#employeerelations

Do we have any idea how many need to accept the VSP to ensure there is no need for a follow up involuntary round?

Is everyone dealing with Sapience watching over everything you’re doing? Leadership is a joke now. RTO mandate is also terrible since the whole thing was about collaboration but the moment I leave my desk it shows I’m not working on the sapeince reports. Everyone in the office looks like they are in prison, su-ks how much this place changed because of Gunjan

What are people referring to? Have seen a few posts about this. I also missed the town hall where I read in a few comments that it apparently broke through a couple of times

I'm sorry to say it, but Dell leadership is some of the worst in the industry. They're ignorant, they're incompetent, they're untrustworthy, and they're unqualified. Pure shiit leadership at Dell.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cYCHjg4a0fk?is=j8j7dqw6oCh6ynQu

I used to secretly come to this website to get the tea on the company. Who knew I'd be the one giving it this time

Recent graduates, do NOT become a contractor for this place UNLESS you know for sure that you're getting a full time position within 5 months-1 year. I was a recent college graduate when I got the offer to work here but as a contractor. I was told that through hard work and due time, if they liked me, that I'd get a full time position.... that was 3 years, multiple layoffs, 1 managerial and 1 CEO change later when now, they've cut my contract after getting a $4 raise this year as well as new hires to help our team become more efficient. I must've joined at a sc--wed up time, how unlucky am i. I worked 35-40 hr weeks, was a positive employee and got along with all my co-workers, cafe staff, and people outside of my department. I was good at my job and even had plans to excel and show my skills to open up more opportunities and possibilities, you know the thing that my higher up wanted from me at the time. During my time there, I've dealt with so many unnecessary and unhelpful barriers being placed, low morale, empty promises, fatigue on every level, career doubts, being overlooked while being the most overworked, crying tears at my desk because I was in fear of the one thing that ended up happening to me- losing a job I genuinely loved being at. All those things happened at 24-25. Mind you, it was year 3 and people were still confused as to why I'm a contractor, why I don't have access to an employee portal, why I don't get fossil discounts, why I don't get fossil emails, why I don't get opportunities because of my contract....isn't that saying something???

After this, I'll make peace with It and move on through life. This is a stepping stone and I should treat it as such. I'm CERTAIN that other people may leave too, willingly or not depending on the AI progression. Oh and one more thing, don't scurry off out the building after giving some devastating news WITHOUT WARNING AND OUT OF NOWHERE. have some dignity and finish out the rest of the day like I did.

People..
October is going to be huge, directly sourced from management. I am calling it red October me. For you naysayers, add a reminder to your calendars for Halloween and come back here to talk about your worst nightmare and then thank me for alerting then!

Windsor Locks got hit this week. Mostly older employees. Seems that Raytheon does not like to employ anyone over 50.

I’m a manager in an area that had layoffs this year. Now when you bring up issues, our leaders say we should be quiet and thankful we have a job. Leading through threats is now normal? This place is toxic.

Source: By Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg

The 140-year-old oil company is making more money than ever. Yet the pandemic exposed deep cultural problems—and talent is fleeing.

Shortly after Exxon Mobil Corp. lost its battle with an activist investor last year, an executive named Bill Keillor decided to give his department a morale boost. It had been a difficult year and a half for Exxon employees. Covid-19 and plunging crude prices had led to halted salary increases, reduced benefits, and, for the first time in decades, thousands of layoffs. Anxiety was coursing through the organization.

So Keillor, whose title is global IT vice president, and his leadership team organized an awards ceremony to take place at Exxon’s Houston campus. They posted an invite on Yammer, an internal social network, with Keillor’s face cropped onto a tuxedo. With many employees still working remotely, most tuned in via Zoom.

Keillor started by thanking everyone for their hard work over the past year, presented awards to three top-performing teams, and then opened the floor to questions. It was at this point things started to unravel, according to four people present who spoke on condition of anonymity. The software developers, data analysts, and technicians who run Exxon’s vast computing network, which helps the company manage everything from drilling wells to pipeline flows, were in no mood to celebrate. Emboldened by the virtual format, they began firing off tough questions. They wanted to know if there would be more layoffs, whether remote working would continue after the pandemic, and whether Exxon was willing to raise pay to the level of major tech companies.

