#leadership

As thankful as I am to be employed, the nightmare here never ends. It isn’t the work itself that is stressful, it’s the culture. There’s too little focus on competence and too much focus on sycophancy. Some senior “leaders” know nothing, don’t listen and make baseless, bullsh-t decisions (ahem Lise). I don’t know how people with zero technical acumen can make technical decisions. Furthermore, they are too bull-headed and busy kissing ELT a** to even take practical, technical advice. Additionally, they are trying to manage people out; even employees who have been high-performing are getting slammed across the board, pretty much out of nowhere. If ever there was a toxic environment, this is it!

...and it's still hilariously vague and meaningless. Our execs are an absolute clown show. These people just throw buzz words around like r.e.t.a.r.d.s. and expect us to be amazed with their genius. I guess they've been up at night trying to figure out what the he-l they could say in response to us asking "what the fu-k does market based culture" mean you fu--ing mo--ns?

Same sh-t as the AT&T Guarantee...they think if they repeat it enough it'll mean something. They went from pumping that Guarantee all the time and how industry revolutionizing it was (wow, you offer refunds when your service doesn't work...amazing), and now you don't see it anywhere. Must be pretty special!!

The CN org structure is crazy - random look at any org. I looked a Procurement - don't know a single person. VP head - 6 direct: 1 Sr Dir, 1 Dir, 2 Sr Mgr, 2 Mgr. Lets just look at that 1 Sr Dir - under is 1 Sr Mgr (3 under), 1 Mgr (2 under), 1 Dir (1 under), and 1 Sr Mgr (1 under - who is a Manger, who then has 1 under). The entire org has more Mgr's+ than people working under them. Think about this - who runs that org & how do they have a job? And if you think this is isolated -- it's not.

People are pretty upset about the new VP from Walmart. Word is he's already having a tough time over there, so everyone is scratching their heads as to why Nike decided to bring him on. It feels like ITC is about to head downhill, and with no other locations to rescue, GT in trouble and shift everything back to PHK.

If Centene is serious about understanding what is happening within Corporate Ethics & Compliance, then stop looking at individual employees and start looking at the people making the decisions. The problem is much bigger than SIU. It extends across CIU, SIT, COI, InTP, Privacy, Corrections, and other areas that are supposed to protect the company and ensure compliance.

At some point, leadership needs to take a hard look in the mirror. There is a growing perception that advancement, opportunities, protection, and even how employees are treated can depend too heavily on who leadership likes, who they know, who agrees with them, and who does not challenge their decisions. That is not leadership. That is creating an environment where employees learn very quickly that speaking up can have consequences.

And perhaps the biggest problem is that employees are sometimes expected to follow processes that are not clearly documented, have changed repeatedly, are outdated, or in some cases do not exist at all.

Ask for the policy. Ask for the procedure. Ask for the written guideline. Ask for the reference material. The response is often some version of, “We’re working on it.” Well, if you are still working on the policy, then why are you enforcing it as though it already exists? Why are employees being held accountable for standards that have not been clearly communicated? Why are decisions being made based on “how we’ve always done it” when Compliance should be operating from documented, consistent, and defensible standards?
That is not compliance. That is inconsistency disguised as compliance.

Leadership cannot constantly change expectations and then blame employees for failing to meet them.

You cannot move the goalposts and then criticize people for not knowing where the goalposts are. You cannot demand documentation from everyone else while operating without clear documentation yourselves. And you cannot build an effective Compliance organization through fear, favoritism, secrecy, micromanagement, or a culture where challenging leadership is treated as being difficult or disloyal.

The uncomfortable question is this: Who is holding Compliance leadership accountable? If Compliance is supposed to identify risk, investigate misconduct, enforce standards, and protect the organization, then its own leadership should be subject to an equally rigorous level of scrutiny.

Maybe it is time for an independent, top-to-bottom assessment of Corporate Ethics & Compliance.
Not another internal review where the same leadership structure reviews itself. Look at the leadership. Look at hiring and promotion decisions. Look at turnover. Look at why experienced employees have left. Look at how investigations are handled. Look at whether expectations are consistently applied. Look at whether policies actually exist and are current. Look at how employees who raise concerns are treated. Look at whether qualifications, experience, credentials, training, and resources actually match the responsibilities employees are being asked to perform. And most importantly, look at the leadership culture.

Replacing a few employees while leaving the leadership structure, decision-making practices, and underlying culture untouched does not fix the problem. It simply moves the problem around.

