#employeeengagement

"Surging oil and gas prices drive Chevron to $12 billion in adjusted earnings, quadrupling last year's results."

Come on Chevron, invest in employees...they are doing more for less and still making pre-covid wages! What is the incentive for employees to do more for the company? Keeping the workforce held down...

Wow that PPD townhall was my first time watching Harmeet speak. My god, talk about monotonous, boring and uninspiring.

Seriously when people ask questions like how will people who lost their skip level or direct managers be fairly assessed on their work this year, the response shouldn't be a plain "yes they will be assessed for their work throughout the year". Duh, people are seeking clarity on the HOW, for goodness sake. Talk about how you already drew up the relationship graph of people remaining in the org, how you guys took stock of how the entire ecosystem of projects fit together, how teams are going to be assigned under new leaders who are genuinely excited at what they have to provide.

What's the point of these townhalls if you're going to be as vague and sombre as possible? When people ask questions about motivation, you don't just tell them to sit with their feelings for this week and look forward to the future. Tell us what exactly we should look forward to, and if layoffs are done for the foreseeable future, then use that to motivate remaining workers. Give people a carrot or something! When people asked if alternatives were considered, talk about how existing employee benefits cuts were considered, whether costs regarding AI models (why are there 80 available models btw) could be cut, whether this was made accounting for that crazy phase of token maxxing, will leaders personally taken salary cuts / pay increases this year during such a "sad and difficult time" as they claim.

Do these people even know how to motivate or show empathy at all? Have they been in genuine leadership positions outside of the corporate world where you actually have to inspire to get people to follow? In the military you have servant leadership (personal sacrifice) at the core, on sports teams captains are expected to display leadership by example, these people have no idea what any of these concepts mean!

They're genuinely soulless puppets, you can see it in their eyes, Harmeet, Rajat and whoever that HR minion brought up to speak during the townhall was. Actively applying for other roles right now, whatever culture Al Kelly instilled is completely gone.

Are we not having an employee survey this year? Seems like last year around this time we were getting the heads up it was coming soon. If they don’t, I hope they realize the optics of that.

But then they ask the next question, which you dread, So who are you working for? And you say Cengage. The not so polite people say what? Wait, how do you spell that? And then I found my trick is I say it's like a C and then the word engage. And then the lethal third question comes, So what do you do at Cengage? And then typically, I don't know about you, but for me, I was always struggling a little bit.

So what I want to do today with a very specific purpose is give us collective understanding of not only what we do, but why Cengage is an awesome company and why we deserve to win in the battle for the hearts and the minds of our customers.

We have an engagement survey and I can only implore you fill it out. I really do not care what you say.

Meaning it doesn't have to be like, Oh yeah, everything is great and like, but engage with it and like, say what's wrong, say what's right and engage your help with each other and help each other also not only in the survey, but also in the day-to-day, like interact with the product group, interact with the marketing group and make sure that we have a highest level of engagement because that really is a prerequisite for our productivity and our success.

As a consult with a third party company, should I be upset that I don’t count as a person on the team? Cuz technically I guess I ain’t This place only fills the needs of humans with temporary support. Leadership says they care but do they? Just a number right?

Results are out and they look positive? high 80s for the engagement score. Not what I expected what do you all think? Didn’t give a good rating to my immediate manager , hope it won’t come back to bite me in end of year reviews. Fell for the ‘fully confidential’ lie

Large financial institutions should consolidate functional teams into regional hub locations rather than dispersing small groups of employees across multiple states. Fragmented team structures—particularly where only a few employees are located in a state without local leadership or broader team presence—tend to reduce operational efficiency, weaken collaboration, and increase administrative complexity. Consolidation into hubs improves leadership effectiveness, strengthens compliance consistency, reduces cost, and enhances employee engagement and development.

Business Case for Consolidating Teams Within Major Financial Institutions

Large financial institutions operate most effectively when functional teams are geographically concentrated rather than dispersed across numerous states. While remote work has proven successful in many circumstances, scattering small groups of employees across multiple states—particularly when only a few team members are located in a state without local leadership or colleagues—can create unnecessary operational challenges.

