#leadership

It’s no secret inside or outside the company: Stankey is on thin ice. The board can only cover for him so long with stock price smoke and mirrors while the foundation crumbles.

Under his watch we’ve had massive outages leaving customers furious and regulators circling, along with embarrassing data breaches exposing millions of people’s personal info and destroying trust in the brand. On top of that, his tone-deaf RTO mandate tanked morale, drove talent out the door, and turned AT&T into a poster child for corporate arrogance. And how did he respond? Not with solutions, but with ultimatums in all-hands emails.

This isn’t leadership — it’s a slow-motion collapse. Employees know it. Customers know it. Shareholders are starting to realize it too. Stankey’s “commit or quit” email didn’t motivate anyone; it broadcast desperation. And with every outage, every breach, every resignation, it’s clearer that he’s not the guy to fix this mess.

Don’t be shocked if the board makes a move. At this point, the only real question is whether they’ll act in time to save what’s left of AT&T.

If you had no promotions in the last 3-4 yeas, then this year will be a good bye year for you, this is applicable mostly from the Manager levels, that will be one of the criteria to measure your performance.

Restructuring will blow away many delivery managers, VPS and leadership level that are just busy on internal meetings will be the other area of nailing down

4th quarter will be a painful period for many many..............

( One of my close friend at leadership level at Texas that had 27 years of experience told me the above points a month ago and quit just last Friday and that time I didn't believed him and thought he is a stupid, but now I see how wise he is)

https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/pawtucket-officials-still-haven-t-heard-from-hasbro/article_ad35a301-d9be-4e14-bc01-6966b1f5f8c3.html

And with the state of the company meeting next week and Chris p cocks being too much of a little bi--h to face the Rhode island office so he's doing it from Renton...

Sigh. I'm just tired boss.

"...consistent with Verizon ways, I paid millions to the big 4 consulting firms, hired an internal transformation team, brought in the data & analytics teams and pitted them all against each other to develop an AI prompt. I changed my mind constantly so that the cross functional group would be aimless and confused while I hoarded power. After months of back to back meetings causing divorces, parents missing their kids activities, massive burnout and more - I just did the prompt myself in 2 minutes. I then blamed everyone for wasting so much money, did a reorg and promoted myself. Proud to be a transformation vz leader pushing forward the art of the possible!"
5 hours ago by Anonymous | 2 reactions (+2/-0) | Reply
Post ID: @aq+1k4ay94vk

Detroit Free Press

Pump, dump, and peace out.

We are back to back with calls and we see a group of L2 managers posting memes and mocking each other in the chat room. L3s please make your managers work just like we are.

Ironic to see the awesome company results get posted for Q3 at the same time so many are being fired. My entire group never spoke to an HPE representative yet I’m sure we’re getting fired. Sure seems like uneducated decisions alongside corporate greed.

Dr Brailer is leaving and no public announcement that I kind find. When he joined it was all over the news. Is it a secret? HUM…????

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/insiders-elevance-health-sold-us-120011661.html

Article makes note of the fact that the senior leadership team is NOT buying Elevance stock, in fact they sold 6.7 million in stock. The story indicates that there was a purchase of 2.8 million in the last year but fail to mention that 2.4 million of that was a one time purchase by Gail B in July. SLT better skip buying watches this year and buy more stock to inflate the stock price if they want to get their undeserved bonuses!

EH is a charismatic leader who is adored by the Nike Staff. After all he had pretty bad boots to fill. Post this re org we need to see Nike rebound otherwise it’s just a constant annual thing which will make people just exhausted from their battle scars and leave on their own accord. Best of luck Nike

How many millions of dollars, including stock options to ex-Google/Lyft resources, were wasted on Atelio! Complete waste with nothing to show for two plus years. CEO/BoD, of course, were not impacted at all for their decisions and waste.

Ford’s crawling with shameless a-s-kissers who couldn’t do real work if their lives depended on it.

I just saw that Leah is leaving AMN after nearly 10 years. That’s a huge loss of knowledge and leadership.

Honestly, it makes me wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. Is anyone else feeling uneasy or thinking about leaving? Are there things happening at AMN that we should be aware of?

Not trying to stir the pot, just looking for honest perspectives from others here. She was the best thing that happened to AMN.

Still supporting many incompetant LL5,LL6, supervision. Why?

