#performance

Does anyone know what the bonus were funded at?
And the merit increase percent?

not so friendly reminder…

When corporate says bring your whole self to work, please do not.

Bring your professional self. The edited version. The safe version. The one that says good question even when the question made absolutely no sense.

When someone asks what did you do this weekend, you do not tell them you were dancing on bars, binge watching shows, or questioning your life choices.

You say you relaxed and recharged.

When the big boss tells a joke that completely dies in the room, you laugh. Not because it was funny. Because everyone understands the script.

Here is the truth nobody says out loud.

Corporate is theater.

Meetings are scenes. Titles are costumes. And most people are acting like they have everything under control.

That is why they call them performance reviews.

Some people think corporate sucess is purely about talent. Sometimes it is. But a lot of the time it is about knowing when to nod, when to stay quiet, and when to say great point.

so if you want to survive corporate…

work on your acting.

because the people winning the game are not always the most qualified.

They are the ones who understand the stage.

REALITY check??

Am I wrong, or just saying the quiet part out loud?

Global bank Morgan Stanley announced significant job cuts. The cuts impact three percent of its global employees. The company cited changing business priorities and individual job performance. These reductions follow similar moves by other large firms. Layoffs affect investment banking, wealth management, and investment management divisions.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/huge-layoffs-continue-tech-finance-135217128.html

0% for managers in many groups. Fully met but 0% and lower Sti's than last year. Great year numbers wise in these groups. What's going on? They said they didn't have enough money and had to take care of people. Is it the $2M they had to give the guy who couldn't start . . . what a joke! We are tired of beating goals and getting 0.

There’s a lot of negative sentiment here around Thrive Together. That reaction is completely rational. Many people are trying to rationalize the decision - commercial real estate exposure, leadership being out of touch, or executives undervaluing remote productivity. Those explanations miss the point. Thrive Together is a much larger slight against employees than most people realize.

It’s easy to assume the executive team is uninformed or making poorly thought-out decisions. That assumption is wrong. These are experienced business leaders who understand exactly what they are doing. Whether internal metrics show remote work to be more productive is irrelevant. If those metrics supported the narrative being pushed, employees would see them. They don’t, and they won’t. Leadership knows the data doesn’t support the story, and they don’t need it to.

Their only real objective is increasing the stock price.

Historically, one way companies accomplish that is by reducing headcount. The problem is layoffs come with costs - severance packages and payouts of accrued PTO. Thrive Together creates a mechanism to reduce the workforce without formally conducting layoffs and without paying those costs.

Instead of layoffs, the company now has a framework where employees who cannot comply with Thrive Together requirements can simply be labeled as low performers. That label leads to performance improvement plans and eventual termination. The end result is the same as a layoff, but without severance, without PTO payouts, and without triggering the procedures that normally accompany workforce reductions.

Flexible Time Off (FTO) reinforces this system.

FTO didn’t expand a benefit - it removed one. Under a traditional PTO system, employees accrued time off that the company was obligated to honor or pay out. Under FTO, nothing accrues. Time off is technically “unlimited,” but in practice none of it is guaranteed.

FTO can function in a truly flexible remote or hybrid environment where employees aren’t bound by strict office attendance quotas. That is not the environment being created here.

Under the current policy, time taken under FTO does not reduce in-office attendance expectations. For the average employee, that creates a clear disincentive to take vacation because office quotas remain unchanged regardless of time off.

Leadership recently increased the expectation to three days per week in the office. If an employee takes a week of vacation, they still owe those three in-office days somewhere else in the fiscal year. Two weeks of vacation doubles that deficit.

If the company eventually moves to four or five in-office days per week - as many suspect it will - the system becomes mathematically unsustainable. There will be no practical way for employees to take time off while still meeting attendance expectations within a quarter. FTO with Thrive Together is structurally incompatible with meaningful time off.

What’s happening here isn’t confusion or poor planning. It’s a gradual tightening of pressure on the workforce while removing the company’s obligations that typically accompany layoffs. Even better, some employees will leave on their own to avoid the mess.