Concentrating teams in regional hubs offers several advantages:

Stronger leadership and accountability. Employees benefit from direct access to managers and team leaders who understand the team’s daily operations. Local leadership can provide coaching, address issues promptly, and foster stronger engagement.
Improved collaboration. Teams that are located together, whether in person or within the same regional office, build stronger working relationships, communicate more effectively, and resolve issues faster than teams that are fragmented across many locations.
More consistent training and knowledge sharing. Financial institutions operate in highly regulated environments where consistency is critical. Centralized teams make it easier to deliver standardized training, mentor new employees, and ensure policies are applied uniformly.
Greater operational efficiency. Supporting very small groups in multiple states can increase administrative complexity, including office support, equipment logistics, travel, and state-specific employment compliance. Consolidating teams can reduce these costs and simplify operations.
Stronger organizational culture. Employees who work alongside teammates and leaders often feel more connected to the organization, resulting in higher engagement, better morale, and improved retention.
Enhanced career development. Employees working in larger team locations have more opportunities to collaborate with experienced colleagues, participate in cross-training, and pursue leadership opportunities.
When business needs require remote employees, organizations should consider maintaining a meaningful presence in each location rather than having only a handful of employees isolated from their team and leadership. As a general guideline, assigning fewer than four employees to a state where no other team members or leaders are present may not provide sufficient operational or organizational benefits to justify the added complexity.

For these reasons, financial institutions should periodically evaluate whether highly fragmented team structures continue to support their strategic objectives. Whenever practical, consolidating teams into established regional hubs can improve efficiency, strengthen leadership, reduce costs, and create a more consistent experience for both employees and customers.

One of the biggest surprises here has been how disconnected everything feels. There's very little collaboration, almost no coaching, and it's easy to go long stretches without hearing from leadership unless there's a problem. Is this just me? Did I get really unlucky?

I do the bare minimum, and I get treated exactly the same as people who go above and beyond and have practically traded their lives for work. Why would I leave? Where else am I going to find a deal like that? And before you all come at me with hate, ask yourselves who's really responsible for creating that mindset.

What he said in the ATG live really pi---d me off and changed my mind. I wasn’t going to take it, but now I will.

I’d rather blast leadership in the survey again than sit it out. If nothing else, it’ll force them to confront the exact same feedback they’ve been hearing for the last couple of years. Now, whether they choose to listen is another story, but at least it will signal nothing has changed.

If the people who are frustrated don’t participate, then all that’s left are the people who think everything is fine. That paints a completely false picture, and I’m not willing to let that happen.

The survey only has value if people answer honestly. If leadership doesn’t like the results, maybe the problem isn’t the employees giving the feedback, maybe it’s the reason for the feedback itself.

Silence changes nothing. Honest feedback at least gives them the choice to either address the problems again or explain, once again, why they think everyone else is wrong.

Ex-Verizon here. Seeing all these RIFs even after I left still hurts. And each time, I see people that I used to work with put on the open to work banner on LinkedIn.

I initially joined Verizon as part of an early in career development program right out of school around the COVID era. I quite liked the program at first, but as time moved on it really seemed like I wasn’t learning anything relevant that could be used outside of Verizon. Still quite glad for the opportunity, met some great people who helped a new kid find their feet in the working world. Though it probably was a silver lining when I got caught in one of the big RIFS a few years back, managed to land in a pretty good company after that.

For those who are still in the program, new grads who just joined, or those that graduated from VLDP/EIC, how is the program now? How is the management and mentorship? I can’t imagine morale being high with all these problems. For those that remember the old program, how much has changed? Hopefully it’s still going strong, but with all these issues it feels a bit hopeless, coming from someone on the outside.

As someone who wasn’t affected by this transformation, I find this little gathering cold and heartless.

The photo op from the smiling executive team is like pouring salt into an open wound.

Didn’t they admit morale was low? This event and subsequent post in the company feed does not help.

Zero emotional intelligence.

I try to teach the newbies the ropes, but they're on their phones or walking off mid-explanation. Maybe I'm just old-school, but I thought you were supposed to actually learn the job once you join a company. Isn't that the minimum requirement? What's their game plan here?

The latest questionnaire was due end of Feb.
I was let go in April.
Did corporate ever roll out the results or was it too impossible to apply the lipstick?

Checking in to see where everyone is at on the mood elevator? Remember those days?

So, what do those Texans think of your OU and OSU degrees?

Keep spending money (It’s someone else’s laws).

Wonder if DO is bringing any more people that Frontier wanted to can. He brings over these people that sit there and say Hi to a team one time. Be like im going to be engaged once a month and then you never see them again. Oh look another meeting with leadership turnover. Guess someone exceeded their KPI on word salads. DO should focus more on the actual employees instead of not understanding sales and long winded speeches.

Sit up straight and take note: The key highlight from the Raytheon Global Town Hall is Raytheon is hiring and hiring bodies -including your kids, grand kids, neighborhood friends and family members, the local bartender, the bagger at the grocery store, kids at the carwash, telemarketers... there is no need to have any experience as one can make a career at Raytheon attending meetings or training without the expectation of performing any work. Even those with a tepid pulse whose only skill is to occupy a chair need apply as Raytheon is anxiously awaiting your arrival with open arms.

