#morale

As you know, many of us in the Symantec and Carbon Black divisions are in a resting-and-vesting mindset. We don’t care whether the division performs well; we only care about the RSUs going into our pockets.

Either you are delusional or clueless about what to do with our division, but please keep us and continue granting us more RSUs.

It is worth reflecting on what it means when positivity is met with hostility. When someone expresses gratitude for their work or appreciation for the people they work with and that expression is dismissed or downvoted simply because others are hurting, it reveals the depth of collective pain rather than any fault in the person sharing their experience. Disagreement is valid but silencing hope is something else entirely. Suffering does not grant permission to diminish another person’s reality.

This space exists because uncertainty is real and many are navigating fear and loss. Acknowledging that truth, however, does not require rejecting honesty or resenting those who are in a different season of life. Sharing stability or fulfillment is not an act of dismissal but a reflection of where someone is on their own timeline. Empathy is not conditional and compassion is not a limited resource. We can hold space for hardship without turning on one another. Growth begins when we stop pulling people down to match our pain and remember that understanding must extend in every direction.

Judging from my immediate surroundings, most people feel the same way. Fear makes us all trip over ourselves to perform, as if that’s somehow going to save our jobs. It’s a frigging trap. Every time I lost a job before, I regretted wasting so much energy trying to prove myself. And here I am, doing the same stupid thing all over again.

Knowing the management excellence and expedience, and the fact that there was no real plan beyond merciless cuts, who knows how long it will take for the dust to settle and for there to be even a semblance of an organized workflow. My team is already feeling the pain, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming months. We were stretched thin to begin with. It certainly didn’t help that they somehow managed to get rid of the very people who actually knew what they were doing.

I make under $100,000 a year. The job is categorized at 40 hours. Yet, me and my coworkers often work close to 60 hours per week. When the company fired 250 employees, where did their workloads go ? To me and everyone else. Are the corporate executives making $700,000 feeling our pain in anyway ? When will receive additional support ? Never ? More gets lumped on each day w/no end in sight. The only option is to quit and that is exactly what i will be doing. Woe is me. Good riddance.

I'm just wondering what everyone is thinking lately. Survey results feel extremely vague. Holiday gifts felt thrown together last minute. Lost the Amazon stipend. No explanation for anything, they just keep taking away but the messaging is how great we're doing. Jeff Decker retiring. Jill Marmo retiring. I've heard several positions are open due to people leaving and they aren't backfillng. Stock price is underwater. Feels like a sinking ship and I don't know how long I can hold on.

EPS expected: 63 cents per share, realized: 78 cents/share (exceeded expectation)

Revenue expected: $12.13B, realized $12.35B (exceeded expectation)

After hours down 10% and word on the street is tariffs. I thought tariffs was going to be a much bigger hit?

What else are investors complaining about?

I don't like the layoffs thing, my morale is very low, but this is bs

I’ve never experienced it being this bad in my almost 20 years here. There are so many issues at play that it’s hard to pinpoint just one or two as the main causes. The culture is broken, and there’s a pervasive sense that there is no future. When people are this unhappy, hopeless, and anxious, it inevitably has a serious impact on performance. That, to me, is the real leadership failure. Yet there seems to be no intention whatsoever to diagnose or fix the problem. Quite the opposite, leadership appears to be doubling down on everything that made conditions this dire in the first place. They neither seem to understand what’s happening nor genuinely care.

A colleague was just let go, one week before Christmas. We fall under the Enterprise Onboarding Platform. My team is already short staffed and will now be spread even thinner. SHAME ON YOU, BRAD OCKENE, DANA PARKS, AND ALL MANAGEMENT UNDER THEM WHO WERE COMPLIANT WITH THIS DECISION. Absolutely heartless.

Forty hours feels like a fantasy. Everyone I know is logging fifty plus, and that is treated as normal. At what point did this become the expectation?

Those of us who survived are still in limbo.. there is no new plan or no new priorities.

I do not know what’s going on

This place operates like a spreadsheet with badges. If you are not part of the small group steering decisions, you are just a cost line waiting to be adjusted. There are companies that still treat people like long-term investments. T is not one of them.

I have my complaints for sure but like, overall I have an amazing thing going for me. I have a great job that I genuinely enjoy but, realize I'm being paid less than market value. I have a fantastic team that I get along with very well and we are all "friends." Up until the stupid managerial "reorg" this last year, my manager has been one of the best I've ever had - new "manager" is basically MIA 99.999% of the time so I know very little about him.

Some of you may laugh at this but I do feel I have fairly good job security because I am on the FED side and I'd tell you what it is but, we are so tiny that I'd be immidiately known if anybody reads this...I am in a job position in which is quite.... sensitive to say the least.

