#leadership

Anyone join ?

I can’t stand to hear him speak or even look at him

He’s so condescending and obnoxious it sickens me

To anyone in executive leadership who may read this. It's important that you understand the climate that is being created at FIS. I'm not going to argue in this post for having less overall cuts, but rather to get them over with next time.

I believe we've had 11 RIFs this year. What could have been a couple rounds has been spread out so every month or so, folks are seeing their peers or leaders getting cut.

It may seem like doing smaller cuts is easier for teams to manage, and keeping a key individual for another month or so may seem like a good idea to allow better transition, but here's the effect.

Very few people feel secure in their career here. Most people are unsure if they will be next. This is shared for most ICs up through many people at the VP level. People are less productive, engaged, and less passionate.

We're starting to see top talent look elsewhere (the most marketable and skilled people are the ones who can land another job).

Teams and leaders are spending a lot of time discussing the impending layoffs, rumors, and overall morale, which is more hidden waste.

Lastly, delaying these leadership RIFs has prevented any real communication about the future org structure. So the orgs have not been able to set clear direction for the rest of 2025/2026. This is still pending because there are leaders yet to be cut.

We are already under investing in our products relative to our competitors, but if we're going to have cuts, they should be larger and less frequent. These decisions will have ramifications.

Verizon stock falls after EchoStar announces spectrum sale to SpaceX.
Verizon's Sampath: U.S. must seize 6G moment now. Because 5G is going so well. I'm sure BR has a plan?

You cannot make this up. See Arvind going by Arvid last Thursday with Jim Cramer. Amateur hour, dumpster fire, imposter syndrome going on at IBM for far too long. => https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/09/04/ibm-ceo-arvid-krishna-sits-down-with-jim-cramer.html

As September rolls in and the scent of cinnamon wafts through the air like a passive-aggressive performance review, BNY Mellon’s Executive Committee has declared its Q4 strategy: transformation through seasonal beverages.

Forget earnings calls or client retention—this fall, the path to corporate greatness is paved with pumpkin spice and chai foam.

The CEO’s latest social media post, hashtagged #SeptemberScaries, reads like a motivational poster taped to a severance packet. It opens with nostalgic musings about back-to-school season and ends with a rallying cry for “refocusing energy” and “embracing change”—which, in BNY parlance, means layoffs, offshoring, and a new seasonal drink menu.

“Change happens in big ways, but more often it’s the small moments—the turning of a leaf, the brewing of a latte, the quiet hum of analysts sipping espresso in the halls…”

Translation: Your job may be gone by Halloween, but at least the chai is free.

The Rise of the Pumpkin Spice King
In a bold rebranding move, the CEO has unofficially crowned himself the “Pumpkin Spice Latte King,” complete with a LinkedIn banner featuring latte art shaped like a hockey-stick growth curve.

His followers—mostly bots, interns, and one confused VP from Compliance—have responded with emojis, endorsements, and one brave comment that simply reads: “Sir, is Pune hiring?”

The EC insists this seasonal shift represents “micro and macro innovation.” Macro: offshoring 40% of U.S. roles to Pune. Micro: adding nutmeg to the breakroom menu.
The CEO now opens town halls with a steaming PSL in hand, declaring, “This isn’t just coffee—it’s culture.” Meanwhile, the culture team quietly updates the org chart to reflect the new “Pumpkin Spice Transformation Office,” reporting directly to the Chief Beverage Officer (formerly Head of Strategy).

Perks That Feel Like Punishment: Corporate Actions Edition
To celebrate the season, the EC has rolled out a new perk package under the banner of “Corporate Actions for Corporate People”:

• Free seasonal beverages—but only for those who badge in before 7:45 a.m. and survive the daily stand-up without clueless whining.
• Chai & Change Workshops—where employees learn how to reframe layoffs as “growth opportunities” and “strategic pivots.”
• Corporate Action Loyalty Points—redeemable for branded mugs, not job security.
• Pumpkin-themed performance reviews—where feedback is delivered via latte foam art and your bonus is replaced with a cinnamon stick.
  There’s even a new Teams channel called #SpiceUpYourCareer, where HR posts inspirational quotes over latte photos and ignores all questions about severance eligibility.

Transformation, One Sip at a Time
The EC’s fall strategy deck, titled “Brewing Brilliance: Q4 Acceleration Through Seasonal Rituals,” outlines a bold vision:

• Reduce U.S. headcount by 25%
• Increase Pune hiring by 40%
• Replace exit interviews with pumpkin spice surveys
• Rebrand layoffs as “seasonal transitions”

The final slide features a latte cup labeled “Culture,” with steam rising in the shape of a dollar sign and a tagline that reads: “Transformation is a beverage best served warm.”