Sometimes you don't need another reorganization. You need accountability. You need new leadership. You need policies and procedures that are actually written, current, accessible, and consistently applied. You need qualified people in the right positions with the right experience and tools. And you need leaders who are willing to hear “no,” accept criticism, answer difficult questions, and admit when something is wrong.

Compliance cannot demand from the rest of the company what Compliance leadership is unwilling or unable to demonstrate itself.

If Centene truly wants to rebuild trust, then it needs to start at the top.
Clean house where necessary. Rewrite what is broken. Create what is missing. Remove outdated practices. Establish clear standards. Put qualified people in the right positions. And hold leadership accountable to the same standards imposed on everyone else.
Anything less is just rearranging the furniture while the foundation continues to crack.

Surely our new leader was forthcoming with information so vital to our families livelihoods.

Wow... Went to plano for the first time in a long time. PRESS chief of staff has a reserved parking spot and office.... Nutty

Leadership repeats these concepts on every call, and have for years. In 20 years of having health insurance as an employee here, my costs have gone down ZERO times.

Year over year, it only gets more complicated.

Talk is cheap. Like propaganda, no matter how many times they repeat it - doesn’t make it true.

Reduce my costs, pay my claims - start with those two - get the basics down first.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-25/sap-renewed-hr-chief-s-term-after-probes-cleared-her-of-fault

“SAP treats all misconduct allegations with the utmost seriousness and is committed to handling them through rigorous, fair, and thorough review processes,” the company, the supervisory board and Vargiu-Breuer said in an email. There was “no evidence of misconduct” by Vargiu-Breuer, according to the statement. “The Supervisory Board carefully considered all relevant information, including critical feedback, and decided to extend Gina Vargiu-Breuer’s contract based on a comprehensive assessment of her performance, leadership, and contribution to SAP’s transformation.”

There have been a lot of comments about the CFO and CHRO of Phillips recently. I wanted to start a thread to consolidate views on these two as I have recently interviewed with both and considering a senior role at Phillips 66.

Can you help me by laying out your concerns as there are some pretty significant accusations on this board about both of them.

What should I be aware of as I would be working closely with both of them.

Another day of no communication coming up. I seriously wonder what this guy does every day.

If you’ve been watching Centene’s Special Investigation Unit fall apart over the past few months, you already know we are staring at a textbook operational breakdown. What should be Centene’s strongest defense against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse has been systematically dismantled by executive mismanagement, nepotism, and a culture of fear.

It all started when Ashlee hired Christa Marshall Jewsbury and Sabrina Vera. Almost overnight, executive leadership shifted away from operational integrity to favoritism. Director positions were filled with personal friends and "minions" rather than qualified internal and external talent who actually understand the business.

Since then, middle management has been getting crushed under uncompensated scope creep. Managers are now forced to absorb duties traditionally handled by senior investigators and leads, including reviewing preliminary reports, drafting education letters, and handling complex case reviews, with zero adjustments to job descriptions, zero extra resources, and zero bump in pay.

Meanwhile, the environment under Christa and Sabrina has devolved into micromanagement and intimidation. Staff are dealing with:

--Arbitrary restrictions on earned PTO and medical leave

--Inconsistent, we-ponized performance ratings and bonus distributions

--Direct threats that anyone who questions decisions can leave or risk losing their job

Now, the situation is reaching a tipping point. Christa is actively preparing to pitch Chris on a total department restructuring. This proposed "reorg" isn't about efficiency, it is a calculated push to eliminate legacy positions, purge seasoned SIU veterans, wipe out institutional knowledge, and replace experienced staff with Humana hires who won't question executive overreach.

When you fire experienced investigators and systematically gut an oversight unit, the work fails. This isn't just an internal morale issue, it is a massive regulatory, contractual, and legal liability for Centene.

Sarah London and Chris, how can you sit back and watch this happen?

As CEO, Sarah London cannot ignore the toxic leadership destroying this unit. An immediate executive pause must be placed on any proposed SIU reorg. An independent, external third-party audit must be launched immediately to investigate Christa Marshall Jewsbury, Sabrina Vera, and review the hiring and management practices of the SIU before Centene’s regulatory compliance is completely compromised. DO THE RIGHT THING!!

If you’ve been watching Centene’s Special Investigation Unit fall apart over the past few months, you already know we are staring at a textbook operational breakdown. What should be Centene’s strongest defense against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse has been systematically dismantled by executive mismanagement, nepotism, and a culture of fear.

It all started when Ashlee hired Christa Marshall Jewsbury and Sabrina Vera. Almost overnight, executive leadership shifted away from operational integrity to favoritism. Director positions were filled with personal friends and "minions" rather than qualified internal and external talent who actually understand the business.

