#employeerelations

The Culture Week "pep rallies" and platitudes of how much this company cares about the culture and it's employees is nauseating, especially during a week when another round of layoffs is happening.

I called the Vz pension department a couple of months ago to inquire about who is custodian of the pension if I was to retire and take the annuity pension instead of the lump sum. I was put on a 5 minute hold. The rep told me pension obligation was sold off to Prudential in 2013 and 2023. It had to do with contractual obligations concerning Bell Atlantic and GTE. She further stated that there’s currently no plans to sell off more of it. Doesn’t mean it will never happen but for now going forward, if you retire , your pension is with Vz. If you’re bent on a monthly pension but don’t want to leave it with Vz take the lump and purchase a guaranteed life annuity. I’ve been quoted an almost identical monthly amount for a glf as if I had taken a 100% pop-up for my wife from Vz.

Bumping this from @gk+1kq2atb5s for info.

Anything new for upcoming layoffs? And what areas? Volume is down, people are being pulled to other areas to work and everyone is being micromanaged. What’s going on. It’s stressful enough here.

Guess who did not make the list?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-top-companies-2026-50-best-large-employers-grow-zupfe/

Used to work at 2U and left post emergence from bankruptcy. Obviously, this thread used to be jumping quite a bit back in the day during the more caotic and turbulent times. Curious for anyone that still works there, how are things going? Is it still a sh-t show or have things gotten better with all the new leadership

From LinkedIn

https://del.ly/6045BBG9Uc

Town hall meetings coming over for Monday at optum health. I guess to address the sla-ghter and tell the survivers to do more with less! 🤑

Game developers announced their intent to form a union. They work on Magic: The Gathering Arena at Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast is a division of Hasbro. The group achieved supermajority support for unionization. They seek voluntary recognition and filed an NLRB election petition.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91532865/a-quiet-filing-could-decide-what-happens-next-inside-one-of-gamings-biggest-studios

Any news on this?

UnityPoint is implementing a round of layoffs. These job reductions will not affect the Quad Cities Area. The QCA region will see no impact from these changes. Local UnityPoint operations are not included in the layoffs. Staff in the Quad Cities will maintain their employment.

Davenport, IA

https://www.kwqc.com/video/2026/04/28/unitypoint-layoffs-wont-impact-qca/

https://news.lrionline.com/why-white-collar-workers-organize-tech-banking/

First, I understand your feelings. I got let go from a different company several years ago and it never feels good. Even though it's usually not personal it always FEELS personal. Especially when you think about all your contributions over the years. Feelings like, "How could they let ME go after everything I've done, all the long work days, all the good performance evals and kudos, etc.!" Being upset is a normal reaction and no one should attempt to invalidate such feelings.

With all that being true, it's also important to not lose sight of the big picture. What's that big picture? All of us are on this planet for - in the span of human existence - no more than a micro-second. And unless you're very famous when you depart this planet, within just three generations almost no one is likely to remember you ever existed. The point? In the grand scheme of things...none of it really matters.

This short, <5 minute video sums it up nicely:

"A Reason To Stop Worrying: Watch This Whenever You're Stressed or Anxious"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tm6Z1y3h94

Documents coming last minute is ridiculous. We've had the draft since November so any challenges should have already been made. Stretching out payment is disrespectful but I guess respect went out the window when they told us we were surplus. We just want to move on and they want to make it difficult.

I honestly preferred major layoffs to what we have now.

I've been through several layoff cycles now and every time, as soon as first rumors hit, the office turns into a competition. People stop sharing, managers get cagey, friends watch each other sideways...you get the picture. It's exhausting.

My approach now is simple. I assume my number might come up and keep my options open. I update the resume every month and if it happens, it happens. Being prepared is the only way to stay sane.

Put us out of our misery!

Does anyone know when ICs from lead down will get the layoff email invite ?

Based on Friday it sounded they they were going top/down and focusing on Sr. Dir. is today still targeting upper leadership or free for all ?

Don’t care either way and I will be more relieved if I get laid off at this point.

I looked at who survived our last two layoff rounds and it's baffling. People who haven't delivered anything in years are still here and people who carry the whole team got cut. Someone decided that. Someone looked at the list and signed off. That person has terrible judgment. They should be at the top of the list when the next round comes.

The Executive Board, Supervisory Board, Group Executives, L1, L2, etc. will never ever allow a VERP in the US. The only places where they allow that are Germany and France and only because they are forced to by the strong worker protections. However, they already found a workaround with the new performance management system. Now they will lay off while giving the least possible severance they legally can. These people believe that SAP's money belongs to them so they try to maximize their own bonuses by cutting down on salary budgets and benefits for employees.

An on point post by @ag+1kpxsdtzm.

I've been through a number of layoff rounds here and the pattern's always the same. Pull the salary report. Highlight everyone above a certain number. That's the core group. Then grab a few lower paid people from different teams so the demographics look balanced. It's not about performance. It's never been about performance.

Watching promotions roll out is something else as well. It makes you really question if performance actually matters even a single bit. To say the names on that list don't always match the people who carry the weight daily would be an understatement. It's hard not to notice.

Please drop any WellMed RIFs here!

Look around at who’s left. It’s hard not to feel like we’re all temporary at this point. Layoffs keep coming, and eventually they will reach everyone they have to pay more than pocket change. Anyone still standing in the US is on borrowed time. It’s less a question of if and more of when.