To an outside observer, the scene might have appeared like a slightly tense version of your average corporate town hall. But within Exxon, famous for its top-down, buttoned-up, authoritarian culture, where employees rarely challenge their superiors, and certainly not in an open forum, the moment had the strong whiff of rebellion. As Keillor bristled, other managers stepped in to take some questions, deflecting attention from the boss. But eventually, Keillor had had enough and snapped.

If you want to be a “hotshot” and triple your pay working for Amazon, then go right ahead, the people recall him saying. “Good luck to you.”

Rather than be humbled by the scolding, staffers began circulating memes mocking the event in private chat groups, which rapidly spread across the company. One depicted a long-term career at Exxon as a car hurtling off a highway. Another compared the awards ceremony to a piece of tape used to patch a leaking barrel of water. Others suggested it was about time employees take Keillor up on his advice and quit.

A year and a half later, even as its stock surges again and Exxon makes more money than it has in its 140-year history, the company has experienced the highest attrition since its merger with Mobil in 1999. Of the 12,000 departures globally in the past two years, less than half were from layoffs. “Like nearly every company, attrition increased in the last two years, but we don’t see that as a long-term trend,” Exxon said in a statement. “Importantly, we are seeing good results when hiring top talent for roles throughout the company, at entry-level and for senior executive positions.”

But a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation involving interviews with more than 40 current and former employees (many of whom requested anonymity because Exxon hasn’t authorized them to speak publicly), as well as reviews of dozens of internal documents, reveals one overriding reason talent is fleeing: a culture that’s increasingly out of step with the world around it. Those interviewed describe an organization trapped in amber, whose insular and fear-based culture—once a beacon of corporate America—has become a drag on innovation, risk taking, and career satisfaction. Although many expressed pride at working for an industry leader, they were also frustrated by how slow it was to invest in some of the energy industry’s biggest breakthroughs over the past decade, including shale oil and low-carbon technologies, making it a place where the best and brightest no longer want to spend their best years. “I was bored at my job,” says Avery Smith, who earned more than $100,000 a year as a data scientist right after graduating from college and quit last year, echoing what many other former employees told Businessweek. “I was pretty fed up with not innovating.”

Exxon’s performance ranking system, which pits employees against each other, dominates the day to day. Subordinates are told not to speak out against their bosses in meetings for fear of being placed at the bottom of the rank and pushed out. Employees are reluctant to raise problems or speak freely about environmental issues. Senior managers too often promote people who look and sound like themselves at the expense of technical experts willing to deliver hard messages, and some employees of color say they’ve been marginalized. “Agreeability to senior leadership has become more important than capability,” says one executive who left the company last year after two decades. “Unfortunately this accelerated during the pandemic.”

Exxon spokesperson Amy von Walter rejects those characterizations. “The idea that ExxonMobil’s culture is what these employees say it is doesn’t hold water for two reasons: how many people join this company each year and how long people stay,” she wrote in an email. “No culture is perfect and it’s far too easy to take a few data points and paint with a broad brush, but that doesn’t produce an accurate portrait.” (In response to the Keillor episode, von Walter says Exxon encourages candid workplace conversations, “although we may not get it right every time.”)

But CultureX, an organization out of MIT that evaluates corporate culture based on Glassdoor reviews, says these problems run so deep that Exxon now ranks below industry benchmarks for 143 of the 196 cultural issues it measures. According to CultureX co-founder Charlie Sull, innovation, collaboration, and psychological safety fell far below those of oil industry competitors, whereas pay and benefits ranked above average. Exxon, he says, appears to be using remuneration and perks “to compensate for a culture that faces significant challenges with toxicity.”

Exxon, which traces its roots to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, is used to being public enemy No. 1. It’s incurred the wrath of politicians and civil society for being too powerful, too profitable, and too polluting. But rarely has it suffered such discontent within its own ranks. “Upper management doesn’t like to hear bad news, so to stay at Exxon long term, you have to drink the Kool-Aid,” says Dar-Lon Chang, a mechanical engineer who left the company in 2019 after more than a decade. “This doesn’t sit well with younger people and especially those concerned about the climate crisis.”