Since then, middle management has been getting crushed under uncompensated scope creep. Managers are now forced to absorb duties traditionally handled by senior investigators and leads, including reviewing preliminary reports, drafting education letters, and handling complex case reviews, with zero adjustments to job descriptions, zero extra resources, and zero bump in pay.

Meanwhile, the environment under Christa and Sabrina has devolved into micromanagement and intimidation. Staff are dealing with:

--Arbitrary restrictions on earned PTO and medical leave

--Inconsistent, we-ponized performance ratings and bonus distributions

--Direct threats that anyone who questions decisions can leave or risk losing their job

Now, the situation is reaching a tipping point. Christa is actively preparing to pitch Chris on a total department restructuring. This proposed "reorg" isn't about efficiency, it is a calculated push to eliminate legacy positions, purge seasoned SIU veterans, wipe out institutional knowledge, and replace experienced staff with Humana hires who won't question executive overreach.

When you fire experienced investigators and systematically gut an oversight unit, the work fails. This isn't just an internal morale issue, it is a massive regulatory, contractual, and legal liability for Centene.

Sarah London and Chris, how can you sit back and watch this happen?

As CEO, Sarah London cannot ignore the toxic leadership destroying this unit. An immediate executive pause must be placed on any proposed SIU reorg. An independent, external third-party audit must be launched immediately to investigate Christa Marshall Jewsbury, Sabrina Vera, and review the hiring and management practices of the SIU before Centene’s regulatory compliance is completely compromised. DO THE RIGHT THING!!

Meetings already happening with Cognizant. Leadership are tight lipped since their roles are limited too. The goal is to show them the ropes so they can take over....

or still hanging on for life, knowing he would be useless outside of Citi?

Who’s fault is this new mess and how severe will the fallout be? What did you think of Cara’s email apology?

Incoming. This will be Act II of the Division dissolution. Now the legacy GTO leaders get their just due. A new product led organization is upon us. Welcome Fraser to that post and adios to the most arrogant set of IT leaders I have ever had to tolerate. You of 15-20 years of incompetence built this mess and now you try to claim the NewCo idea as yours. Make no mistake, it was and is not. Remainco begins on September 8th. Watch the fireworks begin next week. Here we go!

This is an absolute mess all this that's going on. Wonder how well 19 mill helps someone sleep at night. What a nightmare this has all been. I could have thought of a better way to handle all this and gotten a much lower pay🤦 🍿

Being able approved to work remotely makes you a target for the mo--n leadership here. I’ve seen many cases of former colleagues over the years who got laid off after being medically accommodated. Now I’m paranoid because my workload got increased substantially and unusually and if I don’t get them completed, they claim it as my performance issue

Two Iowa representatives are seeking answers from Whirlpool's CEO regarding potential overseas job transfers. They are concerned about the fate of jobs at the Amana facility. The lawmakers have formally requested information from the company's leadership. This inquiry follows recent news of layoffs impacting the appliance manufacturer. The representatives aim to understand the company's future plans for its Iowa operations.

Amana, Iowa

https://mshale.com/084436c0/064c9eeaJqheieoKl00

So that's another SVP down the drain for Managed Services. Did this one even last six months? Anybody have any details on why he's getting the boot so early?

So heads are rolling. Ashlee is out effective immediately as Chief Compliance Officer. Interim to be announced tomorrow.

So help me understand, they got rid of bpSolutions and instead have instead made a big central organisation under Upstream HSE & Ops. One VP pre reorg to 6VPs post re-org. Surely the cottage industry has just shifted to satisfy some power hungry and egoistical characters. What is the point and what a disaster!

I’ve heard he is a talented claims executive who makes sure workers are taken care of.

Now that Mike Lipps is running Coupa, I’m curious what former/current Qlik employees can share about his operating style there.

How did he approach layoffs, reorganizations, replacing C-level executives, acquisitions/integration, and cost cutting? Was he generally a “steady the ship” CEO, or did he make pretty significant changes when he came in?

I’m particularly interested in what actually happened on the ground versus the official company messaging.

Does anyone have insider info on the recent announcement that DF is stepping into a smaller role? Was he pushed out, or did he choose the move? RV Ops culture is abysmal in my experience, super high strung and controlling. How do people feel about the new leader?

Is it time to have a conversation on who was a worse CHRO? RM or MG? Entire organization is falling apart while looking head on to more layoffs.