I love working in FED because we are a tight nit department and everyone gets to know everyone on a more personable level. That's great for ppl like me but terrible for some people lol.

My complaints are the RTO, the random af managerial "reorg" and pure lack of promotions for the last 5 years. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy overall.

Along with demoralizing remotes and all the other well-known, obvious or sneaky ways to wear people down until they leave on their own, or give leadership an excuse to kick them to the curb. If even a fraction of the time and energy spent on these cheap, convenient push-out tactics were redirected toward actually building the business and caring about employees, this could be a great company.

Need to shut this down! As human beings how can we accept this from a company? How can we be apart of a blood money scheme like this? CLOSE THIS DOWN!!!! I used to work there…. This is 100% factual!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/17/unitedhealth-nursing-homes

Please give the money to charity in the future instead of insulting your employees who have delivered everything for the company.

I guess if you don’t ask a question he likes, he will tell you to fxxx off, very arrogant. Truist will be the #1 AI financial institutions and the lower task agents will not be needed, what a way to bust morale. Wow?

and jump on one of those little rafts way down below

Ok, let me get this straight, Walgreens wants employees to donate to a fund to help under paid coworkers? Am I understanding this correctly? That can't be what it truly is. No company would expect its employees to make up the pay gap for them not paying their employees a living wage? Am I missing something or is Walgreens really that out of touch???

Some thoughts on the recent letter that came out from Jen Wells (Chief People Officer, lol…). I am a former employee - I left the org to pursue a completely different career in the public sector six months ago and could not be happier.

I have been an RSR, DSL, ZBM, Change Leader among a few others during my decade+ with PepsiCo on the Frito side.

To those that know someone who, despite their great qualities, have been swept up in the layoffs: rejoice; everyone will feel a great weight lifted from their shoulders on their last day with company. The entirety of my career at PepsiCo was fraught with stress, sleepless nights, and fear of being punished for things completely out of my control.

I sacrificed a great deal for the organization at great personal cost - I know I’m not alone in this experience. Many times I felt I had to choose work over family, and for what? Chips? Ridiculous.

Even the minutia of missing a price tag in the market resulted a full blown 1:1 with a senior leader and a reprimanding.

The perspective of these spineless leaders to crack down on meaningless metrics is simply an admission that they do not know why the company continues to fall flat on its face. At the end of the day, when THEIR boss comes knocking, they can say “well look! I did X 1:1’s and sent all of these emails to make sure we executed in the market! It can’t be my fault!”

All this to say, leverage your resumes, don’t burn bridges with people you enjoyed working with, and support each other through the changes - they’re coming one way or another.

Best of luck - you’re better off without this place.

I’ve never had it this bad in 26 years, across several workplaces. I honestly don’t know whether this is WF or just exceptionally bad luck, but it’s almost impressive how many incompetent and petty people have been assembled in one place. What makes it worse is that every time layoffs hit, some of the last decent and capable people are the ones who get cut. Negative selection at its finest. It truly boggles the mind.

It’s so frustrating when leadership throws our team under the bus. Our manager just nods along in meetings and never defends our work or pushes back on unrealistic demands. You start to wonder what the point of having a manager is if they won’t support you. It makes the whole team feel completely unprotected.

They mistreat employees and treat them like garbage all year and then thank everyone after layoffs too

I get it, times are tough here at AT&T. You might live really far away from a hub and now you have to drive for hours to get here. Maybe you are even sleeping in the parking lot over night. I feel for you. But for the love of God, if you are going to be hotboxing cigs for hours in your car, keep some fresh clothes in a bag and think about using the showers on the first floor. No one should have to smell you all day long.

Prices go up but your modifier goes down down down!
Make less money and retire less quota with higher prices!
Eat those costs right from your own wallet!
Math doesn’t math in the world of Dell!

..about your career.

I can't understand the logic the leadership is using to choose who stays and who goes. They've let some really skilled people go recently for no clear reason. Some newer folks as well, who joined maybe a year or so ago. Their decisions just seem completely random.

So it’s appears that the MPT employees in Carlsbad will get a 15% premium starting in January, but there isn’t any change for hourly employees. Way to boost the morale of everyone. 🤣🤣

I think there was a previous post but where are our EC and SLT? We have a couple of weeks to year end but no rallying cry, even though it will not halt the demise. No interest in any big deals. No interest in any small deals. No interest in any client interaction to help close deals. No idea about what is going on. Our CEO, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and our Head of Sales strategy are AWOL and too busy creating slides that say nothing and continue the BS. Our COO is too busy making up numbers. Maybe everyone should simply stop for the year as well?