Since losing the campaign to Engine No. 1, a tiny activist investor firm, Exxon has reformed its climate strategy. Under Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods, it’s pledged more ambitious emissions reduction targets, increased spending on clean energy, and elevated its low-carbon division to the top of the corporation. It’s even made a series of rare external hires including Chief Financial Officer Kathy Mikells from Diageo Plc and low-carbon head Dan Ammann, who previously ran General Motors Co.’s autonomous vehicle startup. It’s condensed 11 businesses into three and is on track to cut costs by $9 billion by 2023.

By financial standards, Woods’s plan is working. The stock is up 60% this year, ahead of its major peers, and closing in on a record high. But if Exxon has any shot at dominating the volatile energy transition over the next century, it will need to attract and hold on to the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technologists. “We can talk all day about low carbon,” says one recently departed Exxon executive. “But first we’ve got to decarbonize the culture.”

https://governorswindenergycoalition.org/exxons-exodus-employees-have-finally-had-enough-of-its-toxic-culture/

I was laid off in Mid Feb and they gave me a terrible package but then paid me a decent bonus later as well as my PTO, which I know some didn’t get. My colleague was laid off in October, no PTO or bonus. Another in November and they got a bonus and PTO but right before layoff and very few weeks, when mine was paid post layoff.

Borrowed from comments:US department of labor says:
Companies can legally offer different layoff packages including severance pay and continued benefits to employees in the same job grade. Since severance is generally discretionary rather than federally mandated in the U.S., packages vary based on specific variables. We don’t know if the OP was laid off while on FMLA or LTD. Packages may differ.

So no need to argue about the packages, they can vary! Healthy discourse welcome. Let’s avoid bullying and insults, we all want better work environments, treatment and so forth, for employees.

Sunday June 21st is payday but friday the 19th all banks are closed. Any idea on what day we will get our checks?

Making your boss look good is a time-tested strategy for climbing the corporate ladder at all companies not just Verizon.

It doesn’t matter if they’re incompetent, or dishonest, or a je-k. Try to accomplish whatever goal they’re being graded on in a highly visible way. Don’t worry about the consequences of poorly thought out plans. That’s not your job. Pay lip service to whatever they’re paying lip service to.

This advice also applies to the Pulse survey. The correct answers are always everything is great.

I’m not being facetious. This is 100% real advice!

Dozens of new goto’s/, unclear what the policies are, no one to reach out to, missing money, stubs, no emails for paychecks, WHAT IS HAPPENING?

You know a company is awful when the employees get excited for layoffs. But you have to ask yourself, why do these employees feel like a layoff will save them? Payouts are chump change. A 3 year employee gets 6 weeks pay. Is this changing your life? Please don't hate the messenger... I suggest that if you are unhappy, then take matters into your own hands and apply elsewhere on your days off. VZW forces you to walk the line of happiness and integrity, all while making you jump through hoops. Use this job as a stepping stone. They don't pay you enough for this emotional abuse. The dirty little secret is that you won't find financial independence and be able to build the life you want working here. I can guarantee that this job has no future and zero career path. The sooner you accept this the happier you will be. Managers & Asst managers sit in back rooms secretly talking about their disdain for their entitled employees or arrogant district managers, all while hating life and wishing they hadn't invested so much time and life energy being stuck where they are. District managers find ways to either cheat the system or don't even know the systems and live the "do as I say and not as I do" fake lifestyle. This is not a solution to life's happiness. The leaders that do make good money blow smoke up your butt so dont be fooled by their happiness because its coming from the green you will never see. All jobs teach you something, and this job teaches you that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. You just have to listen to your inner voice that has been telling you that you should move on. Don't be afraid. You deserve better... or if you stay, you probably haven't learned your lesson just yet. You will learn this lesson at some point. You are in an abusive relationship, and you deserve better. Be brave and don't wait for your "partner" to break up with you. Verizon hasn't and won't change. You are settling. You are being used. This job is set up to use you short term and then replace you. That is all fine and good in its own right but you have to play the game. You won't find any life long employees. Don't allow the fake kindness and occasional smile limit what you deserve. Take what you can from Verizon in the form of educational assistance or the limited financial gain it presents till you can make that next move to something that offers long-term happiness and can lead you to a better life. It's out here. I promise. ❤️ To all the haters of this message - I lived each step of this message and I won. I have receipts.