Analysts are encouraged to “lean in” to the seasonal shift, which now includes mandatory “Latte Alignment Sessions” where teams brainstorm ways to synergize chai with compliance.

Conclusion: The Brew Before the Boo
With Halloween just eight weeks away, the EC is already planning a “Spooky Synergy” campaign. Rumor has it the CFO will dress as a giant orb (surprise!) —yes, a glowing sphere of transformation—complete with a disguised "five-head cranium" and chainsaws in both hands, symbolizing “cutting inefficiencies” and “slicing through legacy processes.”

Middle managers will be encouraged to wear costumes that reflect their Q4 goals: ghost of billable hours, zombie of deferred bonuses, or the ever-popular “Agile Werewolf” who sprints but never delivers.

But for now, it’s September. The air is crisp, the layoffs are brisk, and the new analysts are buzzing—mostly from caffeine and existential dread.

So dear colleagues ... grab your corporate chai, brace for transformation, and remember: at BNY, change is brewing. Whether you’re sipping from a branded mug or packing your desk, it’s all part of the seasonal strategy.

Off we go…

Just wow. Speaks volumes about this company

Wow, everyone, stop the presses! Apparently the entire future of AT&T hinges on whether you can beep your badge at a turnstile. Forget customers, forget results, forget innovation… it’s all about that sweet, sweet swipe. Truly world-class leadership right there.

Nothing says “cutting edge” like forcing people back into cubicles to sit on the same Teams calls they could’ve taken from home. Genius move. Productivity? Down. Morale? Dead. Attrition? Through the roof. But hey, at least the parking lot looks full!

And the relocation ultimatum? Chef’s kiss. “Move to Dallas, Atlanta, NJ or else.” Brilliant way to show your employees how valued they are by treating them like disposable furniture you can just drag around the map. Who needs decades of experience and institutional knowledge when you can hire cheaper replacements who live within badge-swiping distance? Or better yet, hire them overseas and let them work from home. Collaboration only matters domestically I guess.

“Working from home is a privilege.” Yeah, so is still having a job after Stankey’s email circus. Remote work kept this company afloat during Covid, but now suddenly it’s “lazy” and “entitled”? Please. The only thing lazy here is leadership’s inability to manage without breathing down people’s necks.

So congrats to all the cube warriors out there. Keep flexing those badge swipes, the rest of us will be busy actually producing results while you polish your chair indentation.

For some reason, the ELT has never concentrated on achieving true excellence in the fundamentals of the traditional oil and gas business. By that, I mean the essentials: negotiating contracts with governments, identifying and fixing the root causes of exploration failures, and maximizing resource recovery with efficiency.

Instead, the focus has drifted toward chasing the latest “shiny object.” At one point, we branded ourselves as a technology company that just happened to operate in oil and gas. Then came waves of emphasis on digital, leading performance, competitive performance, AI, and now data centers. It often feels as if leadership is embarrassed by the industry itself and compelled to dress it up with fashionable labels.

Yet for all this rebranding, I have not seen a single truly transformative solution that changes how we run the business. If anything, we’ve simply repackaged what we already do into newly invented categories. Fundamentally, nothing has changed.

So many times he tells us this, on what basis ?

Talks a lot about being a software business, what software ?

T-Mobile and other wireless carriers tumble on SpaceX’s purchase of spectrum licenses from EchoStarT-MobileTMUS $237.74 (0.23%) is the worst-performing S&P 500 constituent in early trading, off 5.2% as of 8:27 a.m. ET.
The reason why? SpaceX purchased a pair of spectrum licenses from EchoStarSATS $81.50 (0.03%) for roughly $17 billion, and as such, SpaceX might no longer need to rely as heavily on T-Mobile going forward.

In August 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a partnership in which the carrier would help SpaceX’s Starlink provide mobile connectivity from space. The first such satellites launched in January 2024, and T-Mobile ran an ad during the 2025 Super Bowl touting a beta trial of Starlink-powered satellite texting.

I can’t imagine anyone genuinely thinking layoffs at EJ are temporary. The patterns are clear, and it’s only going to get worse unless leadership takes a serious look at long-term planning. Face it folks. Layoffs are here to stay.

The layoffs have been real one sided and asymmetrical. Time to concentrate on the CEO and the ELT as they need to bear some responsibility and weight for performance.

When will Jeff Miller be sacked? And, possible alternative CEO that can turn Halliburton around?

So many key people cut without a plan. Customers were already cancelling before this

The only strategy from executive management is to overspend on management consultants and new roles at the top. No one can understand the org

What would turn this place around? New leadership? New strategy? Something else?

