#stress

Many of us would just like to be done with CA. The constant layoffs create undue stress on the employees. The stress and the health effects are not worth a couple of dollars extra.
But I wanted the severance as many of us do. Afterall in the world of layoffs why should we get the severance when we leave.
So, this is how I did it.
1) Quietly back off on the work you do. Be less productive but not to the point where HR takes notice.
2) Throw in a couple of mistakes here and there.
3) This is key. Casually let your boss know that you are thinking about retiring or leaving the company. Nothing official and absolutely nothing in writing. Provide no solid date.
a. If you do this well, they will start planning for your departure.
4) Never quit. Just mention is casually here and there. Eventually they will plan for your departure but when you do not leave, they will be forced into a layoff.
There! Several is not many thousands of dollars in your pocket.

Everyone is on edge, wringing their hands hoping that all will be well in regards to their employment.

Lots of naysayers out there. Lots off people who desperately try to sell that its not use to look for jobs elsewhere. Lots of people who try to tell you that if someone got let go “it must be because they got a deserved 4 rating”.

While both can be true, neither is exclusively always true.

The one thing that I know for sure 100% is that you are guaranteed to NEVER find a job outside of Citi if you don’t start looking. Many don’t want to take the leap out of fear of starting over and having to prove themselves. Ok, then all the stress you get from Citi going forward will be forever shackled to you. If you don’t like your world then change your world. Easy, no. Quick, usually not. Impossible, absolutely not. Worth it, for piece of mind, oh you bet it is.

As one other poster mentioned, many people NEED to believe that if someone got let go its because they were a sustained 4 in all areas for an extended amount of time. They have to believe that so that they can take themselves out of that bucket that it could happen to them. They need to believe that if they do all the right things, they are safe.
The actual truth is much uglier than what they can handle.

Work hard, keep your head down, sharpen your skills. Search externally for jobs and apply. Rinse, repeat until you find something and move on. Keep in mind that Citi wants you to move on. They are taking measures to encourage you to leave. If you survive this round, then congratulations, you get to take up the slack for everyone else. You get more work and with most assuredly shortened deadlines with a higher expectations to never make a mistake. Keep in mind all the while with no increase in pay. Its ok though because it’ll be summed up with “don’t forget about your work life balance” speech. To Citi “work life balance” is that your family needs to be ok with you working all the time.

Wealth and brokerage have been struggling with their strategy for better part of last 2 years.

Every couple months there's an org update email followed by period of radio silence and generic "We will get through this together" bs during AAM

Recent colocation posts have reignited the debate on how the new HR wants to proceed.

My takeaway is, if you're a executive CIO reading this post, what pleasure do you get in associates going through stress, anxiety throughout the year???

Why can't you let someone be who just wants to keep their head down and work?????

I am sure most, if not all of you, are stressed and anxious. The truth is nobody here has the answer for what is going to happen. Nobody who does know would risk their job to post something here. I’m nervous alongside many of you. I just wanted to wish all of you the best as we approach uncertainty and hope you can find some time to get rest.

Knowing I have to go to the dell office tomorrow in Round Rock

At the risk of sounding whiny, it would be great not to constantly worry about losing my job with all the obligations I have. If you have a family, it's really difficult not to feel under immense pressure all the time. People having decently paid jobs for long stretches sounds more like a myth these days. I truly wish we all had more stability in exchange for working hard and a lot.

When will we get a chance to breathe again? To just focus on our work without having to worry about what is going to be thrown our way next? I'm getting really tired of this cr-p.

I can't relax, I can't watch my favorite shows, I can't even play with my kids without getting agitated. We're supposed to be able to rest and recharge our batteries over the weekend, not worry about the layoffs all the time and whether we're about to be jobless. I really hate this place.

I was laid off from TMUS a year ago. I was there a long time, since before Sprint. The company changed, it no longer supports the needs of the many, only the few.

If you are on this board and still employed by T-Mobile, you are stressed about losing your job. It's as simple as that. You are worried that you are next.

My new role pays similar as my old role, but with 10% of the stress. And honestly, most of my stress at TMUS stemmed from feeling that a layoff would come for me eventually. And it did.

My advice is to get out. Let them destroy the company without you. Start working on your resume, put it out there, do a few interviews. Just get out. Make that your new years resolution.

My mental health has been suffering because it’s simply not sustainable to keep worrying and stressing every single day. That’s where we’ve been for over a year now, just not knowing from one day to the next if more cuts are coming. I’m having more and more trouble dealing with it, but leaving isn’t an option.

With nonstop stress from layoffs and constant overwork, I’ve been making more mistakes than I ever used to. I know I’m not alone in this. So far, my mistakes have been minor, but it’s hard not to wonder what happens when enough of us start slipping on things that should be straightforward. At what point do small errors turn into major ones?

I’m regularly putting in 60 to 70 hours a week, and by the time the day’s over, cooking just isn’t happening. I end up grabbing whatever’s quickest, usually fast food. I can tell it’s catching up to me physically and mentally, and it’s starting to worry me. I know this isn’t sustainable, but I genuinely don’t see how people manage to eat well when they barely have time to breathe. How are others handling this without burning out even more?

I wish I had a job that wasn’t this draining.

I had a great talk with family over the holidays about my career.

I'm fixing to move on outside of firm as this place stresses me out to much. I'm not waiting around for a new LP offering; VSP or ISP.