Whats new or different on your review and goals being stressed? Im assuming when mine comes it will be more hyperventilating about using AI and being pushed in thinking of new ways to use AI or commit to taking some type of AI training or certiications. Seems like this will all be used to eliminate anyone not 100% in on the AI cult mentality.

You should not feel disrespected. You should be grateful and eager to work hard with a song in your heart!

Whoever had the idea to bring on a dog as the Chief Pawsitivity Officer is a genius. She’s super cute and everyone loves her. She has a fan clubs. Great distraction to the fires burning all around the Association as they lay folks off and cut back on benefits, etc.

Why are we measuring workplace engagement with physical badge swipes? Is this how effective leaders measure employee engagement in 2026 when tech enables top talent to collaboration from anywhere? Policies like this make employees less engaged. What are we doing here? Who is signing off on these policies? Were there literally no better ideas?! We are going to become a case study: The Collapse of the Edward Jones Culture - How Not To Lead.

Whether a role can be performed effectively from home ultimately depends on the nature of the work itself.
In many cases, remote employees go above and beyond compared to their in-office counterparts. For example, when meetings are scheduled at 6:30 a.m., remote employees are generally expected to be online and fully engaged. This is particularly common for employees based on the West Coast who report to leadership teams on the East Coast. Remote employees also put more hours in work on an average.

Ironically, employees working from the office often benefit from greater visibility and more opportunities for informal interactions with leadership. Remote employees, on the other hand, frequently contend with the classic "out of sight, out of mind" challenge, which can impact recognition and career progression despite strong performance.

We certainly have skill issues, but attributing those issues to remote work misses the mark. The root causes lie elsewhere, and remote work is not the driving factor behind them.
If we're being objective, some of the weakest performers are sitting in Franklin Lakes, which makes it difficult to argue that location is the root cause of the problem.

Bumped from @fv+1kvtn2txr.

Lousy raises and no recognition for anyone, even the top performers. There's literally no reason to put in extra effort anymore.

Any teams shared engagement survey results and action plans yet? We just heard from upper management and nothing to individual teams. I am curious.

You can see it everywhere. People have completely stopped trying. Management doesn't care about us, so we don't care about our jobs anymore.

With all the gloom, I'm wondering if there's anyone who actually still enjoys working at this place. Not just tolerates it, but actually likes it.

The employees with years of knowledge are expected to solve every problem, train new people, and keep everything moving, yet they're constantly overlooked. Meanwhile, management seems to get rewarded regardless of whether they actually understand the work.

Treating people well isn't complicated. When you respect employees, they stay and contribute. Mistreat people and it brings everyone and everything down, including productivity. Why can't leadership figure this out?

Hey Jeff, can I make a t-shirt request? Can you make me a t-shirt that says:

"I worked at Dell for 20 years and all I got was this stuupid t-shirt."

Thanks

Heard some senior folks talk about our high performing teams in terms of sports teams. It made me think about genuinely high performing sports teams - the ones who are given time to develop and train, given the best equipment, given support, given trust and empowered to perform and then I thought about XOM, the team on the field is despised by their managers, trying to perform with worse equipment each year, no support and a performance system that pits teammates against each other. I realised the sports team analogy is a pile of bullsh-t.

when are the drones at Larry's sweatshop going to do the same?

In this week's blog post we dive into the Around The Table's look at Optimism with Brendan Mooney, the CEO of Kainos
https://underthetable2026.blogspot.com/2026/07/episode-5-optimism.html

Upcoming role changes and AI agents (which seem promising so far), including mandatory check-ins, are all on the horizon. What's everyone's consensus on this? 🤔

How many people on this site are commenting with perspectives from Retail vs Corporate functions?

Call is going on now. Add your impressions of the call. 🍿

How we feeling? Comment below.

We worked perfectly fine remote during Covid. Then it’s back to the office but no assigned seating. Fine. Then it’s tracking days in office. Ok. Then it’s tracking hours in office. Alright making it work. Now they are taking away specialty locations. Annoying and decreases talent pool. But now they want to focus on making teams sit with each other and move offices so people are co-located. Are we children? Give back assigned seats or treat us like adults as long as we get the job done. Next they will be required 4 days and/or certain days. I prefer to find a nice quiet corner to get my work done.

Why is the Women Lead session being lead by a Man? He rewords what she says and does most of the talking. Can someone tell him to he is not a woman? Another example of Optum not getting it right. I just want him to shut up.

Can’t believe the CEO just announced Schrute bucks.
I’m like 80% confident he just read the article below and thought it was a magical way to improve morale.
https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/2026/06/22/challenge-coins/