I started with Centene about 3 years ago. I came from a leadership background of 18years and wanted a break for management. In my short time here with Centene I can’t get over how horrible the leaders are. It seems as though not one of them truly knows how to be a manager or they are so insecure as a manager they have to micromanage people on their team. Some of the leaders I have had in my roles were absolutely clueless on how to manage. They never could communicate to the whole team at the same time. They would forget things all the time. Can’t even explain how to do their job or talk in circles. It’s embarrassing. Does anyone in a leadership role actually have management experience or are they just hiring people off the street to run a department. There are also leaders without anyone underneath them LOL. How can you be a manager when you don’t manage a department or anyone?

Leadership seems to need a decoder to comprehend the results, so here it is. The negative survey results are not about healthcare perks or wellness programs no one uses, they are only about RTO and the lack of flexibility.

“I am proud to work at AT&T”

Once true. No longer. Public perception has deteriorated, and when people outside the company hear about the five-day RTO policy, the lack of any real collaboration, and the absence of assigned seating or co-located teams, the reaction is disbelief. Pride erodes when policies feel performative instead of purposeful.

“I would recommend AT&T as a great place to work”

That answer is now clearly no. A mandatory five-day RTO policy for roles that historically had been remote before COVID and can be done more effectively remotely is an immediate dealbreaker for modern workers. The policy alone makes the company undesirable and uncompetitive as an employer.

“We trust the leadership decisions”

Trust is broken. Employees do not support the financial decisions that destroyed value, nor the RTO mandate that ignored clear employee feedback. Trust cannot survive when leadership consistently doubles down instead of course-correcting.

“The company provides opportunities to support career growth”

Opportunities are narrowly concentrated in Dallas, with limited mobility elsewhere. For a national company, that is a self-inflicted constraint that unnecessarily caps growth and retention.

“Our policies and systems support me doing my best work”

They do the opposite. The five-day RTO policy actively reduces productivity, and many internal systems remain outdated and inefficient. Physical presence does not compensate for structural friction.

“The company cares about my health and well-being”

Employees feel burned out, mentally and physically, largely due to excessive commuting and rigid mandates that add stress without any benefit to the company or the employees. Well-being is not addressed by pushing unused benefits or wellness messaging while ignoring the root cause repeatedly identified in feedback.

“Do you feel changes have been made as a result of prior surveys”

No. In fact, the opposite. Employees explicitly opposed three-day RTO in the last survey, and leadership responded by increasing it to five. Feedback was not just ignored, it was contradicted. The disappearance of the prior third-party McKinsey survey results only reinforces that perception.

Did I miss anything else?
The pattern is now set and clear. Instead of addressing the core RTO issue employees are raising, leadership deflects with ancillary benefits and BS messaging. That approach feels like gaslighting, and not listening. So why should I even bother taking the next one?

If leadership truly wants different survey results, the solution is not another manifesto email, benefit rollout, or talking point. It is addressing the one issue employees are consistently, overwhelmingly, and clearly raising.

Flexibility. Trust. Results over “presence”.
That is the message of the survey, whether leadership wants to hear it or not.

Surely this is when we get serious, this is the double down! We stand here at the peak of inflated expectations on agentic fueled enterprises, looking out across our glorious data moat. Lipps is the man that is going to make this happen, with Salva in his high tops and Navi hoodie at his side! We just need a few more MCP skills, then we will be cooking with gas! Bravo Thoma! Bravo indeed!

You are going to lose your job. I didn’t say get displaced—I said lose your job.

The directive from the top is to get below 200,000 employees by year-end. Too much money was spent on displacement last year, and they cannot afford to repeat that. So this time, the strategy appears to be reducing headcount without formally displacing as many people.

You may have already noticed it. A coworker is suddenly gone. Your previously solid performance is now being documented as mistake- or behavior-ridden. Your manager suddenly moves you into work that is outside your normal scope. Expectations change. Documentation increases. If that is happening, pay attention—you may already be on the list.

The new check-in system can also be used to create the documentation needed to support termination. These processes used to be centered around a plan designed to help employees improve and keep their jobs. That does not appear to be the priority anymore when the larger objective is headcount reduction.

And AI complicates the picture. We do not yet have the clean workforce data needed to formally identify every position for displacement based on AI-related changes. Meanwhile, redeploy team does not redeploy everyone. The team works with the populations and employees it has been directed to retain.

We were honest on the employee survey about what we were experiencing, and instead of leadership seriously examining why employees feel the way they do, we were characterized as entitled.

