#favoritism

If Tampa doesn’t need to go into the office for the rest of the year, why should any other site? The same security and safety concerns at Tampa apply to all Citi offices

I’ve noticed that during some layoff cycles, the women on the teams are laid off but the men get options to stay. I’ve also experienced weird treatment from the men, particularly in sales, and some customers who are women have admitted the same. I’m already had it with the leadership here so I’m looking for new work but has anyone else experienced this as well, or maybe dealt with a “boys club” vibe at CDW? Especially with all of the layoffs going on?

Everyone is at risk, although it would be insane to assume everyone is at equal risk. I'd expect more reasons than I list below, but these are the ones I saw when I was there.

Reasons people get picked off one by one:

• You just aren't meeting the job requirements - it seems obvious until you realize how many high level "engineers" are assigned low level bug fixing and therefore aren't actually allowed to meet those requirements
• You are meeting the job title requirements but raises move you out of the viable salary range for that level of work
• You aren't in favor of those with political power
• A manager decides they have an "in-group" and you aren't in it

Reasons people get picked off in whole groups:

• Your project is being cancelled
• You work at a lesser site on a project with teams at a primary site
• A political power play between teams where the winner keeps their own people to pick up the work of the losing team
• When projects reorganize they can package people for any of the reasons people get picked off one by one into a group and then let go of them as a group

Since the goal is typically a reduction in cost if you have a low rank and corresponding pay and you contribute above average on an important project with strong (politically speaking) management it's probably as good as it gets, but it's still no guarantee.

Don't underestimate the power of being under the wing of the powerful. Many people have sc--wed up costing Cisco fortunes and the punishment was a promotion,.

Bumped from @j4+1m6w4czph.

Does it have to be only managers who can fail up? Is that a rule or something?

I just wanted to say, there is nothing wrong with you. We are all talented, and we will figure out something better. We just need to remember lifelong who actually mentored us, and who stayed engaged and supportive at work. Today is your turn, yesterday was someone else's, and tomorrow it will be someone else's. Stay motivated and collaborative in life.
To the folks remaining at work: you aren't "over-smart"—it's just that your manager preferred you. Don't let the culture here spoil. Many of us will return for sure, or associate with you again in the future. Be nice and stay humble.

I'm getting pretty tired of the games management plays. They sell you on some big project or exciting change, making you believe it's an opportunity to prove yourself and move up. In reality, it's often just a way to squeeze more out of you while their favorites are quietly positioned for promotions. You're told that taking on more responsibility, expanding your scope, and delivering beyond expectations is what it takes to get ahead. So you work yourself into the ground, believing the promises. Then a year or two later, promotion time comes, and the same favorites get rewarded. At some point, you realize the game was never fair, and the hard work was never the deciding factor.

What is this thing of departments having a revolving door of people coming in and going out in a matter of weeks.

Why nobody holds them accountable of poor judgement, biased hiring and dragging everyone down with their poor decisions.

What is this sh*t of "people's person" over technical skills too. Wasn't this hellhole supposed to be an engineering and science hub.

Stupid people with pseudo degrees in everything but oil and gas, I'd guess.

Let’s check in with our good old pal Gemini to see what he has to say on this topic.

The top 10 reasons employees cite for Canon USA being a difficult or "bad" place to work include:

1. Friction in Cross-Cultural Management

A recurring complaint involves a deep cultural disconnect and "us vs. them" tension between American managers and their Japanese overseers. Workers report that Japanese leadership holds ultimate decision-making power, frequently disregarding open suggestions or context provided by regional staff.

1. Lack of Career Advancement and Slow Promotions

Many current and former employees feel that career growth at the company is stagnant. Employees frequently complain that promotions take an exceptionally long time to earn, and internal mobility is limited.

1. Lower Compensation Compared to Competitors

Salary dissatisfaction is a major driver of negative reviews. Employees often report low starting pay for many roles and annual merit increases that fail to keep pace with inflation or market rates at competing tech and imaging firms.

1. Poor Corporate Communication and "Siloed" Culture

Many reviewers express frustration with highly disorganized internal communication and a lack of transparency from upper management. Teams often feel siloed, leading to a chaotic or confusing atmosphere when new corporate strategies are rolled out.