LL4- sure want to rid many GSR but living incompetent, arrogant, self serving employment in their own bubble.

Not only did they announce a near 2 million dollar facelift in Round Rock the day after a mass layoff. They have now announced a 25 million dollar EXPANSION to RR. And its their initiative to hire financially challenged people 35% of the staff base they say....WTH so we will get even more unqualified people than we already do....When did it become lets hire to get our name out there in a good light vs hiring the right person for the job. Leadership is a JOKE at Dell, we are going to do this because XYZ company is. Just because someone else is doing it, doesn't mean its right. They are returning to their previous roots when they were nothing but box pushers. Heaven forbid you actually do something that is beneficial to the customer. They try to use AI and fall flat on their faces repeatedly. To me hard to sell people on AI when you can't even use it successfully in house...Their AI engine comes via Nvidia, again no development on Dells part, just push the product out the door. Someone with some brain please buy Dell...!!

“That’s capitalism folks. You either succeed or fail or someone could buy us”

I heard that from CEO in person about 4 months ago.

We have become a case study for students!

ExxonMobil is one of the largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies in the world. So why is this successful 140-year-old company dealing with an allegedly toxic organizational culture?

What is organizational culture?
Organizational culture is a firm’s shared values, beliefs, traditions, principles, rules, and role models for behavior. Also called corporate culture, an organizational culture exists in every organization, regardless of size, organizational type, product, or profit objective.

COVID-19 exposes cultural problems
According to a Bloomberg article, the pandemic was a difficult time for Exxon employees thanks, in part, to low crude oil prices. Salary increases were halted, benefits were reduced, and the company faced layoffs.

Morale was low, so after about a year and a half, Bill Keillor, global IT vice president, wanted to help. His leadership teamed arranged an awards ceremony and promoted it on the company’s internal social network Yammer. According to anonymous reports, the award ceremony, which was largely virtual, turned into a tense town hall with attendees voicing concerns and asking tough questions. Exxon is known for having an authoritarian, top-down culture, so this did not sit well. Allegedly, Keillor snapped at attendees and brushed off their questions.

Turnover
After the event, employee-created memes circulated private chats, slowly making their way across the company. Some joked about quitting, but for others, it wasn’t a joke. The company’s turnover rate is the highest since 1999 when Exxon merged with Mobil. In the last two years, 12,000 employees have departed, less than half of which were from layoffs.

According to an Exxon statement, every company has experienced attrition in recent years due to the Great Resignation, and the oil and gas company does not consider this to be a long-term trend. Revelio Labs, an intelligence company that uses public employment records, says Exxon’s turnover rate is in line with the nationwide average but higher than competitors, including BP, Chevron, and Shell. Exxon disagrees with this analysis.

Inside Exxon’s culture
Bloomberg Businessweek’s investigation suggests there may be a deeper problem at Exxon. The publication interviewed more than 40 employees (current and former) and reviewed dozens of Exxon’s internal documents, and found evidence that Exxon has an insular, fear-based culture that is out of touch with the outside world.

Exxon uses a performance ranking system. Previously, employees were ordered from 1-to-100 on a bell curve, but the system was reworked in 2020 to make the processes more transparent and helpful to employees. Instead, employees are placed in performance categories. Anyone in the lowest category can choose between a performance improvement plan or severances. According to Reuters, about 5 to 10 percent of the company’s workforce is assigned performance improvement plans. Employees in the lowest-performing tier can save their job by improving their performance, but a significant portion of them will leave.

A senior corporate advisor says the system should not be feared or a source of anxiety because it helps employees succeed and keeps their performance in line with organizational objectives. On the other hand, some individuals say the ranking system makes employees hesitant to share bad news or unpopular opinions.

According to an analysis by CultureX, an MIT organization that uses artificial intelligence to evaluate organizational culture using Glassdoor reviews, Exxon faces toxicity challenges and ranks below 143 out of the 196 industry benchmarks CultureX measures. The most frequently discussed cultural values, according to more than 1,400 Glassdoor reviews, are agility, performance, and execution.

Exxon on the defense
An Exxon spokesperson responded to these criticisms, saying they were unfounded. The spokesperson pointed to the number of new employees hired every year and how long people tend to stay with the organization. She suggested Bloomberg’s investigation made broad observations with few data points.

