does not deserve it - my hope is you say NO, and you inform management you would rather have it assigned to yourself as neither of you have earned it

Just look how critical LeBron has been of Nike‘s innovation. Mbappé didn’t wait around. He peaced out. Others are going to do the same. We are now the next Under Armour. A future case study for decades to come on the collapse and failure of this company.

I used to be on board with no matter what tough times comes Nike‘s way that we will find a path to compete and overcome. That’s not the case anymore. We failed at our own Maxim of figuring out how to evolve immediately. We don’t know how to innovate. We don’t know how to inspire anymore. Everything they do is based on hope. Hope is not a plan or a strategy.

It’s unfortunate that Nike put themselves in this position when the Board of Directors hired JD. It only takes one mistake. Doubling down on that mistake compounds your problem.

Nike made a lot of people rich. Sent a lot of people into a comfortable retirement. Anybody with Nike stock will now have to work for many years to overcome the losses. This will also keep NIKE from attracting great talent, cause great talent to leave Nike, and continue the overall collapse of the brand.

I hate it because I’ve been a Nike fan all of my life. It has just become the inevitable fate. One that nobody wants to take responsibility for despite the obvious failures. Nike was never a tech company. Nike was a company by athletes for athletes.

Does anybody know what NIKE is anymore? No. That’s the problem and that’s what ki-led this great company.

…and with that, just like Shark Tank…I’m out

I keep hearing that “in the old days” it was not like this. It has me questioning whether this is the right company to grow my career with.

It seems like everything is a struggle these days.

I am interested to hear from those people who have worked here for a long time on what they feel has changed and more importantly if it can be fixed.

Maybe if someone up top is actually monitoring this site they will see what is being said. The fear is even if they do I have little confidence to believe they will make the change. Our company is run by people who are days away from retirement.

If you dare (we all know this really isn't anonymous) tell 'em how you really feel!

Heard he crawled back under a rock

It started with a letter from Elliott. Maybe it ends with a letter from the people still in the Tower.
From: The People Still in the Tower
Next stop: stability.

Removing two EMT members is not a cultural reset. What leadership does next determines whether this is actually one.

For years, employees have absorbed the consequences of strategy whiplash, expensive mistakes, consultant spending, restructurings, repeated cuts and leadership decisions they were directed to execute—even when the people closest to the work knew better.

The people making those decisions were compensated extraordinarily well. The people underneath them often paid the real price: jobs, careers, financial security, morale and trust.

That can’t simply be filed under “new leadership, moving forward.”

Leadership owns what leadership allowed.

The fiber chapter is over. The boardroom battles and proxy fights are behind us. The constant strategy pivots need to end. Crown Castle now has an opportunity to get back to basics: operate exceptionally well, generate sustainable organic growth, invest intelligently, execute consistently and rebuild the workforce that actually makes the company run.

And that means investing in people—not another round of cuts disguised as transformation.

Commit to a meaningful layoff freeze and give employees room to work without constantly wondering who’s next. Stop replacing institutional knowledge with consultants. Before launching another giant technology transformation, fix what is actually broken. Rebuild the expertise that repeated reductions stripped out. Invest heavily in cross-training and upskilling. Create career paths employees can actually see. Make mental wellness and psychological safety more than HR language.

And perhaps most importantly: stop treating people who identify problems as the problem.

Listen to them. Protect them. Thank them. Fix what they identified.

TA and KH are now part of the leadership team carrying this company forward. By many accounts, they are capable leaders. Now comes the harder part: demonstrate that the next chapter will be different. Acknowledge what employees have endured, establish clear expectations for how people will be treated, and rebuild trust through actions rather than another mission statement.

Crown Castle is an enormous enterprise supported by a remarkably small workforce. Its people should feel like an extraordinary asset—not an expense line perpetually waiting for another reduction.

Employees have survived the fiber bet, activist battles, reorganizations, leadership turnover, strategy reversals and repeated workforce reductions.

They’ve done their part.

Now it’s leadership’s turn.

Stability. Accountability. Respect. Career development. Operational discipline. Sustainable growth. No more whiplash.

And if the remaining EMT can’t commit to that, then on this casual ride we’ve apparently been taking for years, can someone please announce the new riders and the next stop?

—— And yes, AI helped mask the writers. We’re not d-mb, we’re survivalists. We’ve learned a few things around here.

It's Friday and this is the first full week that I am not working for a company that doesn't appreciate the value that at least one employee brought to a company's customer where we always kept the customer's well being top of mind. I was in the OCI org in North America, and I would be lieing to you if I told you that I had a great relationship with my manager who I would call today a true id--t -- he would be a great engineer but an incrediblly stupid manager and the irony is they kept him haha. Sorry for my ex-peers that are stuck with him.

For namesake there seem to be plenty of requirements posted and many say multiple openings.

1. Not even a call on many. You just get a rejection letter.
2. Some requirements are so fine tuned as if they are not interested in selecting anyone rather trying to reject outright.
3. Some you get call from HR. Interview goes really well, but hmmm no response for further steps.
4. Some requirements there are folks on the call who seem to be he-l bent on proving how hard the role is and how they seem stuck on one technical question that they are familiar with.
5. Covid might have pushed a lot of undeserving candidates up the chain and they act as if they run the company :-) . No common sense, no professional attitude. Just folks who were lucky to be in that position...thats all.

If these were labor filings, why waste others time?

If these were internal rotations why waste others time?

If they dont need candidates why do they keep raising hopes only to disappoint?

Momentum is everything.

Watch the people who moved fast. VP to CEO. VP to President in under five years. Then watch what happened to the people who were "doing great work" and stayed at level.

If you're being told how good you are but you can't get out of L09–L11, LG1–LG3, or LG5 — you're keeping a seat warm. Praise is what they give you instead of a promotion, not on the way to one.

And levels move both directions. Look at how many presidents from five years ago aren't presidents now. Special assignment. Retitled to SVP. Moved to the franchise team. Out. Some of them got jumped by people they used to sit above.

Nobody is going to tell you which side of that you're on. The climbers compound. So does standing still.

History repeats. Pay attention.