Laptops in the company still have attuids assigned to their computer name. Use ADUC or the PowerShell activedirectory module to search for computers belonging to anyone in your leadership chain. Once you find their computer, you'll want to perform a ping on their computer name, followed by nslookup to see which domain controller they are connected to. It will tell you if they are connected to VPN and are therefore not in the office.

Subsequently, make a PowerShell script that automates this whole process, and now you have a way to track RTO compliance of executives. You can run it every 20 minutes to track who is doing less than 8 hours in the office.

Once you find someone, lodge a complaint with HR indicating that you believe they are violating RTO policy.

We need at least 35,000 insider posts on this and can guarantee we can get rid of Geoff if all of you employees rally. Let’s go.

Our VP stated that RIFs are "rare" during our town hall. We have had 9 (!!!) employees on our team RIFed in the past 24 months plus a Sr. Director disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

They fired two US employees this May and then immediately posted the roles in Colombia. A key talking point from one of the Sr Directors was about how amazing it was that we were hiring! Be sure to recommend your friends!

Not sure how the VP thinks RIFs are rare at Medtronic given that I have never worked anywhere in my career that has had this rate of RIFs. The level of lying and gaslighting from execs is unbelievable.

Also we were told that we are now expected to demonstrate "Joy" going forward.

How often does headquarters in BP do layoffs? Looking to join company but would like to gauge job security there. And out of curiosity, do you really need to be "highly extroverted" per the culture. Thx in advance.

This company is so behind its time, pushing against goals and KPIs, working with bespoke systems and thinking they are superior.
Exec management tries to make the workforce more efficient while the common Associate has very limited MSFT Office skills (don’t get me started on AI…).
There’s significant pushback against any organizational changes or growth goals while there is a fatalistic approach that we’re all gonna loose our jobs.
Can’t wait to get the f*ck out of this he-l hole

Way to keep us at peak anxiety all the time.

During open enrollment last year, HR announced that the company would discontinue our previous mental health plan (Chevron Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder, MHSUD). This change meant that employees and their dependents who were receiving behavioral health benefits via MHSUD would be forced to obtain mental health coverage via one of the medical providers that we selected (Kaiser, Anthem, Cigna).

The HR email alerting us about this change very casually claimed that “the kinds of behavioral health services covered will generally remain the same” and that “costs may change.” Well, that was quite THE understatement!

I find it truly unconscionable that our ELT, who obviously had to have been presented detailed cost impact scenarios showing the devastating impact to employees, willingly chose to implement this significant reduction to our mental health benefits. And they did so knowing full well that people would be struggling even more as a result of the layoffs and reorg.

Since not everyone might have a need for these benefits (consider yourself fortunate), allow me to paint you a picture of the shocking financial impact that our family is facing.

We have the Anthem PPO. I originally called them to find out the per-session fee for this year. They initially stated $0 copay or coinsurance. That did not seem possible, as we used to pay $13 per session last year through the MHSUD plan. I called back, and Anthem stated that our cost would be 40% of the billed rate.

Assuming a weekly session, below is a cost comparison of old vs. new coverage:
— MHSUD cost = $13 x 52 = $676 per year
— Anthem cost =
— $1,000 deductible (we had not spent anything towards the deductible); this covers 100% of our out-of-network therapist’s fee for ~7 sessions at roughly $152 per session
— for the remaining 45 sessions this year, we expect to pay 40% of the therapist’s $152 fee; therefore a total of about $2,750
— that makes our total out of pocket expense for mental health benefits this year ~$3,750
— that is an increase of ~$3,074 (over 455%!!!) vs. the $676 under the old MHSUD plan

My question to MW and whoever else was involved in this decision is how can you possibly justify so callously reducing your employees’ mental health benefits and so drastically increasing their financial burden? Have you NO shame or compassion or, at a minimum, any interest in keeping your workforce mentally healthy?