Despite these questions about ExxonMobil’s organizational culture, the company is performing well financially with its stock nearing a record high. If there is indeed an organizational culture problem, Exxon will have to address it to attract and retain the best talent.

In the Classroom
This article can be used to discuss organizational culture (Chapter 7: Organization, Teamwork, and Communication), morale (Chapter 9: Motivating the Workforce), and turnover (Chapter 10: Managing Human Resources).

Discussion Questions

Define organizational culture, morale, and turnover.

What evidence is there to suggest ExxonMobil has a negative organizational culture?

If ExxonMobil has a top-down, authoritarian culture, why do you think employees spoke up during the award ceremony about their concerns? Why do you think more than 40 employees agreed to speak with Bloomberg?

This article was developed with the support of Kelsey Reddick for and under the direction of O.C. Ferrell, Linda Ferrell, and Geoff Hirt.

References:
"ExxonMobil," Sloan Review, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/culture500/company/c289/ExxonMobil

Jennifer Hiller and Shariq Khan, "Angst at Exxon as Managers Begin Employee Performance Reviews," Reuters, June 21, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/business/exxon-cut-us-workforce-by-up-10-annually-bloomberg-news-2021-06-21/

Kevin Crowley, "Exxon’s Exodus: Employees Have Finally Had Enough of Its Toxic Culture," Bloomberg, October 13, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-13/exxon-xom-jobs-exodus-brings-scrutiny-to-corporate-culture

https://www.mheducation.com/highered/blog/2024/06/does-exxon-have-a-culture-problem-march-2023.html

We never see the guy in the parking garages - not in Ross, not in DalPark. We never see the guy roaming the headquarters either. The guy lives in Bluffview, TX - one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of all of Dallas. He gets driven 15 min to the HQ in his Range Rover and parks in private parking. Then proceeds to take his private elevator that lights up straight to floor 4.

Yet, I have to commute from McKinney - a middle class city to downtown and sit in bumper to bumper traffic. I am waitlisted from DalPark so pay 50 bucks per month to park in Ross. But that requires taking a crumby shuttle past the homeless to global HQ. So, I decide to pay double for parking and pay the daily parking fee at Ervay St and then walk over 5 min to headquarters. I pass several suspicious, crazy, and homeless people and realize I don’t have any pepper spray on me. Once I get in HQ, I see impressive led screens then take the elevator to floor 8 where the monitors, keyboards, and mouse haven’t been refreshed since 2010. Just 2 floors above Stankey where the floor was recently redone.

1 company. 2 different people. 2 very different lives. Rules for thee but not me.

APLA will be taken over by GC and NA and then CS will become a new role VP/GM Global Categories. Let me be the first to wish them success in this new role.

John Stanley has we-ponized the 5-day RTO and turned AT&T into a corporate Hunger Games.
🚗 Long commute = the opening obstacle course.
🪑 No desk = fight for survival.
🅿️ No parking = bonus round.
🏢 Sh---y buildings = final boss.
🏴‍☠️ Low morale = the prize.

Stankey wants a market based culture, but it’s a 2 way street and we need to give them the same. Just so the bare minimum to get paid and save any effort and energy you have for when you move on to your next company.

Review google for leadership salaries. They also need to take a pay cut. You could gather 1 million dollars easily. Perhaps a flatter organization

Hahaha! Do you think he is transparent. Haha. He is just waiting for some luck haha

I’ve been through plenty of layoffs, but this one is on another level. It’s straight butchery, cuts made on cost alone, no regard for people or loyalty. The way it’s been handled is cold, inconsiderate, and completely silent from the top. Worst part is, it’s clearly not done yet. I feel especially for the veterans who were discarded like broken equipment. This company has reached a whole new low.

Foundational Services is keeping promotions for new directors at only 3 people (for a group of 8000). So, not only will we see more promotions to MDs (assume more than 3), only 3 Directors, and who knows how few AT will ‘allow’ to be promoted for the people actually do the work. Another nail in the coffin for Citi and their hopes for innovation and growth.

Does anyone know if any departments within EFCC will be affected with layoffs due to Reynolds departure?

Sounds like he was asked to leave or given incentive to go.

https://hansdegoede.dreamwidth.org/30910.html

Sounds like he was asked to leave or given incentive to go.

https://hansdegoede.dreamwidth.org/30910.html

In these trying and uncertain times, strong, competent leadership is required at the top of P66. I respectfully submit that Go Go is not that leader. Or Tractor Man for that matter.

