#culture

It's amazing how many low-IQ people there are at Dell, many of whom are on this board.

For the last time, once and for all, Dell's medieval RTO policy was NEVER EVER EVER intended to increase productivity, improve team cohesiveness, or any one of the lies and propaganda vomited out by executive leadership.

It was ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS intended to make your life a living he-l, so much so that you ultimately quit on your own. This way Dell doesn't have to pay severance, nor does it have to incur any negative publicity as a result of wide-scale layoff announcements.

It's a BAIN trick. It's greed. It's selfishness. It's a lie, but it is today's Dell. Dell is doing everything it can to reduce headcount at the least cost possible. Get that through your heads. It's the only cohesive strategy leadership has right now.

What could be next?

Any suggestions on making company better?

Geoff transformed a strong healthy Oak into a decaying hollowed-out tree. TIMBER!!!

I was not surprised by this statement on yesterday’s call. This begs the question, then WHY are those people sitting up there collecting checks? Alfonso also said there were too many people involved in the process. Too many people running reports and not enough execution. Again, why are they sitting there. None of them can do what we ask the front line to do today. Great leaders lead from the trenches not from the conference room.

Thumbs up if your Team is in worse shape now after last year's Reorg.....the talk is there might be a new one to fix it.....

Our manager has recently initiated bi-weekly meetings with all employees. The team already has regular meetings, and it is an open team where the manager is universally liked. I have noticed the team seems to be getting punished for not being able to do all things all the time due to other teams regulatory failings which are universally creating work for everyone adjacent; any ideas what might be going on as a guess? Could the company, wrongly as usual, be targeting our team?

She gave word salad on what they want to do without a plan how to achieve it.
Just BS without any weightage..

Really liked D. Gold answer that he wants to focus on “how”.. everyone always talk about what.

I've been working here for two years and still don't understand how they keep the lights on. The people running this place make decisions that hurt the business constantly. They ignore what customers want, run off good staff, and act surprised when sales drop. It's a miracle we're still around.

Years of poor mergers, awful stock performance, and a massive data breach have left the company weaker, less trusted, and increasingly irrelevant. Instead of owning these failures and investing in real product improvement, leadership has done almost the opposite.

The products have stagnated. Customers know it. That’s why they’re leaving. And rather than fixing what’s broken, leadership’s answer has been blunt-force cost cutting and pushing a ~30% SPI increase onto customers who already don’t see the value. It’s not strategy — it’s desperation.

While customers churn and employees are asked to do more with less, Mike and the executive team have quietly extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the company. That money didn’t go into innovation, security, or customer success. It went into executive pockets.

The most insulting part is the attitude. When concerns are raised, the response isn’t accountability or respect its dismissal, contempt, and sometimes outright laughter. Leadership hits paydirt while employees hit the breadline, and we’re told this is “good for the business.”

It isn’t. It’s short-term financial engineering at the expense of long-term trust.

Shame on the leadership team for hollowing out a company that once mattered. And shame on anyone still carrying water for decisions that have clearly failed customers, employees, and shareholders alike.

This didn’t have to be the outcome. It was a choice.

Well said, @ad+1keshgf86.

First, alignment doesn't exist. Ask three managers the same question and you'll get three answers, maybe four. Then when you actually need support, when you raise your hand because you're stuck, they go blank. No ideas, no resources, and no help. Just a lot of blinking. But God forbid you make an error. Then they're everywhere. Suddenly they have all the time in the world to watch you and question every step, just to make sure you know you sc--wed up. They can't help you succeed but they'll definitely monitor your failure.

I have a masters degree. Spent years and money getting it. Did the same job as people without one for less money. When I left, they hired someone with no degree at all. Then I learned they paid them ten grand more than I ever got. The difference? They're good at su-king up. That's the only skill that matters here.

Plus trip to Paris

Seriously disgusted.

How do they justify spending company dollars on trips to Disney World when thousands are being laid off?

You don’t hate this company enough.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adamfalat_healthcareleadership-digitalhealth-healthtech-share-7437488519410880512-_Y0L?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAH2E40Bnd7RAziuQBDoENHzgN671-AUNTg

I would like to raise concerns regarding workplace culture and accountability, particularly related to an East Coast office. There have been ongoing reports from employees expressing discomfort with certain interactions and behaviors involving male colleagues.