We’re not talking about frilly perks here. This is MEDICALLY NECESSARY care. Mental health benefits are CRUCIAL in some cases to keep people from inflicting self-harm and possible su----e.

I am beyond disappointed in this company and its senior-most leaders. Somewhere along the way, greed took hold, and for the sake of shaving a few million off CVX expenses, you abdicated your responsibility towards the human beings you employ and their families.

To think that anything will change because of this post is utterly pointless, I know. I feel better at least having documented this egregious display of callousness from MW and the entire ELT. It might be good for all of us to remember that mental disease does not discriminate. Someday it might be you or one of your family members to suffer a mental health crisis. Ask yourself: are you proud of MW’s behavior? Do you feel his and the ELT’s decision about our mental health benefits is justified?

Gas at $5.50/Gallon + Doubled Car Insurance Rate + Kids, Family and the 2+ hours traffic, but a bare minimum salary..this is majority of us 60,000 employees vs. Gunjan and CXO suite making Millions a year,Luxury travel to and fro paid and expesned to the company. They are the to set the RTO policy but do not have to worry or comply it, its the 90% of us who have to bear the brunt.

OUR (60,000 employees) Necessity is the mother of this invention (leave powered locked laptops at work in secret places), given no other company demands or measures Talent and Performance by the Timestamps and not actual delivery or management of aspects. STUPID and DuB GOONjan and CXO suite

This is a post regarding a specific je-k I have to see every damn day I go into the office.

I see this scrum master who literally says he took the role just to do nothing all day. He laughs at me since I’m a software engineer, saying stuff like “haha I make more money than you to do less work”. Has a snarky attitude. Just walks in like he owns the place. This is someone who made a reputation for himself for being a lazy person. People on his own team call him a slacker often. He’d literally put his feet up on the desk he’d sit at.

I can’t say too much because he belittles me in front of other people, so I can’t say too much without giving away who this is. But I doubt anyone knows this. Every day when he’s at cafeteria, he order a T bone steak, and walks back to his desk with a styrofoam tray that has the said T bone steak. I used to be able to walk away from my laptop when my workload wasn’t too much. Once every 2 or 3 months for that time period that my work was easier, I’d come back to my desk, and guess what I’d see on my desk? An eaten out of styrofoam tray, with a gnawed on bone of a T bone steak inside of it.

He doesn’t do it anymore so I don’t think I can report it to anyone. I thought about reporting every time he did that or taking pictures for evidence. But I was always afraid of “snitching” or being seen as a problem for reporting the bullying. So, I just dealt with it. I don’t leave my desk at Fidelity (due to workload). I don’t want him to speak with me but he acts like everything is ok and he’s the best thing to ever grace this company. I’m one of the only people that are fine with myself coming into an office for RTO, but he made it so insufferable.

He’s a scrumbag. Why can’t he just get laid off? I thought he was surely gonna be gone but he’s still here. He’s a damn cockroach. Better yet, why can’t I get laid off so I can be free and find another job while getting severance pay? Why can’t we just see him lose the job where he does literally nothing all day, or get demoted to a role where he makes even less money, and realizes he’s sc--wed himself.

I know we have many people who are lazy at Fidelity, prior to the sheer burnout from RTO. But how many people here are THAT level of crude? Smh.

I’ve never seen a CEO so completely disconnected and miss the message employees were trying to send.

Thousands of employees were saying the same thing- morale is declining, flexibility matters, talent is leaving, and five-day RTO is making a bad situation worse.

His response? Employees were told they’re wrong, he’s not, and there “might be a disconnect between you and your current professional choice.”

What really stood out was the characterization of the feedback as “more outliers than we’d like.” … Outliers?

When it’s most employees saying the same thing, it isn’t outliers at all. It’s the majority. The same concerns were being raised across all organizations, teams, and locations. That’s not an “outlier” problem. That’s a leadership problem.

The email read like someone who was genuinely shocked by the feedback…. But maybe that’s the real issue. When you’re surrounded by direct reports blowing smoke up your a$$ telling you everything is working, everyone is aligned, and the policy is a grand success, eventually you start believing it.