I hope I get lucky, and that everyone else does too, in finding something better in the coming year. This has become unbearable. Watching leadership make one bad decision after another, completely incapable of getting us out of this mess while we stress and suffer for it, has become truly depressing.

I’m beyond burnt out. I literally can’t stand coming to work anymore. Three years here have felt like ten at other companies in terms of exhaustion, energy drain, toxicity, and the headspin from constant gaslighting. I just can’t do it anymore. I’d rather risk being jobless than keep going. I just hope they pick me for layoffs. If not, I’ll quit. Hats off to the veterans - how have you endured here for so long and stayed sane?

I am close to retirement, but constant cuts have made every day feel uncertain. I can’t believe that the final years of my career will be constant stress and anxiety about cuts. Getting through that will be harder than it should, but there ain’t much I can do about it.

Even outside the broader workforce reductions, individual sites can be reassessed and cut out of the blue. That’s not exactly shocking or entirely new, but it certainly adds to the stress and anxiety. We already knew that employee well-being and basic consideration rank dead last, essentially nonexistent, at this wretched company. My thoughts are with the people who lost their jobs just ahead of Christmas.

I got cut in this round. My wife could easily lose her job in the coming months too, as her company is heading into a major round of layoffs. I keep hearing and reading stories about people who haven’t been able to find another job for months, even a year. I’ve been looking into other options for a while now, and it’s been a deeply discouraging experience. I know panicking doesn’t help, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the walls are closing in.

The thought of severance is the only reason I am still here. Otherwise, I would have left long ago given the uncertainty and constant stress.

I never thought I’d say this, but losing my job at Verizon actually feels like the clean break I needed. The place looked solid from the outside, but once I was in it, the long hours, constant pressure, and nonstop scrambling wore me down fast. I kept trying to push through it, but the stress just piled up and it got harder to pretend it was normal. Getting laid off stung for a minute, but a couple weeks later I’m honestly relieved to be out of that environment and figuring out what comes next without that weight on my back.

The last thread on the first page of this board was made 7 days ago, last post 6 days ago. Every other health insurer’s page? The last thread on the first page was made weeks or months ago. That’s because Optum is on purpose stressing you out and making you sick so they can pocket the money you should be paid and your only outlet, aside from vices or violence, is this board. And, they have been doing this for a very long time, thanks to their armies of lawyers. I mean, how far removed from humanity are these people; money is that important to you that nothing else matters? Cash rules everything around you? Dollar dollar bill y’all…

Lately, it feels like my job is taking over everything. I leave the office late, then I'm still checking emails at home (which, I know, my own fault, but some things have to be done if I'm to ever return home). There's just no energy left for my family or anything I enjoy doing. Is anyone else feeling this completely drained?

That’s what we’re looking at from now on.

For what it’s worth, I’m a retired PEP guy who unfortunately had to participate in a few layoffs. In the five or six major ones I went through I can NEVER recall looking at specific salaries or ranges. You normally were just given a target, and they were worth a generic amount (I.e.. an L-8 is worth $x, a Band1 is worth $y, etc.). Doesn’t make it any more humane or appropriate, but just sharing that unless things have changed in the past few years you don’t need to stress specifically on what your exact salary amount is. Good luck to all.

I was laid off a few weeks ago, typically a very stressful blow to life in this economy and job market. When I got the news, the stress and anxiety drained from my body almost immediately leaving me with a sense of calm and relaxation I haven’t felt since 2022.

I’m sick to my stomach with this bullsh!t

I just want the decision made so we can move forward, whatever that ends up looking like.

The thought of near-certain severance is the only reason I am still here. Otherwise, I would have left long ago given the uncertainty and constant stress.

I was hoping that whatever happens, it would be done in one day so we can move on. But with how little info we're getting and how slowly things are developing, it seems this will be a week-long affair, at least. I'm not looking forward to all the stress and anxiety one bit.

I have been giving Sabre only what is necessary to keep my job. With so much stress and uncertainty, going above and beyond no longer seems worth it. The environment is unsustainable, and they will have to face the fallout, and sooner seems more likely than later.

The job on its own is demanding enough, but knowing it could disappear any day adds a whole new layer of anxiety and exhaustion. Has anyone ever considered the revolutionary idea that employees who feel reasonably secure and actually rested might be far more productive?

I survived this round, but also doubled down on looking for another job. The whole thing has been a harrowing experience. And why on earth do companies post so many fake openings? From where I’m standing, it feels like they’re trying to make our lives even more miserable than they already are. I’m sure there’s some calculated, not-so-great reason behind it.

Heard they went up as Cisco stock price drove employees crazy, and they are buying more protection and birth control pills from these stores. It happened to Juniper Networks employees 3 years back.

This whole thing is hanging over me like a storm cloud. I’d stress less if there were real job options out there, but it feels like there’s nothing to fall back on.

Tough to watch the culture crash like this. It wasn’t great before but the extra stress and unrealistic expectations are causing way more tension than usual.

Can’t even imagine what this job will be like come next month.

So far the stress and workload has doubled as well as the quotas and that’s with our laid off coworkers still here

I really hope we find out soon what’s going on. I can’t afford to lose my job right now. It’s just one of those tough stretches. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way.

I can’t remember the last time we had a normal day at work, where people weren’t completely at their wit’s end. This past year and a half has felt like collective torture, and there’s still no end in sight.