Additionally, there is a perception among some staff that complaints about inappropriate comments or conduct toward female employees have not been consistently addressed. This has created concern about whether employees feel safe and supported when raising workplace issues.

There have also been broader concerns raised about leadership response and whether appropriate steps are being taken when complaints are reported. When employees take the step to bring forward concerns, it is important that they feel those concerns are taken seriously and reviewed objectively.
I believe it would be beneficial for leadership and HR to review these concerns to ensure that workplace standards, professionalism, and accountability are being upheld across all offices.

Leaders need to be in office as consistently as the employees they force to be there to protect their employees if you aren’t going to address the behavior. Get out of meetings and offices and start doing your job!

Smoke and mirrors to implement the old wing it by Windstream way is back. Uniti either loves losing customers or we are prepping to sell the whole company

https://hitconsultant.net/2025/08/22/klas-report-oracle-health-faces-customer-losses-and-declining-satisfaction/

No airline background, and remote from Sweden…

So its bad enough we’re losing staff to false performance ratings and India but now we’re going to lose them for imaginary employees. BNY is a joke and everyone needs to get out of banking. All these id--ts are copying each other with RV think BNY is going to lead automation . Yeah ok buddy. First you have to update the dinosaur systems you forced us to use

Wayfair states that it offers a great work-life balance. Sooooo not true. Their training is inadequate. Overseas employees are non-compliant. Shift bids are BS. No matter what you choose, they will give you the schedule pertaining to company needs. So you can forget about being a parent, kids will have to raise themselves! You cannot just use your PTO when needed. You will accrue attendance points for using it for emergencies or same day illness. Metrics change in the middle of the quarter. Employees know how to wrap to manipulate their metrics so it doesn’t pay to do honest work. Religious accommodations are only given to non-American employees. There are plenty of other places to work that will definitely appreciate your dedication and work ethic. Do not give more than your pay grade, they will say thank you and expect for you to keep doing it w/o being paid for it!

Bro, if you’re going to make this an ‘ask me anything’ type of event. Grow a pair and answer the top question, don’t have your staff delete it and pretend it didn’t happen.

150 Years of History, 0 Years of Perspective

I’ve been trying to process the absolute disconnect of AT&T’s "celebration," but the more I think about it, the more insulted I feel.

Today, leadership stood up and proudly touted a $250 billion infrastructure investment. A quarter of a trillion dollars. It’s a staggering number meant to impress shareholders and the media. But for the people actually building, selling, and supporting that infrastructure? We got a sticker and a stale cookie.

The "Grand" Celebration Breakdown:

The Investment: $250,000,000,000 for the network.

The Employee Reward: A single cookie and a sticker (and only if you were lucky enough to be at a "core" location).

The Message: If you aren't a piece of hardware or a fiber line, you aren't worth the investment.

It is genuinely embarrassing to work for a company that talks a big game about "culture" and "people-first values" while treating a once-in-a-century milestone like an afterthought. 150 years is a massive achievement, yet there wasn't even an attempt at a commemorative item or a gesture that felt permanent. A cookie is gone in thirty seconds; a sticker belongs in a middle school classroom.

The Downhill Slide

We’ve watched the employee experience erode year after year. Milestone anniversaries: once a point of pride in this company, have been gutted. To see them brag about billions in spending while failing to provide even a basic token of appreciation to the global workforce is the ultimate "read the room" failure.

We aren't asking for a slice of the $250 billion. We’re asking for respect. We’re asking for a culture that actually acknowledges the human effort behind the numbers. Instead, we got a sugar crash and a piece of adhesive paper.

AT&T isn't a "family" or a "culture" at this point, it’s just a giant machine that forgot it’s powered by people.

Is everyone store high stress, bad vibes, toxic energy?

We've replaced a human being with a capitalist cutthroat.
Culture going down the pan
Ranks of useless middle management
Gorman would be saddened by what is happening

Noelle never led IT and Katya/Gina did not lead digital?

Really nostalgic for what the company once was before these two/three

I just heard a commercial that made me want to puke. AT&T is promoting their 150 year anniversary. DJ said how proud he was of his father's 35 year career with AT&T and how he's been through massive technological adventures. What a joke! Stinky wants you out in less than five years; no such thing as long-term employees anymore. Zero loyalty. Fu-k AT&T!

If we’re talking honestly to our younger selves, the conversation might include warnings about corporate messaging that talks about empowerment while employees feel undervalued, overworked, and unheard. It might include advice about spotting organizations that talk about people-first values while quietly prioritizing executive egos.