Leadership tries to make everything sound reassuring, but it's so easy to see through the scripted lines. The tough questions never get answered. They just conveniently ignore them every single time. It’s more than obvious that it’s all just for show. Sad and disappointing.

We fumbled hard when JD left. Instead of swinging big, we smashed the reset button. Now we’ve got an old CEO, an old CMO, a CFO with zero imagination, a supply chain guy who can’t count, and a CTO who still thinks she’s running ops at Amazon—bless her heart. And these are the people Nike thinks are gonna connect with the next generation of athletes? Marketing is trash. Product is trash. No help in sight.

No surprise transformation and AI are major themes these days, but I’ve been hearing rumors about this Counterpart AI thing. What’s the deal with this? Seems leadership is being pretty coy and trying to suppress discussion on the topic. Should we be worried about another big wave of departures because of this?

The entire leadership chain needs to go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq10jrnO2SM

This is great commentary on the CEO of T

UTSA, it's time for a shakeup. Eighmy take heed. Your top execs are fear based leaders who hire "their own" and their family. Start with your BA division. It's HORRIBLE!

Please note that Visa’s protection for employee harassment is at VP/SVP levels and above only. So if you are a leader/harasser by habit as long as you join us as VP or above, you will protected by HR. HRBP and ER will have your back. You will be allowed violation of most rules in employee handbook and other new rules that they dish out that is applicable to all other employees. It gets even better. You will get to be part of enjoying in applying employee harassment. Now if you join below VP levels, it is the other way around, you will be the harassed, so if you like getting it, welcome onboard. If you are at any other leadership level and see someone harassed by VP/SVP levels, you know what to do, dive in and partner with the leader in the harassment, they will spare you and you will go up in ranks. We will have many different roles for you in the harassment. We will quickly recognize your values. We will see your potential as a harasser and how your VLPs are aligned. Some of the leaders will be disappointed in letting this little known Visa Leadership Principle known. It is easy to spot a leader who is a harasser, just need to watch who talks about ethics, Visa Leadership Principles the most in team meetings, townhalls and post on linkedin about leadership values. You will be surprised how many. You will love it!

To: All Employees
From: Leadership Communications
Subject: Reinvention Update

Dear Team,
As part of our ongoing Reinvention journey, we want to take a moment to recap the tremendous progress we’ve achieved, which on closer inspection looks suspiciously like chaos:

• Q2 Results: While our financial performance was pure garbage, we see this as a powerful opportunity to demonstrate resilience and accelerate the pace of transformation, because turning failure into a buzzword is cheaper than fixing the business.

• Leadership Evolution: John B has transitioned from his role as COO to continue serving on our Board, which sounds like a noble continuation but in practice means his head was required on a silver platter. He will chair the new Integration Committee, which is a committee no one asked for but looks reassuring in press releases.

• Leadership Innovation: Our Chief Disruption Officer, Deena P, has announced she is leaving to spend more time with her family, which is the universally accepted code for “thank you for the selfies, now please go". We are grateful for the inspiration and hashtags she brought to Reinvention, because nothing drives shareholder value like social media content.

Looking forward, we are excited to announce the next step: a global headcount optimization initiative. Executives have been tasked with submitting names by end of Q3, at which point 3,600–4,800 colleagues will be invited to explore career opportunities outside the company.

As a global enterprise, we are committed to fairness, but also math: it is dramatically cheaper and faster to fire people in the U.S. than in other countries where local laws demand notice periods, unions, and dignity. Accordingly, our American colleagues should expect to play a leading role in this Reinvention milestone, because your jobs are legally the easiest to erase.

We understand there is hope that reductions will focus on less-productive management layers. While that hope is touching, history has shown us that those compiling the lists — along with their friends, spouses, siblings, and Saturday tennis partners — somehow never appear on them.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to Reinvention. With fewer people, less stability, and more recycled jargon, we are confident that together we can continue to deliver bold PowerPoint slides that tell a story our numbers cannot.

Warm regards,

Your Leadership Team

There are rumors based on things Shankar said that KKR will be selling part of OMNISSA. Could be an interesting next several months. I for one would welcome any opportunity to get out from under this leadership and KKR, both who have proven they have no idea what they are doing

Chief HR person’s role was eliminated, COO announced retirement, numerous people across the company have been terminated. Executives in finance, accounting, entertainment committing fraud …. It’s going to be bad …. 10+ year MGM employee here and very worried about the future of this company

Visa must be buying Best Place to work awards and most ethical company in the world trophies. Visa has very poor leadership ethics and culture as a workplace, and have been like this for many years. Some leaders considered very successful have s-xual harassment habits and cases on their record and are protected. Other employee harassment habits at VP and above levels are enabled and empowered by HR. So anyone applying to Visa for leadership roles, thinking of ethical Visa, please do check your values and culture. If it aligns with these leadership behaviors, dive in and join us, you will be successful and will quickly climb the executive ladder at Visa.