Then one day reality shows up in a survey and your mind is blown.

What made the email so damaging wasn’t just the double down on policy. It was the authoritarian mindset behind it.

Instead of asking why most employees felt the same way, he seemed determined to explain why employees were wrong instead of him. Instead of adapting, he doubled down. Instead of listening, he lectured. Instead of taking responsibility, he shifted the blame back onto employees.

That’s not leadership.

Leadership is about recognizing when a decision isn’t producing the intended results and having the humility to change course. What we’ve seen instead is a stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality and accept responsibility, no matter how much evidence piles up.

Since Stankey became CEO, the stock has delivered a negative (-25%) price return. Morale has deteriorated to all time lows. Talent continues to leave. Outside rankings of culture, morale, talent, future readiness place AT&T at the bottom of its peer group and near the broader field bottom as well.

Yet somehow employees are still treated as the problem.

At some point, the board has to ask a simple question- if the strategy is working, where are the results?

Employees are paying the price for decisions they didn’t make- longer commutes, less flexibility, less take home pay, lower morale, increased uncertainty, and the departure of talented peers.

The company doesn’t need more presence reports, more mandates, or another angry manifesto explaining why employees are wrong and to blame for the company’s failures. It needs a leader who listens, adapts, and can admit when something isn’t working.

The most dangerous thing a CEO can do is become so convinced of his own correctness that he stops hearing what everyone else is telling him, and that’s where we are. That’s the disconnect employees have been talking about all along.

People keep saying to report problems, but report them where? To who? All I've seen so far is that speaking up gets twisted back on the employee. Every single time. So why bother?

It is very depressing as there are some very good people going because they asked to. Why can’t the organization organize themselves to get rid of dead wood instaesd of not creating an environment where talent and good people feel comfortable.

I'm trying to stay informed but I haven't seen anything solid.

Before, if you worked hard here, asked the right questions, and applied when a better role opened up, you had a real shot. Lately, that hasn't been the case. It's like all the internal postings are advertised just for the sake of appearances, while the roles are already reserved for pre-selected candidates. Tell me I'm wrong.

The experienced FA losses are really accelerating. Big promises that weren’t delivered by Penny and her ELT, unforced errors like ent reimagined and return to office impacting operations and aggressiveness of competitive recruiting are all contributing.

Only momentum helping EJ AUM right now is market exuberance…

Does anyone have insight into the process or timeline of laying off an entire department of individual contributors and moving the positions offshore?

Does Optum ever hire temporary US contractors to replace us first and then eventually move to offshoring?

People are leaving for competitors every single week. And the company isn't offering them better pay or any incentive to stay. Not even a conversation. With others being kicked out through layoffs, where does leadership think that will leave us in a few years?

I left and now I regret it. This place isn't perfect but it's still better than most.

Does anyone know when they're going to start letting people go? I've heard July but I'm not sure. Could be later.

Imagine getting 10-percented, losing your job with no severance package, after working hard for a multi-billion dollar company for decades, just so the executive team can save a little money and look good to their investor overlords. Smh

I am asked to relocate to this year. But I don't have my team there. So, I asked for Dallas and it was unofficially granted. My husband has been laid off due to org restructure just 2 weeks ago and his health has gone down drastically, requiring at least 2 months to recover. I have asked for an extension for next year in current place but did not get granted, while my peers did not receive letters. If I don't relocate, i will lose my job too. Not sure how to navigate this with kids.

we all know it’s coming in June per Corkey Anthony. are we getting a courtesy email or will it be google-esque with a simple lockout of your account. would prefer the latter so i won’t have to do cr-p for 2 weeks

Today I learned I am going to the bench in the US. Been a manager with IBM/Kyndryl for 18+ years and also forced to tell at least 6 of my employees so far they will also be moved to the bench. Bridge has to cut >$5m from the budget, overall CTO much more. Employees impacted in the US, India and Costa Rica as I know currently. All while they hire more VPs and pay huge stock dividends to the execs and tout the company has made the top 100 most loved workplaces that prioritize respect, care and appreciation for employees at the core of their operations..... I don't think so