1. Office Politics and Perceived Favoritism

A significant portion of negative reviews highlight a highly political, cliquey corporate environment. Employees state that management positions and opportunities are frequently given to favored individuals rather than based strictly on merit, work ethic, or tenure.

1. Layoff Anxiety and Low Job Security

Discussions on platforms like The Layoff highlight persistent fear regarding structural reorganizations, corporate mergers, and staffing reductions. Workers note that ongoing cost-cutting measures have severely damaged company morale.

1. Overwork from Understaffed Teams

Following waves of structural downsizing and budget restrictions, remaining individual contributors frequently report severe work overload. Reviewers state they are expected to take on the responsibilities of eliminated roles without receiving additional compensation.

1. Slow Adoption of Modern Technology

Despite being a prominent technology and imaging manufacturer, employees complain that Canon USA's internal infrastructure is remarkably slow to adapt to modern systems. Implementing new internal tools, software upgrades, or process changes can reportedly take years.

1. Lack of Diversity in Leadership

While the company's entry-level staff is broad and varied, multiple reviews note a distinct lack of diversity within middle and upper management. This creates an environment that some employees describe as "segregated" or exclusionary for diverse talent aiming for leadership roles.

1. Pivot Toward Outsourcing and Automation

Recent employee reports point to a corporate shift toward sending backend support jobs overseas, outsourcing tasks, and aggressively pushing AI tools. Employees feel this transition compromises support for both internal personnel and external customers.

It has been proven a million times over that managers begin to get strategic about who they let go and rank, not on honesty at that moment, but on giving themselves wiggle room for future cuts. Some low-performers get kept for future cuts to save current mid-tier players who will be lower in the future. Some good but difficult members get culled under the guise of a ranking. It does not work.

ML loves them

So here we are

Avoid non-technical managers if you can, especially when you’re new to a team or XOM. Incompetent managers often lean on so-called mentors, usually people who’ve been around longer and somehow stablished themselves , and those "mentors" pass along their own messy, poorly defined tools, models, or tasks. You end up cleaning up their problems while they present it as guidance or support. In reality, they’re just fixing their own mess through you, and when evaluation time comes, they can point to your work as proof they were helping. Why the people they “mentor” often get ranked low? because the mentor wants to protect their own top spot. They push mentees into lower rankings to stay safe for another cycle. Part of mentor evaltion should be expecting high ranking for mentees... They’re also deeply involved in assigning projects and controlling visibility for whoever they want, so they end up effectively managing the group instead of the actual manager.

Last year zero people in our group (25-55 people) received promotions. These are people who ‘exceeded all or most’, met deliverables and in previous years would have been a shoe-in. Given the hole we as a company are going to continue digging out of, does anyone see any reason top performers should think DW won’t completely give us all the shaft again?
True, nothing is guaranteed, but I can’t even pull the energy to write the damn things when they are shown year after year to be utterly meaningless unless you got him in your DMs.

Just as noted months again here, AB becomes CFO. She was openly telling us she would be the next CFO as far back as early 2025. Disaster in professionalism and C Suite disaster. She gets the job as a close friend with her days with SF in Cindy. She failed at Hertz and her only requirement was to let go as many people as possible. Her personality is mature not mature or suited for the role but C Suite hires by SF are almost as bad as the stock.

Put your opinions below, I wonder what you think.

1. Incompetent VPs (and managers) get rid of their best and brightest just to look better, and strengthen their position.
2. The company is hiring, there are hundreds of jobs. Hiring priority shall be given to the laid off employees, so that they can transfer before their termination date. But laid off employees don't hear back, no communication at all.
3. There is no financial reason, or even accountability for a lay-off. People are laid off, but soon after others are hired for the same position. For example SVP of Enterprise Modeling and Analytics position was eliminated in the recent past. But exact same position is recently posted - check JR2982 at Fannie Mae’s Workday “SVP of EMA”

There's a lot of tension here because people never know whether speaking up or making a mistake will come back to hurt them. Meanwhile, certain employees seem to get away with things others are punished for. It's difficult to trust management when the rules don't appear to apply equally. I don't know how anyone expects people to do their best work under those conditions.

How much % layoff in endpoint security, CASB, DLP, email security ?

Those bad layoff decisions made by certain incompetent and selfish leaders have drag the org into negative loop. Hardworking and valuable engineers are let go, but slackers who have good relationship with those leaders are still there and get promotions. Customers keep leaving. While CEO only cares about the org revenue. And those decision just accelerate the decline of the revenue, and assure the layoff in next quarter.