The plan was always to make you work more while creating a system that results in less time off, lower performance reviews, and a convenient excuse to fire people without severance.

Raise %:
Bonus %:

Once upon a time, the biggest concern was the lack of ‘good for you’ products in the portfolio. Today, the biggest concern is the lack of good leaders in the organization. How is each function holding up, is there any hope?

One of the most fascinating management models I’ve seen recently is the “mutual admiration club.”

A small leadership circle hires each other, promotes each other, and then gives each other outstanding performance ratings. Meanwhile, the people actually running operations and supporting customers suddenly become “underperformers.”

It’s a brilliant system if the goal is to protect the club and shift accountability elsewhere.

Unfortunately, it’s not a great system if the goal is to run a serious business.

In the long run, organizations usually discover that echo chambers are very good at protecting leadership, but not very good at running businesses.

https://www.peoplematters.in/news/strategic-hr/saps-new-bonus-system-rewards-managers-who-missed-targets-faces-employee-backlash-48615

I think the Dream Team will surprise everyone….better than expected Q1.

One frustrating thing about Cisco is realizing the slacker sittng next to you is safer than you as a high performer…. Slackers are annoying… but they are harmless. They do not ask many questions…they do not challenge decisions, and they usually do not expose problems. They just coast along, do what they are told… and stay out of the way.

High performers do the opposite…They push& question things, and try to move fast or fix broken processes. That creates pressure, and pressure exposes where systems or decisions are not working well. The irony is slackers frustrate high performers, but high performers can make leaders uncomfortable because they reveal where the system is broken.

We need real growth, not by pulling ahead to make quarterly figures. Financial Hocus Pocus always ends in tears.

Help me understand this. We buy companies. Some of them are good, some su-k, so quality varies. What's constant is what we do after the acquisition. We always run them into the ground, destroy any value that exists, they stop innovating or developing technology, and the whole thing turns out to be a dud. Why does this always happen?

Algorithm for PMP and ranking. Yes I said it. Now its all new, so there will be considerations. But if AI you can compare across organization and huge data bases. What I am saying, it there are known attributes for high potential.And performances. Have a great day!

What's with some people getting 3% and others getting 3.5% for same grade ?

How did everyone fare?

I reported in close proximity to Pete for 3 years and also worked around and with Felicia and Morgan. Pete was a great leader. Yes, he has two watches. But he was smart and asked good questions and focused on results and performance. He had what it takes. He’s a markedly better than Gail. The other leaders? Morgan? Ha. Felicia? Ha ha. Anthem has been a den of mediocrity at the top for a long time. Pete was better than them all…by a lot.

I’ve worked at Wells Fargo for five years. For four consecutive years, I met expectations and received merit bonuses. Last year was the only time I was rated “inconsistent,” based on metrics that were never clearly communicated, and I did not receive a raise.

Now I’m being told I must outperform everyone on the team because of last year’s rating. I’m required to have weekly check-ins and am being criticized over minor issues, while others with similar performance are not held to the same standard.

My manager has said this is due to a “new policy,” but the way it’s being applied feels selective and unfair. At the same time, documentation is being added to Workday that does not accurately reflect the full picture of my performance.

If you’re not happy with your current position but the manager has not put you on a performance plan yet, can you tell your manager you want to volunteer to be out then you have 90 days- sounds like severance. Seems like a win- win.

Bonus payout was good but anyone else get laughable salary adjustment?

I have worked at the bank since 2014. Several years ago I received a promotion to Sr. Lead Analytic Consultant. The raise that went with that promotion put me above the lower limits by just a couple thousand dollars. Currently that role is posting for $139K - $239K per year. After my increase this year I am still making below the lower limit. Is this normal? Are others experiencing this same issue? For background, I have been 'Meets' consistently over the last couple years but never missed an SLA or Training assignment.

Be great at execution! Be great at chopping headcount.

Do whats right: fire everyone!

Embrace candor: You will be fired.

Build a high performing team, bit in India.