Seems like the world has gone downhill fast these last few years. Not just at work, but at home.

There suddenly seems to be fraud everywhere, people manipulating other people, people willing to lead children astray, possibly for a little cash.

You can't trust anyone these days. You can only do the best you can. Try to raise your family to have the right values, but with so much corruption around them, what can you do?

Even those places you think that are safe, maybe aren't.

Then, your workplace goes out from under you. You lose your job and there you are with just one more thing to take care of.

How is everyone holding up after being deceived and cheated out of their rightful pensions?

I firmly believe that the elite members of the Mars family will eventually get what they truly deserve in life and beyond.

Promotions - Basically you can no longer get promoted unless someone leaves a C-level that you are interested in. E.g. C12 will not get promoted for how hard they work, they can only get C13 if someone leaves that role or a rec opens... Bonus have been rubbish for years and pay rise are the same excuse each year "the bell curve" and you get 1%

Layoffs - As we were advised before, would be 20,000 until 2026. Well more information out today that the layoffs will not stop. As long as AI and cut backs happen, this will just keep going on and not stop until the shareholders are happy.. which they never are. I would advise people to stop taking on more work, setting up meetings etc for nothing in return.

Never in my years of working for many companies have I seen a once reputable business become incredible tight and awful to work for. Why would I work overtime when it doesn't reflect? Why would I work harder if there are no promotions? Why would I want to stay in a dead end role with no prospect of earning more? Why would I take on more work and not given anything for it?

Citi has become the company everyone advises to leave or not apply for. A company at one time I was proud to work for, I no longer am. Citi is a place you go to live out the rest of your life by achieving nothing. Shame it went that way

Optum/UHC jobs exist less to create real value and more to sustain systems, hierarchies, and the appearance of productivity.
People often sense—quietly and uncomfortably—that their work doesn’t truly help customers or society, even while it consumes their time and energy. This disconnect creates fatigue, cynicism, and a low-grade moral injury, especially when work centers on compliance, internal processes, or managing perceptions rather than solving real problems. The deeper issue isn’t effort or competence, but being asked to spend a life maintaining structures instead of meaning—while the work that actually keeps society functioning is undervalued and strained.

I bet they shared this news when they did so they could get rid of a wave of rage-quitters before they hand out their “ever-so-gracious” 1k bonus in January. I know at the end of the year it’ll all even out, but it’s still such cr-p that our paychecks will be shorter on that first check, even with the bridge advance, due to the higher supplemental taxes.

I am being laid off as a direct result of the company’s return-to-office policy. I do not live near an office and relocating without financial support is not feasible. Despite being a top performer, there has been no acknowledgment, appreciation, or even basic empathy from leadership regarding the impact this decision has on me or several of my teammates. And to add icing to this cake, we will not be given severance and we will not be given our annual bonus.This “business decision“ impacts livelihoods- kids, tuitions, rent/ mortgage, etc! So who’s getting richer off of this? RV is.

For anyone considering joining the company, it’s important to understand that people are treated as numbers, valued only for what they contribute to the stock until they no longer fit the model.

Good luck to everyone at WellMed who’s hoping that the axe doesn’t fall on them this week. Thought I’d raise the Festivis pole for an airing of the grievances or a place to drop the dread we’re all feeling!

Much as possible. What I don't like is my drinking has increased massively and that's my problem. Lunchtime I head out and go to some random parking lot and knock a few back. Have a tumbler roadie for the office to nurse for the afternoon and then have a few for the ride home. By 8-9 pm every day I am lights out asleep only to do it all over again. Do you think there are many more drinking, getting high on the job? I only have a couple more years of this but man it's taking a toll.

I detest my job. I work 60-hour weeks without any benefits.

Perhaps if I work harder, they’ll take care of me?

I have been laid off.
I started in 2008. The CEO when I started was Lowell McAcadam.
I did not pay much attention at the time as to who was CEO.
However, I did know the man who sat in the cube next to me (name withheld). He was an elderly man (comparatively) . I still do not know what his job function was. I did however overhear his conversations. Just because i was there. Behind his grizzled visage I discovered the kindest most considerate man I have ever met.

I decided this was a good job.

He is gone now.

As things worked out I became very tightly entwined with Ericsson (a Verizon equipment provider). Including Equipment configuration, optimization and to a lesser extent design.

This was a beautiful thing.

It has been defiled

I'm honestly low-key sad I wasn't laid off. I don't relish not having a job, but I look forward even less to staying here and having to deal with this company's cr-p and more never-ending cuts. I swear, layoffs sound like a better option. At least I'd have severance and a decent chance at a better job.