If the degenerate SVP, EVP and C suites actually scan this board, you have been warned. If you thought you could continue terminating Americans and replacing us with cheaper resources in India, Phillipines...think again. We will make sure you will live in the limelight you deserve.

We will miss John Gibbons. He was the best leader, second to Frank Bisignano, that Fiserv and First Data ever had.

His command and control style along with his deep empathy towards our team makes me sad. Wish we could have a few more years of being locked in the office for 10 hours a day and not delivering any real progress for our clients.

Thank you for all that you did for us. We Love You.

Did RV seriously just post on LinkedIn with a picture of his free cup of Starbucks?!!! Seriously an out of touch leader while he makes those of us at non growth centers suffer. Talking about non growth centers… what was the point of shuffling everyone around in Wilmington for the start of 4 days in office? Weren’t we all supposed to be coming in 3 days a week so there would’ve been at least 1 day of overlap. How didn’t everyone have a seat? Are they working on closing floors now to reduce rent?

This company has changed in the last few years. Theres a clique of people hired in by their mates and now theyre slowly dragging the company into mediocrity

STEPHAINE

Selfish
Tyrant
Egotistical
Predatory
Heartless
Amoral
Insensitive
Narcissistic
Evil

It's been over 8 years since we lost our beloved Tom Moran. It was such a huge loss for our community. Below is from an article in Irish America about Mutual of America.

How do we get back to being this kind of organization ? Instead of handing out money that we don't have like it grows on trees, 2 days a year, each associate could volunteer their time at 3-4 local organizations to give back to our communities. We've lost our sense of community, purpose, and moral compass.

/////////////////////////////////////////////
A Man of the People: Thomas J. Moran
By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief

"At the Concern dinner, Elie Wiesel said that while he has come across “humanity” in individuals, the first time he came across it in an entire organization was when he encountered Mutual of America.

Mutual of America is the only corporate board that Elie serves on. He sees us as a unique organization that genuinely cares about making a difference, and that there is, very much, a soul to Mutual of America. In my opinion, that soul was first created by the organizers of the company and nurtured and developed by Bill Flynn in his years there. Hopefully now with my time, I also care deeply about the same issues, which are all involved with making the world a better place. And each and every one of our employees share in that commitment. One hundred percent of our employees participate in some kind of philanthropy, either through volunteering their time or making donations. We are a company that is as proud of what we do outside of the industry as we are of what we accomplish in the industry."

Good to see SC still has the bandwidth to dine with DJT et al to celebrate AI investments, midway thru one of ORCL’s biggest RIFs in decades …

The RIF to fund, at least in part, more investment in … AI infrastructure. Not the best optics.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-basks-tech-leaders-spending-005921620.html

What fun it would be if they introduced an internal ‘anonymous’ blog like this and employees could post to the leadership - would they read it and, more importantly, would they listen.

For anyone thinking the change to Sycamore is going to lead us to better things anytime you need to be ready. They’re preparing to walk the new CEO through the budget for this year but aren’t letting anyone with actual insights into the room. He’s going to be fed a load of BS that can’t be delivered and everyone will be left with the fallout.

Unless the new owners want to actually hear from the few of us that have ideas to reinvent this company, the beatings will continue.

If the creation of a new org chart is created based on feedback from leadership, why bother recreating when part of the problem is leadership? Filtered feedback and no one hears about the inefficiencies experienced from those doing the day to day.

How do we have a bunch of stupid tall men LEAD this company, that don’t have technical degrees. We are ficked.

It feels like Yong-Hee has visited every location, region and remote worker over the last two weeks. Squid Games is real and we know LE and Catz are the ones in the masks calling the shots when it hits RED. The only ones left getting Mr Piggy are the not the workers thats for sure.

MEETING WITH THE FIRST LADY, MELANIA TRUMP. AI INITIATIVE.

Minute 5:08 - AK talks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjnBFBJkK10

"Top tech leaders including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Code.org President Cameron Wilson spoke at the White House AI Education Summit, hosted by First Lady Melania Trump. They announced major pledges to expand AI education, train millions of U.S. workers, and prepare students for the future of artificial intelligence as part of President Trump’s AI Action Plan. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.

Melania Trump, AI education, White House, artificial intelligence, task force, live news, breaking news, technology, AI innovation, Sundar Pichai, Google, tech leaders, education policy, AI challenge, BE BEST, online safety, U.S. news, global tech, DRM News, youth education."