#leadership

Can they just admit they made a mistake and bring back Sudhir?

JS has been dismissed and alot of new faces from brightspeed and verizon have joined.

Or how to run it. Things have improved a little bit since the 2018 to 2022 fiasco, but it's still more than clear how far out of their depth the leadership is.

We didn’t learn anything about changes made and was he drunk, hasn’t slept in days, or showing signs of a stroke?

Something seemed off

it seems the actual CEO is absent from the EC committee, and she seems to only be present as a cheerleader, and absent from any meaningful actual leadership. Does the board make all the seemingly confusing decisions? is it made in a vacuum by Mason or Gibson? I'm genuinely confused as a a newer employee here...

GCAS moving to a functional accountability model, head of CIM APAC is gone and will be overseen by a US head. Honestly this is a good change because CIM APAC has been a disaster for years with no accountability or desire to follow required internal or regulatory processes.

As our company fights for direction under this clueless CEO with the motto of “ Do less with less” and the leadership that has no concern for morale or wellbeing of employees it is alarming of the feedback among the people actually doing the work how unsecured everyone feels!!!! It’s no secret that our GOA wells are declining and we have no major plans in sight to keep the pipelines filled. Something big is brewing and we are left in the dark, word on the street is a major change in 2026 is coming.

While the leadership took this one big unpopular decision , i really hope they flatten the org structure as well

I doubt if most people leaders do enough work compared to an individual contributor.

Mostly they just create unnecessary recurring meetings, present useless slides and cascade down a word vomit of useless jargon

We need more doers in the company and less talkers

It feels as though the Splunk BU has drifted off-course, guided by a weak leadership style that inspires more confusion than confidence. In all-hands meetings, what should be moments of clarity and direction often dissolve into polished evasions—answers that circle the runway but never land.

The repeated waves of layoffs have drained the teams of their momentum, leaving many people quietly eyeing the exits. No one seems to understand how decisions were made, and the cloak-and-dagger secrecy around criteria and RIF counts only deepens the anxiety.

Managers now echo the same rehearsed line “I wasn’t involved; the list was made from above without my input" as if it's become part of the official script. The result? A business unit that feels like it’s running on fumes, with trust evaporating faster than morale can be rebuilt.

How many of you agree that one of the first signs a company's leadership is beginning to fail, from top to bottom, is when feedback is disguised as praise (so you have a chance to keep your job and not be targeted in retailation) and true collaboration is nothing more than an echo- chamber to stoke egos?

Is this the new norm for most American companies? It sure seems so.

Most of the leadership was there, but he was conveniently absent

Be real. Wells Fargo made money in up years and bad years. It was due to the various lines of business they had. It was a highly conservative and well balanced business plan. Norwest Bank, and then Wells Fargo, was a premier place to work and to put your trust. Until the new management and "new profit" centers were brought in. At that point, the bank, which had been steadily profitable, and a great place to work, began to break down. New managers, who's only thought was the latest FAD, were put in place. Accelerate that to today's situation, and you can see that Wells Fargo has become just another Citi, just another big corporation that is only organized to make money for shareholders. Many long time employees have left. Many have been terminated. Many have been laid off.
You can see where this is going. Fast forward to some unknown economic issue, and the bank is caught flat-footed. Losses. Huge losses. Due to new direction and lack of diversification. All straight line responsibility to the "new management" that have arrived, similar to locusts. Yes, locusts. You see, they bring their fellows. you know, the "yes men" who give good subservience but don't call out the risks. And then, everyone is surprised when the dominoes fall.
What a joke.

https://fortune.com/2025/11/30/cisco-chief-product-officer-jeetu-patel-work-life-balance-not-equal-two-exceptions-for-success/

Maybe someone should inform him that you get a "E" for Effort and an "A" for Achievement. No one cares how long you work! At his level, results matter, not time on the clock.

Of how well BFCM went / how JC & MD manned the phones to help out. YOY increases and the usual BS that it was the best year ever ?

So, on Monday we have a Consumer Group all-hands with Sampath. Immediately followed by one with DK for Value. I normally hate all-hands calls, but this should be interesting. Any bets on topics?

a year that's going to the executive board and put it back into the network and customer service.

Farmer destroyed Comerica, and is riding his golden parachute of $140 million out of the burning carcass. The class action brought by HoldCo that highlights Farmer’s misbehavior and frauds is mind-boggling. We need to take action and join that class action. Farmer sla-ghtered our jobs (once Fifth Third takes over, at least 45% of us will lose our jobs).

Wow! I read through customer comments on Reddit. Dan claims he’s going to focus on customer experience and customer value. Given that Hans has blasted thousands of holes into the side of the SS Verizon and we are taking on water by the ton, how long will it take to repair the damage he caused? Simply making better offers for customers is not going to cut it. Customer Service (outsourced) needs to migrate back to the US and the network needs massive attention based on the comments of people complaining about how it used to be good and now it’s awful.

I’m not buying into Dan’s comments as they are the same words Hans used, so either it’s another distraction or an actual plan. If it’s real, there is no way to quickly fix the issue so customers are going to continue to flee quarter after quarter.

