#employeehappiness

While G2 talks about who won't last at Cisco, Datadog keeps its employees and customers happy

I’ve worked at a lot of places, and I’ve never seen so many highly educated, talented people counting down the years until they can leave.

Spring Campus looks amazing from the outside. Free coffee, modern buildings, walking trails, cafeterias, gyms, collaboration spaces. On paper it feels like a dream workplace.

But sometimes it feels like a white-collar day prison.

You badge in, sit through meetings, update trackers, attend alignment calls, respond to emails, complete training modules, worry about rankings, worry about reorganizations, worry about whether your work will even matter next year, then badge out and repeat the process tomorrow.

The compensation is good, but many people seem exhausted rather than motivated.

The irony is that the campus was built to attract and retain talent, yet some of the most common conversations I hear are:

• “How many years until retirement?”
• “I’m looking externally.”
• “I’m just trying to survive another ranking cycle.”
• “I used to enjoy this job.”

Maybe it’s not just Exxon. Maybe it’s the reality of large corporate America in 2026.

Curious if others feel the same:
Has the modern corporate office become a place where people build careers, or a place where people quietly wait for the next paycheck and eventually their exit?

I hate what's being done to it. I used to be proud working here. Not anymore.

Say what you want about this place, but for me, it's still one of the best jobs I've had. Pay is fine. Work is interesting. Coworkers are great. That's why I'm scared of getting laid off. I don't want to go.

Office politics are so much worse when you have to navigate them in person. From micromanaging to bullying to being put in the middle of arguments... It drains people in a way that's much, much worse than just hearing about it or dealing with it from a distance. I'd take a pay cut to avoid it.

What a way to start the week. I received a personal ecard from BE How sweet, knowing she appreciates me showing up with heart every time

She appreciates everyone, even the Inconsistently meets! That card means so much to me, way better than a salary increase

I'll miss that wretched $&@!/

Morale was already down, and now we can add to that feeling completely disposable. Knowing some of the people who were laid off, it's clear nothing we do, no matter how good or knowledgeable we are will save us. How are we supposed to deal with that and continue working like everything is the same?

It’s 2:30 here at HQ. I’ve met my 40 hour requirement for the week so it’s time to head home. Man I love Summer Fridays!

unhappy employees

So few doing something about it. Start looking. Move on. You'll be so much happier.

The people who get the most done always seem to end up with even more work. It's gone from recognition to punishment at this point.

They expect you to eat, sleep, and breathe work. If you're willing to give up your evenings, your weekends, and any semblance of a personal life, you'll probably do fine. If you want to see your family or have hobbies, good luck. Is this a Cisco-wide issue? I was thinking of applying internally, but I don't want to end up in a same environment.

So glad Aetna is doing so well...how about sharing that financial success with the rest of us for once!

The hours keep getting worse and the work keeps getting harder. The pay, though, pretty much stays the same. Who in their right mind wouldn't be tired of this cr-p?

When will this end?? I'm exhausted.

There is no such thing as a team here. You work in isolation and only hear from management when you messed up. Climbing past a certain point is impossible and they offer zero support for learning anything new. Do not put yourself through this. Your home life will suffer, your relationships will feel the strain, and you will need a break just to recover. Work somewhere that actually cares.

Layoffs keep happening since last year but they never report it as they are keeping them under the treshold that's required by state laws. Concentrix is really good when it comes playing that game. people are not stupid and all of us can see it but they do manage to keep it away from the media coverage. Anyhow, I was let go after 11 very loyal year and I did have great reviews throughout.

If you are new to Concentrix you will not see this but once you start figguring patterns of behavior of the executives, this will be so obvious.

Good luck all

Anyone still doing summer hours? Unofficially, of course. Send that last email about 12:17 and then get a head start on the weekend?

Of course I would NEVER do that!

I'd be willing to bet 90%+ of people severed are thriving and happy...also, based on feedback from peers that stayed with CVX, we dodged a big bullet and got paid to do so.

I had 35 hours in the office already this week before I woke up this morning. That meant only 5 hours were needed to get to my 40 hours. Got in at 7am, found my desk, connected to the wifi and chilled for 5.25 hours. Left the office by 12:30 and grabbed lunch and a beer before getting home. Forcing me to work 40 hours a week in the office really opened my eyes to what is really important. That I can thank Stank for.

So burned out. This place is unhealthy.

My Team Lead tells me my AHT su-ks. My Team Lead's boss tells me I'm doing a Great job with AHT and other key metrics. Ok, I think there is some ping pong going on. So maybe they really want to terminate me and leave feeling gaslit and Confused when I'm either terminated, or if I'm lucky..displaced. I really wish I had been displaced on May 26. For the record, you can't expect any call with serious issues to end in less than 4 minutes.