Any they were immediately let go when he was gone when it was determined you didn’t need to pay 80 million dollars for people to run efficiency sessions. Funny their only other big clients were at PNC and BOA.

When Corrupt ML comes asking for another 80 million for efficiency initiatives, have the courage to ask if it can be done in-house

I don't have much hope, considering that every layoff so far has been about money and cronyism, but I guess we can always hope. Let's face it, it's not that we don't have fat that can be trimmed at Cigna. It's that the fat never actually gets trimmed, and it's the muscle that pays the price every single time.

I spent too long expecting things to improve internally, but the better opportunities seemed to go to a select few. Once I moved on, I got a $30,000 pay increase and finally had access to more challenging work. If you're feeling stuck, start comparing what other companies have to offer instead of assuming another internal opportunity will come along.

Warning to all engineers: if you are ranked with global projects they will use you to fill the bottom of the forced distribution. The narrative in global projects is currently that engineers add zero value only executing “project management professionals” as they call themselves deserve high assessment results according to GP. GP employees are vocally saying in meetings things like:
“engineering is just something to get out of the way so the real work can start”
“The way to finish a project is to demobilize all the engineers”

Avoid assignments on Guyana projects, expat assignments, UNCON anssignments, any project assignment or assignment where you will be in the same rank group as GP employees.

The atmosphere is bad enough on its own, but watching certain people get special treatment makes it even harder to put up with. It's difficult to feel motivated when the rules don't seem to apply equally.

This is not Ned's Fidelity. It's extra cut throat these days and most of the L3s and above don't even bother to feign like they give a sh!t about the majority of the associates, except a few of their special people and anyone else who's been deemed worthy by their peers. It really doesn't matter what you do to try and get a great rating, bonus, and stock. 90% of those "leaders" are only going to keep doling out the real $$$ to their friends, regardless of whatever you did this year. I don't blame the associates who have a bad attitude. I'm starting to really dislike the environment here, but even if you have great AI skills, it's a bloodbath out there. See Microsoft VBO 25%+ of their employees. Maybe it's time we unionize or protest like the kids in France. It's not going to end well as we shift into AI overdrive. Even for a backwards company like Fidelity.

What is his secret? Forget working smart not hard. This guy works in stupid ways and gets all of the rewards.

Does anyone else deal with inconsistent RTO expectations within their team?

For example, some employees are expected to be in the office from 9 to 5 every day, while others regularly use 2–3 hours of sick leave each week to avoid meeting the full in-office requirement.

Some employees seem to receive exceptions or waivers even after exhausting all their sick leave and PTO although they do not qualify for any sort of accommodation.

I understand that individual circumstances may vary, but shouldn’t RTO standard or expectation be applied consistently across the team?

Curious if anyone else has experienced this and how their management handles it.

What is the policy about it? A tm in my store does it all the time. Also, the tm is one of the favorites. So nothing has happened. Yet.

Currently, Citi is not sponsoring any more H-1B visas. So, before jumping to conclusions about “favoritism” and all the usual “blah blah,” shouldn’t we first acknowledge that organizations are operating within the policies and regulations set by the current government?

I have friends working as vendors who are already living on the edge. If their company loses the contract, it doesn’t just affect a business decision—it could put an entire family’s livelihood and future at risk.

It’s easy to debate these issues from the outside, but behind every visa decision, contract, and policy change are real people trying to build a stable future for themselves and their families.

Maybe we should look at the bigger picture before labeling every decision as favoritism.

There is favoritism within the Product organization and it is impacting employees and Teradata.

Proximity to the CPO and his inner circle provides greater job security and career opportunities, while employees with years of institutional knowledge and meaningful contributions are at greater risk during the upcoming RIF.

CPO is only after highly visible, innovative-sounding initiatives such as AI Studio and Context Engine, even when their near-term impact on ARR is next to nothing while his and his closeby SVPs vest their stocks.

I understand the need for cost optimization and difficult organizational decisions. But we all deserve confidence that layoffs, promotions, and hiring decisions are based on objective factors such as performance, business needs, skills, and contributions—not personal relationships or cultural background.