How long would it take to fix Han’s legacy?

It’s common knowledge amongst the Leadership that Federal approval for the Frontier deal had a condition attached for Verizon to get staff back into the office…Hammocks video was a smokescreen. It has nothing to do with collaboration and everything to do with keeping the US Government on side

AI is a tool, and a pretty limited one at that. It can’t replace humans, and it still needs constant oversight. Probabilistic models can’t deliver consistently reliable results. What’s driving the cuts is the usual mix - greed, poor leadership decisions, offshoring, and a rough economy. And if anyone at the top truly thinks AI can replace the work we do, it’s going to turn into yet another very expensive misjudgment.

Most of these layoffs made zero sense. Some teams were cut down to the point where they can barely function, and what’s worse is that a lot of the experienced, genuinely skilled people were the ones let go. Now whole groups are missing critical roles, people who actually knew how to tie things together and solve problems because they’d built that capacity over time. It’s not just about losing headcount, it’s the quality we lost that hurts the most.

They’re gonna be about half of what they usually are. Blame Ron.

Many are doing factory or punch clock, 8 hours and done. Innovation, extra items, change or update nope 8hrs , no 10plus hrs, no nights, no weekends why because those that had to did it and never complained. I see many in the office that I agree need to be there, but I also see what are they doing (nothing) since not in meetings throughout the day, one group is the so called (ACC monster) The mess up is they bundled the do’ers the ones that they know have gone above repeatedly to keep things going and in react mode when needed at anytime and never complained with the groups that can work 8hrs be done until the next day, those never are accountable. YES SIR that is where leadership sc--wed up, since without those that do the actual support and now 8hrs will unfortunately reflect in these RTO metrics missing just like the missing Employee survey that went missing a few years ago. Something leadership to date has never recovered as in TRUST ( PLE Class) with their managers. I think many that read this agree!

Manager I/II/Sr are all just puppets. Scared little puppets with no real power other than forcing direct reports to work twice as more hours, take on more projects and assignments. All for a badge on the loop and thank you email and a well deserved layoff in couple of months.

It’s these people who are ornamental that should be let go. There are more manager layers for a 4 member team than necessary.

TU had a great run during pe-k and kapoor era. Ran out of hope for any course correction.

Squeeze every cent out of TU- VA and team!!

Many have commented about Maurice failing as a leader. Like a coach who losses games YOU get fired NOT the team! He needs to watch Xmas vacation on how he affects many who trully care about their work and don't have the luxury of $40,000,000 + per year paid to fail!
Maurice do what Japenese leaders do and cut your salary and costs or resign before Many suffer from your failures that are innocent!!!

SJ is the biggest liabilty for Pearson. Future of Pearson revolves around her being replaced by a leader who respects and values staff.

Cisco should have dominated Collaboration. Back in 2004 they bought Dynamicsoft, which had the best VoIP engineers in the world, bar none. So where did all of that go? Only very poor leadership could waste an advantage like that.

Cisco could have doubled its stock price during the pandemic, but it gave the market away to Zoom after years of constant layoffs. The ELT seems unable to do much else. Even when a team is performing well, they still reorganize it to the point of damage, as if success itself is something they do not trust.

225K for Darren. He’s got about 2 million shares now

KAM is just disgusting to me. After 3 years already accumulated 645K RSUs.

JPW and NAC both received 118K shares this year and each have about 1 million shares.

It’s disgusting what goes to the top

The company is fundamentally obstructing its own progress. It continues to retain individuals in critical roles because of an ineffectual HR department that lacks even a basic command of employment law. Why? Because the organization has placed directors and senior-level personnel whose academic backgrounds are in fields such as exercise management, and “senior HR” leaders whose primary experience consists of processing payroll at Lowe’s—professionals who are profoundly underqualified for the responsibilities they hold.

If leadership wants to understand why revenue continues to decline, it must look directly at the root cause: an HR infrastructure that is too weak, too inexperienced, and too uninformed to stop the organizational hemorrhaging. Meanwhile, employees with decades of rental-car experience remain in sales roles where they contribute little beyond drawing an hourly paycheck, draining the company while offering no measurable value.

And, remarkably, the company even elevates individuals to director-level operational roles despite behaviors as unprofessional as vaping inside fleet vehicles.

As part of the reorg, we have this new sales enablement function. I still have not seen the value of this function as none of the leads are not really doing much. What is this supposed to be? Can we get some competent people to enable this?

So let me get this straight...they have 150 locations minimum that are in need of renovations which include carpet, paint, new wrap stand and MOLD removal, but now they are going to open 2 new concept stores for rich people expecting them to pivot to Belk brands? Impressive leadership around these parts..

Just saying…

I hope when Dan and the other execs watch Christmas Vacation this holiday season, they realize that they are essentially the a-hole president of the company, Mr. Shirley. In the movie, even the guys wife found his actions to save a quick buck at the expense of his employees was disgusting. I hope Christmas Vacation is on every channel, on every TV this holiday season, and they are forced to watch that part over and over with their families.