I’m hearing stories of some colleagues across the business receiving contractual bonuses and some not, even though they are in the same position. Does anyone have any info on this? I imagine it was due to different LOB’s now being merged but seems slightly unfair?

My director spilled to me that the IBP is likely over 140 this year.

I know I’m going down the conspiracy rabbit hole here, but just for conversation what if Oracle started the rumors of the layoffs? Oracle knows they must get employees motivated again, and it’s against their nature to do so with rewards, but creating fear is right up their alley. The thought being that employees will put up with a lot more if they’re afraid they’re getting laid off. Suddenly, their performance may matter so they work harder. It seems a little far-fetched, but an interesting theory of ponder.

If you want to trim away the useless, then start with HR. Just keep the bare bones skeleton crew, let the HR chatbot and AI do the rest of that work. If Citi AI can’t handle the mundane low hanging fruit HR work, then it has no place trying to be wedged into anything more complex or technical.

If it can’t be developed enough, tested enough and rock solid enough to handle the HR work load, then you have business trying to make it do anything more complex. It’s like trying to use a calculator that can’t add or subtract to perform advanced algebra. Use the HR role as your live test bed. Once you get that part down, you can then showcase what a success it is in all you little ppt slides and THEN move on to something more complex.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/reddit-still-furious-t-47-125619599.html

Sorry if this is a d-mb question, but I’ve been with Aetna for four years and consistently receive a rating of 3. I feel like I’m one of the top contributors on the team.

I’ve noticed that some team members don’t even turn on their cameras during small meetings (less than 8 people), and it makes me wonder how performance ratings are determined.

Do people actually receive a rating of 2 here, or does most everyone receive a 3 — even those who may not seem as engaged?

Is 3% the standard compensation this year?

In November of 2021, nike stock traded at nearly $170 per share. Five years later and the stock is trading consistently sideways in the low $60’s, with no end in sight. Despite leadership purchases, leadership changes, constant layoffs, reorg’s, buy backs and a retail / wholesale reset, nike is one of the worst performing stocks out there. Today it’s trading at $59 and may go lower. A nearly %280 drop in valuation. Unbelievable.

How did everyone fare? I got a 2.7% merit increase and 105% bonus. High band 4

Leadership is clearly not up to the task to turn this company around. Stock got a bump but regressed, NA volumes aren't working even with PPA investment and acquisitions, and we're getting the shaft with low team score and merit raises. At what point do we collectively say we aren't going to work to execute shoddy decisions that cost us money?

How did everyone do? I received 3% merit and 90% of AIP.

From an APJ perspective, these layoffs, while difficult, were long overdue. For years, the company carried excessive overhead in the US and Europe: overstaffed legacy teams, prolonged decision-making processes, and limited focus on high-impact delivery.
The reductions have created a leaner organization. APJ teams are now stepping up significantly, delivering intelligent, efficient work on cloud and AI initiatives at a much faster pace while headquarters adapts to the new structure.
For those affected by the layoffs: if performance or adaptation lagged, the cuts were inevitable in a competitive market. Rather than endless complaints in forums, the focus should shift to skill development or new opportunities.
The company is now more agile and better positioned for growth in 2026. APJ continues to drive strong execution. It is time to contribute meaningfully or move on.

Anyone know the IBP% yet?

Mike you can blame Frank all you want but $62 is on you buddy! You were a rookie who was unprepared and you destroyed $100B in Market Cap! Congratulations on holding the that record, surely puts you in the top 5 of worst CEOs ever! By the way why is Chris Foskett still here riding around on the jet! The guy does nothing. What big account has he brought on in three years. As Revenue head he has lost a ton of business in last two years.

I survived another round of layoffs and am not happy about it. Any tips or tricks for how to get let go? I quiet quit back in 2022 and have been doing less than half the amount of work that I did previously. I am constantly in the bottom 3 on my team performance wise. I just want my famn severance package already!

CEO change needed to bring new direction

Looking like bonus is happening but not full amount. Does anyone know what % of your percentage they are paying?

Does anyone know what raises look like this year?0-2%? More?