This is not fair to folks who make valuable contributions but will be laid off soon because they do not share CPOs ethnic background

How is it fair that everyone is required to return to office 3 days when some are still eligible to work remotely. It should be the same across the board. There is a manager in TA who is remote and her employees are in office. Lots of favoritism. There is no way someone in a manager role should be remote.

In Engineering, how much of stack ranking is based on actual individual performance vs. tenure, likeability, buddy/buddy system, etc.? How can one even prove this?

What’s the deal with this? And is it actually gonna go to a deserving person? Or is it just gonna go to the brown nosing su-k up who gets the most extra care plus signups

Why do managers allow WPE for certain people over and over again. These people get to work odd hours and do as they please. They have friendships with leadership so same rules don’t apply. It isn’t fair and HR must see it in reporting

Huge problem with project assigned employees who are not part of the GP family. GP used them to fill the bottom of the rank group. HR has seen data and does nothing to stop it. Avoid project assignments at all costs if you value your ranking.

How is the calculus now that Roshan will have Scott Hallworth reporting to him? Will that end overspend on gen ai or could it accelerate the burn beyond? Is there a purging of Peter's yesmen happening?

Now that I’ve been here over a decade, I can see why the old timers before would get livid that Fidelity invests so much in kids right out of college.

At the time, I thought the older people were jealous but now I understand fidelity gives the kids more money because they’re the only ones d-mb enough to work for free.

When they move into the “I’ve been here a decade”, they’re all also confused as to what happened, then they burn out.

That’s not favoritism like I thought it was, it’s someone who needs to go back to school and stop playing “leader”. Fidelity cannot stay a top company when fundamentally we cannot understand the difference between what the words leader and manager mean.

To save the company from imploding, fix the management pandemic panic.

I have been working at Belk for a long time now and I am not sure how people do it for 10 years. All the managers (including my store manager) are awful at their job and don’t even help out any of the associates when we are busy. They rather wander around gossiping about something. My store manager is the worst. She has the worst sarcastic attitude ever and even uses it on customers. She overworks the shoe department and makes them do everything like stocking, displays, customer service, etc. I wasn’t aware the same associates that were hired to be on the register are the same ones that do stocking WHILE the doors are open? Isn’t there supposed to be a team in the back for shoes that do those tasks? Beauty department is also overworked, they have to help our only clothes register that is open because the managers just don’t care and only schedule one person at that register.They also make beauty get credits and stock. The only difference between shoes and beauty is beauty always has 3-5 people there while shoes usually has 1 person there and 2-3 on the weekend. Everytime I talk to any of my coworkers in shoe department, they are stressed or annoyed. We also have crazy favoritism here, a man who works at my store literally coerce customers to get the credit card and doesn’t tell them it’s a credit card. I mean yeah that can be the customer’s fault for not knowing since they must put their social security in twice but I still think it’s very messed up to lie to the customers about it not being a credit card. They won’t fire him though because with this strategy he has he gets 6 credits a day. I honestly hate this point system too. I know some people have it worst but how come if a family member gets sick and i need to call out because of it, I don’t get a point… but if I’m sick I do get a point? That makes no sense. I have seen people come in sick because they don’t want a point, but my store manager just says “just take the point!” I just needed to let this all out, because even if I told my managers or even HR about the problems of my store, they will never listen. And, is it like this at every Belk? Because if so why haven’t they done something about this???

With Barnerd & Kleber leaving, and some other random directors - are they being pushed out? Or leaving on their own?

And are all renewable companies this poorly ran? This company feels like a joke with lack of accountability, favoritism, nepotism, etc. The "leadership team" seems so amateur. It's very concerning to a rather new employee.

Obviously manager won’t select him self and his friends and people who support his consultancy.
Only people who he feel threat to him?

Here Managers here don’t have basic knowledge of current tech but ready to build AI agent just by recruiting consultants and show case them as they invented AI.

Recently someone left the company because they didn’t want to move to Texas and thanked “all sponsors.” Is this just for HiPos, or can anyone request one? How does it actually work — do they assign sponsors to their favorites?

There are plenty of opportunities here if you count favoritism, being used, and watching other people get ahead. Leadership can lie or retaliate and somehow never seems to face any consequences.

It's sad how companies don't want to see why all the easy roles like testing etc. are going to H1b or H4 EADs... but then calling people useless, taking away our fair chances to give them to friends and relatives, and then blaming us is not right.