Maybe we are entitled—to transparency. We are entitled to understand the direction of the company we work for, what is expected of us, and whether decisions about our careers are being made fairly.

Pay attention to what is happening around you, not just what is being said publicly. Document changes to your responsibilities, expectations, feedback, and performance history. Protect yourself professionally. Update your résumé. Strengthen your network. Keep your options open.

Don’t wait until the decision has already been made for you. RUN

What happens behind the scenes when CEO visits a particular location? Besides a store walk, is it just a presentation by the local store team of sales and future projections? What determines a "good" visit?

Just listening to him fumble his way through the opening of the BTS leader call is painful. This man is who Sarah thinks is SVP, or more, material?

Centene is doomed with current leadership.

Marketing has not done much over the last couple of years. CMO was part of the legacy HS ex CFO who blew up marketing org to over 100 with no real results.

Glad to see CEO and the new CHRO observing the true contribution in the organisation.

Over the past week there have been appointments, a new hire and new role assignments as HT repositions leadership. This is typically the precursor to mass layoffs. The layoffs will be starting in 3-4 weeks and continuing right through the holidays. This is especially important at year-end so we can all get our enormous bonuses. Don't worry about us, we make tons of money and will have no problems providing our families with a very nice holiday season while you, the proletariat, will have to dip into savings, take early 401k distributions, drive rideshare to make ends meet and generally be in a very bad position financially until another opportunity comes along.
May the odds be ever in your favor.

Everything is working out well for us, and this leadership has never been the one to lay people off just for the sake of layoffs. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm done stressing over cuts, at least for now.

Dedicated people with decades of experience are walking away. We're losing our best resource, and nobody in charge seems to care.

The history of the CTO or CIO or CDIO or GDIO or whatever title they go by.
Ratnakar 2024-Present
Amish Patel 2023-2025
Anil Bhatt 2019-2021
Ed Smith 2018-2019
Tim Skeen 2017-2018
Tom Miller 2014-2018
Andrew Lang 2008-2013
And each one of them brings in their own cronies.  Then they stop what were doing and we start all over with their agendas.  We never finish anything.
Meanwhile, more and more RIF's happen in the lower ranks, while they all walk away or get fired and leave with their golden parachutes.

Wow.. For someone who went to Brown.....

It's funny to thing that Legg thinks he is the next CEO

Compared to this same time last year, everything is trending in the wrong direction:

• Customer Success output is way down — fewer courses built, slower turnaround, more backlog.
• IA/EA adoptions are noticeably lower across multiple disciplines.
• Salesforce closed business is so far behind that leadership is blaming “CRM hygiene” instead of acknowledging the real problem.
• Faculty frustration is rising — some are openly threatening to switch materials.
• Customer Success and reps are already exhausted, and it’s not even September.

We’re running back‑to‑school with a skeleton crew and a roll of duct tape. Org chart vacancies everywhere. New hires who don’t understand their roles or the workflows they’re supposed to support. Experienced colleagues continuing to exit, and many who remain are actively looking for new careers.

And here’s the part leadership won’t say out loud:

This is NOT what Apollo wanted heading into an IPO.
Apollo expected a clean, stable, predictable back‑to‑school season — something they could point to when selling the story to Wall Street. Instead, they’re getting:

collapsing workflows
missed in‑stock dates
angry faculty
exhausted teams
shrinking adoption pipelines
declining IA/EA momentum
internal confusion about roles, ownership, and accountability

This is the opposite of “IPO‑ready.”

And it all ties back to the May 1st reorg.
The May 1st reorg removed the last wave of people who actually understood Higher Ed The people who stabilized operations, built courses correctly, managed timelines, and kept faculty relationships intact.

In their place, leadership installed a structure full of:

• inexperienced managers
• unclear roles
• pods stretched across institutions
• Customer Success teams drowning in work
• reps covering territories that make no sense
• workflows patched together with duct tape

The May 1st reorg wasn’t a “reset.”
It was a detonation, and we’re living in the blast radius.

Apollo wanted a clean runway to an IPO. Instead, they got a back‑to‑school season that looks like a controlled crash.

Employees can see it.
Faculty can feel it.
Customers are talking about it.
And the numbers reflect it.

This isn’t “a tough year.”
It’s a disaster, one created by leadership decisions that gutted the last of the real industry talent right before the busiest stretch of the year.

If Apollo thought the May 1st reorg would make Cengage look stronger heading into an IPO, they’re now seeing the truth:

You can’t cut your way to stability.
You can’t reorganize your way to expertise.
And you can’t IPO your way out of operational collapse.