Working for decades at Ford and living though the slow decline from the most profitable car company in the world to a second-tier floundering truck company gives me perspective on how to use Ford for my benefit. If you work at Ford and are not an LL5 by 35 you’re too old to be promote, stop trying. Stop doing all the additional duties, stop working night, weekends and during lunch. Ford pays for eight hours a day, five days a week, given them their time, do your job, nothing more, nothing less. Take every vacation day and every personal day, max your Ford matching, let Ford pay to upgrade your skills. Take advantage of every Ford benefit, never leave a single dollar of Mr. Ford’s money on the table. Ford is a paycheck, your cash cow to allow you do to other things Use your time to make yourself smarter and richer, learn to invest actively. If you can average a 15% return on your investments, you double your money every five years. After 25 years of investing my ETF returns are significantly more than my Ford yearly income. Also look at getting a side hustle and double up on a monthly check. Do something you like that makes a few bucks; every dollar counts. Remember, Ford is just a tool to pay your bills, use the tool to create your future.

PIP isn't about improvement. Performance improvement plans aren't for helping you. They're either to save money or get revenge. That's all. If you are on PIP, don't expect to still be employed once it's done.

As of this passed Saturday, many branches nationally have officially expanded to closing at 2pm. I heard there are a couple more phases before EOY for the rest of those Saturday branches to do the same. We now have TCR’s making us more effective, however getting harder and harder to find staff. Some of branches nationally have closed drive-thru, some areas have not.

At what point do we put the employees first???? For overall workload and retention.

Any one have any ideas what the next step of the way our branches operate takes place ?

After the layoffs rounds how the daily routine looks like especially regarding direct mngr? Do you still have as usual 1:1? Are the layoff questions brought up on th meetings or mgnrs behave like nothing happened?

Recently the PTOs are auto approved and not from the manager, anyone noticed this in the past that affected their role?

GateHouse Media is conducting layoffs across its newspapers. The Providence Newspaper Guild president states GateHouse is not disclosing the total number. The union has confirmed six layoffs at the Providence Journal. Reports indicate approximately 200 employees were laid off nationally. GateHouse's CEO called these cuts "immaterial" to the company.

Providence, Rhode Island

https://www.golocalprov.com/business/head-of-projos-union-says-gatehouse-is-not-disclosing-number-of-layoffs

I feel a bit apprehensive about the upcoming Global Employee Meeting. Our results were good and beat market expectations and I know I should not feel this way. We have a lot of positive cash flow and can sustain good growth if we continue the trajectory. This is one of those times where smart CEOs and executive boards and supervisory boards (elected) would try to invest in more headcount to get an edge over our competitors. But I know that will not happen because
1) The biggest SAP commitment is to create enough cash flow for executive board bonuses and group executive bonuses
2) The second biggest SAP commitment is to create enough cash flow for share buybacks. SAP intends to spend up to 2.6 billion € (without incidental acquisition costs) in the period from 5 February 2026 until 27 July 2026 at the latest. https://www.sap.com/investors/en/stock/share-buy-back/2026.html
3) The third biggest SAP commitment is to create enough cash flow for the AI fairy tale. I call this is fairy tale because the total cost of AI solutions, third party development to make those solutions work for SAP employees, operating costs related to AI and opportunity costs when having to fix AI mistakes is very high.
In fact, there are reports that AI costs more than the humans they are intending to replace. But compared to humans, they do not have "workers rights" and can be easily exploited at the cost of our environment.
4) Lack of empathy in our executive board members and elected supervisory board representatives. Every earnings call and global employee call has one or two speakers apologizing for something derogatory they said towards employees. This doesn't matter because they go right back to treating us like dirt again.
5) Commitment to fake HR plans. The new HR under Gina scrapped all previous HR programs and want to reinvent the wheel again. What this means is that they want to reduce workers rights and reduce employee benefits. And they create a lot of busy work for themselves to talk about but this work has no impact or has a negative impact on the SAP culture. We had HPOM and then Performance Management. God knows what atrocity they are brewing now.

This and many other reasons make me apprehensive about the Global Employee Meeting. I am expecting layoff news either as a big number or a small percentage every year. I wish we had the courage to fight back by giving low unfiltered scores. I wish we had more courage to elect better supervisory board members and not the same ones again and again because they have shown themselves to be executive friendly and not employee friendly. I wish SAP had a real long term strategy that went beyond "we are copying others in AI slop". I wish I didn't have to worry about having a job when I work for a company that is actually making a decent profit.

How are you all feeling about the Global Employee Meeting?

Tomorrow will be terrible! Wish the best for you all.
Be brave.

You may want to check the balance on your ExxonMobil gas card account.

When we swapped over to the new company which handles our paychecks someone forgot to check a box. The money was taken from the paychecks but never sent to the credit card company for payment.

While some employee's balances have been paid...............I am finding the majority have not. Interest is being charged.

This or next month?

When the Washington Post announced mass layoffs, in February, the company offered severance packages to the roughly three hundred and fifty staff members losing their jobs. To receive their severance, these employees would have to sign their packages by April 10; they would then begin receiving the payments after April 30. But after the terms were set, something strange happened. Editors who were overseeing the laid-off employees began contacting several of them, asking them to return—not as full-time staff, but to work under what their union called a “delayed layoff.” These editors had been given little say over who was originally dismissed, but in the weeks since, they have appeared to be driving an effort to bring certain reporters back to the newsroom. According to Kathleen Floyd, a communications lead and internal organizer at the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG), the bulk of these reach-outs happened in March; a few are still trickling in. Under the updated terms, the employees will resume their duties through July. “Everyone’s just doing the best they can with this really sh---y situation,” a Post reporter said.

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/washington-post-tries-regroup-after-major-cuts-layoffs-delayed-rehire-former-staff.php

I'm actually grateful for that.

Not some. All of it.