Kevin O’Leary said recently he doesn’t care if someone works “from their basement” as long as they can execute and deliver results. That’s the part “leadership” still doesn’t seem to understand.

https://fortune.com/2026/03/10/shark-tank-kevin-oleary-ai-tech-gen-z-rto-office-cubicles-corporate-america/

We already proved remote work works. The job gets done. In a lot of cases productivity improved, turnover dropped, and companies saved money. Even Stanford research still shows hybrid schedules had zero negative effect on productivity while reducing turnover.

Instead, we are doubling down on badge swipes, presence reports, and forcing people back into traffic for work that still happens on laptops and Teams calls all day.

People aren’t frustrated because they “don’t want to work.”

They’re frustrated because leadership saw proof that flexibility worked… and ignored it anyway. They chose max pain and misery over common sense and happy employees.

I've been thinking a lot about the people I've watched burn out here, the ones who stayed late every night, who answered emails on weekends, who pushed through stress headaches and sleepless nights because they thought it was what they had to do. Every single one of them would tell you now that it wasn't worth it. Their health declined, their relationships suffered, and the company didn't reward them for any of it. Your health matters more than their bottom line, and I wish I'd learned that lesson earlier.

Anyone who says otherwise hasn't learned that lesson the hard way yet.

So nervous about today, I can't function!

I used to think that liking your job was a normal expectation, something that most people could reasonably hope for. After spending so much time in this place, I am genuinely not sure anymore. Is there an assumption that we are all just supposed to tolerate our work and find our fulfillment elsewhere, or am I actually supposed to enjoy what I do for eight hours a day?

That’s what makes all of this so hard. I actually like what I do. Watching what’s been happening here, and seeing a place that used to be great get systematically torn down piece by piece, really breaks my heart.

The work life balance is so toxic it feels like they're trying to ki-l us off slowly. You either burn out or get pushed out. There's no in between anymore.

I have been calculating my commute time lately, and the numbers are depressing. I spend about ninety minutes in the car every day, which adds up to more than an entire workday each week just sitting in traffic. I am curious what everyone else's numbers look like. How much of your life have you lost to driving since we were forced back into the office?

Working here. I don’t have any benefits as a cw. Paid thousands of dollars just to go to the dentist. I also regret spending money on expensive clothes just to impress girls.

Looking at Seb Page's "mental health" advice - Watch Netflix on sundays?!??!? How fu--ing out of touch with people do you have to be???????

LinkedIn named Shell the best place to work in Houston! Congratulations Shell!

I wonder how .... just how they could have concluded that!!! Has anyone ever filled out a survey for this? Does anyone know the metrics? Amazing news, but I don't fathom how this can be.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-top-companies-2026-10-best-employers-grow-your-l243e/

I saw a thread that said that the most dangerous person in a toxic workplace isn’t the bully - it’s the leader who watches the bully and calls it a personality conflict.

Back in 2017 - 2020 or so, there was a bully in the Law Dept. She stabbed everyone in the back and the front and told bald faced lies about everyone.
Leadership did nothing about her reign of te---r - in fact they chalked all of her shenanigans up to “personality conflicts” and “misunderstandings” when the evidence - emails, calendar invitations, personal interviews - all clearly showed that she was a liar and actively working to undercut colleagues and direct and indirect reports with her Machiavellian ways.

Sadly Aflac didn’t address the bully - only supported her and drove out many excellent lawyers in a mass exodus once they all realized that their concerns were being swept under the rug, with full cooperation and support from senior legal dept leadership and Hr.

Once they realized the full extent of her decimation - everyone leaving - this person was eventually promoted to a new role in the business to get her out of the Law Dept and then eventually was moved out of the company once a business area with guts had the nerve to address her.

It’s disappointing that the Law Dept couldn’t address a blight upon their department and instead had to have many high performing attorneys leave for other roles before the awful lady was addressed.

I dare say that those in the public should know how the law dept leadership runs - saving their own skins and sacrificing their top performers to save face and not taking responsibility or accountability for how they run things. It’s sad.

Please stop doing layoff. We are only 80k employees which is very less then your competitor. Still you continue doing layoff . Not even a single employee is happy over here. Please make your existing employee happy.

1. What has kept you at TD?
   2..How long will you stay?
2. Are you happy?
3. Are you looking?

Can't wait to get to work tomorrow. Such a fulfilling job where I feel valued. It is great knowing my work is part of the future plan and I am contributing to the overall success of VZ. I'm so excited that I won't be able to sleep tonight. Set the Foundation!!! Love your company!

I'm starting to think that's just a myth the old-timers keep repeating. You couldn't convince me people ever enjoyed working here.

People keep telling me that should be enough. We've just accepted that we have to take the uncertainty, the disrespect, the constant stress, all so we can pay the bills. But that's not actually enough. We spend most of our waking lives at work, often doing overtime, and there's no meaning to any of it beyond the money. Is it any wonder people are burnt out and hate their jobs?

I've been trying for months. Demoralized doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.