Ba----g on about courage and “seeing yourself bigger,” but anyone who’s actually worked there knows the reality is burnout, bureaucracy, and Accenture-rejects that couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag.

It’s the usual corporate fantasy written by out-of-touch suits who love the sound of their own inspirational waffle while the people doing the real work get ground down. There's not a single member of M&C SLT that wouldn't gladly stamp on their own mother if it made them look good on LinkedIn

Maybe instead of publishing this smug nonsense, the prickgoblins running the place should try fixing the toxic culture they’ve created. Until then, spare everyone the sanctimonious wa-k.

HR employees, what are your thoughts around our most recent townhall??

Mine: could've been an email and Bye Anne!

Was a good leader. Stayed off my back and allowed me to perform. Thanks Sycamore for laying off the good ones…..

Can't seem to get questions answered. Leadership doing the information trickle method, like the government does with bad news.

Will quotas be dropping since retail partnership is severing?

Right now quotas in SMB are near equal (sometimes more) than mid-market due to retail traffic.

Eliminating that and dropping the base down more than 50%, surely quotas are dropping (in a perfect world)

Mid-Market opportunities yield much larger deals, SMB opportunities yield small deals.
So more calls, more meetings, more closed deals to equal the same or similar quotas doesn't seem logical.

An old VZ coworker used to say Verizon may have logic and they have reason but never logic and reason together.

The current approach to promotions highlights a troubling double standard.

HR has proceeded with promotions within its own ranks including VP to SVP and reversed role classifications from Senior Manager back to Director, even though the rest of the organization was required to make those changes.

At the same time, commercial line-of-business teams responsible for generating revenue and driving business performance are restricted and effectively blocked. Across my organization, leaders have taken on significantly expanded scope and accountability, with direct responsibility for new business generation, revenue growth, and client retention. Despite these expanded roles, we were told during both job reviews and the annual merit cycle that promotions were not possible even in cases where retention risk and material scope changes are clear.

When HR the very function responsible for fairness, governance, and organizational consistency applies a different standard to itself.

I’ll be honest, I’m struggling with my org at Oracle right now. We’ve lost so much talent and product knowledge lately that I feel like I’m just 'running the show' rather than leading. The people who stayed are totally checked out. They do the bare minimum and won't engage unless there's a promotion or hike on the table. Had to force them pushing my leads to extract more work. I know things are broken, but I’m at a loss on how to actually fix the culture and get them motivated again. Innovation is not happening at ground level. Employees are completely dissatisfied.

The morale here has hit a new low with all the layoff rumors circulating. Initially, the team was energized by AI initiatives, but it quickly turned into internal fighting over recognition. Since those 'wins' never actually materialized, everyone has just given up. They've dropped the ball on their work because they don't see the point in competing for nothing.

With AI tools available, its just copy paste happening without a thoughtful delivery. Everyone fears on danger of providing holistic solution. Had to layoff a bunch and rehire often. Product quality going to trash. Very difficult to hire a quality candidate under specific budget, Train them and Lose them.

I saw some comments about how there is a push from leadership to restructure teams into a 30:70 - U.S.:HIH split.

I wanted to see if multiple people can verify this.

I know HIH is growing and they’re cutting US FTE but how true is the 30:70 split? If it’s true, then that’s all of us finished in the US

Anyone know what to expect for Optum Corporate LCRA roles? Something is brewing but everyone is being secretive.

Let me explain how it works here. First, actual performance is irrelevant. The people who work the hardest and produce the most are seen as threats, so they get cut, while the mediocre ones who keep their heads down and do not rock the boat stay. That is the goal: mediocrity across the board. Second, if you refuse to bow to a manager who has no business leading, you are done. They will find a way to get rid of you, and when there is no legitimate case, they cheat. They will lie, plant stories, and turn your own team against you. I have seen it happen to three people, good people who simply would not accept abuse. This is not an exception. This is the entire system.

Wondering how many of you all in here are from the core Nexient company?

Really miss the old days where stuff was running so much smoother, Nexient as a whole was much better than NTT and layoffs? Pft, unheard of from me in Nexient.

Please tell me I am not the only one in here.

We can easily dispatch another 30% and it will still function. There are too many coasters, old timers sitting there doing nothing. Too much dead weights. Americans are lazy.

If there's one skill AT&T has, it's taking something good and ruining it. Nobody does that better.