Looks like he is no longer on the Police Athletic League Board with BQS and Mcguire still sitting on it. Does BQS sit next to McGuire on the PAL Board ? Gotta be awkward right now. Will JRG be spotted at the Lincoln Financial Stadium suite tonight at the Iggels game serving Red Wine and Crepes.

I think the government is more modern than Dell. The initiatives they drive to modernize are basic engineering practices that our management rejects, because our management teams at the SVP level and up have no idea about technologies or industry practices. The operational models they’ve put into place in ISG and CSG are steps backwards. They couldn’t possibly be more bureaucratic and foolish. Just huge power grabs made from people who have no idea what they’re doing and are so philosophical and unrealistic it’s embarrassing in practice.

Meanwhile you add the layoffs, cut throat attitude and poor strategy and you’ve got yourself one of the worst businesses of all time.

Dell is a company stuck in the 90s that has no strategy, poor management and terrible engineering practices. They don’t really want to modernize although they like the word.

It’s pathetic and sad.

This is ask for all Directors and Executives who got impacted by Layoff.
I've been working in Oracle for 10+ years now and I am impacted by layoff. I don't regret the layoff. One question which was lingering in my mind was despite my honest day and night contributions to the project, I was not even considered for promotion or growth.
I had been exceeding expectations of my managers/executives and each time I raised my bar level and was able to meet it. At the end of focal cycle all I got was a 2% or 5% hike to maximum which was almost equivalent to lowest performer in my team.
I even attempted to jump to another project offering a senior role but was cut down by internal recruiters saying I can't move up in lateral jumps. The project seemed like a dead-end for me and I wasn't even allowed to move to another project which looks promising technology atleast but in vain.
What was the Ego which prevented you guys from helping your employees grow. Is it typical asian mindset ? to slave one person and extract everything ?
All I noticed was some monkey executive coming from external company (Infact he was less experienced than I was) and started controlling us. He doesn't even know half of the architecture I know about org. Is this the fate ?

I hope that O. Itself will create so monstrual internal AI tool that the Larry position will no longer be needed. One big LoL on what is happening nowadays.

Why the obsession with hiring cast-offs from other OEM at all levels? Are they trying to informally gain access to benchmarking practices of other companies? External hires have done nothing but bring more confusion and problems. Company is being driven into the ground.

The AHM Q&A is heavily moderated filtering out awkward/inconvenient questions (checked myself). It is literally impossible to get a realistic picture of the business out that hype without admitting the existing issues. The ultimate fact is the share price is stagnant/dwindling for a number of years now but everytime there are excuses from the people who must take strategic decisions and are allegedly a talent that nobody wants loosing at the very expensive price. The question needs to be asked - "Are these people (CA and the gung) even cut to lead anything/anyone?" What do you think, folks.

Yes as a member and an employee we see you. Thank you. Just a handful of these executives that are not worth the millions in salaries they are paid that toss and turn information and adding no value can go versus 100 to 200 of us who barely scratch the surface to hit that dollar amount. Don’t lay us off we do all the work day in and day out. Scratching our heads at these leaders who make our lives he-l and don’t care about the members. Keep it at the top and we will do the work all day!

Seems fishy that one would resign and the rumor mill has been going crazy that there was some shady things going on (theft, lying, etc.). Usually leadership at that level has more of a transition and sends a fair well note.
Just curious if anyone else knows more.

God forbid the powers-at-be consider taking a closer look at the top of the food chain to stop the bleeding. Management should cut those “leaders” who can check these boxes….

Regularly parks in a visitor spot out front because their car is too obnoxious to drive in a parking garage, exhibits superiority complex tendencies, won’t acknowledge individual contributors on their team and instead communicates through a bad game of telephone via their direct report supervisors, takes a questionable amount of PTO (not like their presence is missed anyways), prioritizes closing deals that benefit the green competitor boys across the street, and inexplicable career success that could only be due to being in the right place at the right time.

What will we be finding out 9/12-9/15? Leadership saying more to come but haven’t said what.

Halliburton just laid off several engineers at the Duncan Technology center 8/3/2025. No PSL was safe. The leadership at Halliburton has never and will never care about their employees.

Halliburton’s upper management motto is “faster & cheaper”