At least Mr. Shirley redeemed himself in the movie, Dan will be an Ebenezer Scrooge in real life. Dan has no excuse to say he simply inherited a bad situation, and had to make a tough decision to right the ship. He's been sitting on the board for the last 8 years operating in lock-step with Hans, one disaster after another.

Instead of propping up the stock price by increasing the dividend, Dan should enroll the shareholders in the Jelly of the Month Club and use the cash flow to pay down the debt from previous failed acquisitions and golden parachutes.

I spent years in BNY, hopping around different departments. I never had some grand master plan — I just kept saying yes to new things, even when they made me uncomfortable. Eventually I landed in a certain role, and that’s where things really kicked off. The pace, the learning, the exposure… it shot my progress forward faster than I ever expected.

And here’s the mad part: that role ended up opening the door to a new job somewhere else — with a salary jump so big that if I told people the number, they’d probably laugh in my face.

I worked with some cracking people and a few brilliant leaders in BNY. Culture? Absolutely rough at times. Still, it taught me a lot. Sometimes the hard environments are the ones that push you out of your comfort zone in the best possible way.

What I’ve learned:
You grow the most when you’re a bit uncomfortable.

Learn everything you can while you’re there.

It is possible to get a massive pay rise in there but only if you make yourself valuable.

Don’t let anyone tell you progress has to be slow or modest.

I’m very happy with the move, grateful for the journey, and honestly still a bit stunned at how much life can change when you quietly keep your head down, get really good, and back yourself.

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? Whoever decided that scheduling can be automated has not spent a single day in this department.

Everyone in the top leadership is deluded and your subordinates are too scared to speak.

Starting another thread about 2026 and the future of AES. There are so many rumors about what's next: sell company to Blackrock, split renewables and sell off Indiana or Ohio utilities to Duke, new senior leadership & board, etc. Any of these paths will ensure funding is cut and "they" force more work with less resources. Again. Let's hear what other rumors are out there.

Go Colts and Hoosiers! Now that I have that out, time to get serious. REAL SERIOUS! iI was one that was going to try to tell our leaders to give and take because of our hard times. Not after reading these words! The insistence on not listening to what matters to us will help us not bend either in our contract talks. Hold firm union leaders and brothers and sisters.

Approximately 2000 employees are part of this Layoff. All those who had approaching and needs improvement are on the list. If the 20 to 25% numbers are not met ,all other rules come into play. Be prepared. Training session for Directors and ADs will be given tomorrow or Tuesday and announcement will be post that. VCG is going to be badly affected. VBG, N&T, VCG Business, CSG, are equally affected by avg of 20% AI&D with the least by 15%.
There are going to be changes in AVP, Senior Directors , Directors when the Agile delivery to be rechristened with one more useless way of execution supported by all leaders who follow them BLINDLY coz they want to "try".
This org will only sustain when all leaders above Sr. Manager stop focusing on defects and start focusing on strategy, with inclusion at all levels get the inputs from all rather than "designated" architects whom they think can change the entire world. The team that is responsible for all this is the ATO and its futile process implementation which is not studied but rather theoretical. BTW i am Top performing for the last 2 years. so all the above is a frustration of me going to stay here with a load of work, loss of knowledge from so-called "non performers", loss of vendors who had been in the system for more than 2 years . Everything is boiling down to the people who are going to stay. A meagre call will be done under senior director or AVP to boost "MORALE" which they think all others are fools for their gimmick to be played. Its a wake up call for people like me to move on. Verizon is going into a blackhole which will also pull us into it, while many think this is safe haven. All that matters is "Shareholder Value" and nothing else. ALL EMPLOYEES ARE JUST NUMBERS. Get out of this number game.

Finally check this prompt in Gemini
"What if the 50% of the laid off people join T-Mobile or the 13000 people move their connections along with their family connections to T- Mobile"

Yo, the whole trusted gang is low-key grindin’ on exit plans outta Cisco. Secret TOIs poppin’ off in back rooms, and some folks gettin’ straight ghosted from the AI knowledge drops. With all this shady energy, fr fr, how’s Cisco even supposed to Arista?”

If you want it even more dramatic, more corporate-snarky, or more street-slang, tell me the vibe and I’ll tune it.

Need leadership change

I’ve been around HPE (HP) a long time, and I’m still hopeful about this company. But it’s only a matter of time before there are serious changes at the top, Antonio and parts of the board included. We need to clean out the toxic, arrogant pockets of leadership, rebuild a stronger executive bench, and refocus on performance and execution. Somewhere along the way we drifted from our roots as a true engineering company. I never understood walking away from Silicon Valley when the core talent, partners, and competitors are all based there. The Houston centric culture of optics, and weak management isn’t helping; we’ve got too many VPs and Directors and not enough doers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see activists like Elliott turn up the pressure, especially with large institutional HPE holders like BlackRock and Vanguard watching closely. HPE can get back to being great, but it’s going to take a reset in leadership, culture, and how we invest.