#toxic

IMO - Optum should completely overhaul and replace the incompetent and absent middle management from all the inherited poor performing Kelsey-Seybold Clinics within Houston Metropolitan area. Most of these pseudo leaders were promoted by their sleezy, biased, discriminatory, and undeserving Grandfathered department chairs. Supervisors and team leads nearly out number the true blue collar employees.

I remember when I just started working, I was so full of energy and ambition, with all these plans and hopes for my career. I got disillusioned within two years and now I feel sick to my stomach when I think that this is something I'm stuck with for nearly my whole life.

Is there a secret department at UCR where job descriptions go to die?

Because after watching this place operate, it is convincing, that a solid chunk of long-tenured personnel have absolutely no idea what their job duties are - despite having occupied the same chair since the Bush administration.

The environment is peak toxicity, propped up by a nonstop flex of credentials:

“I have a master’s.”
“I have two master’s.”
“I’m certified in 17 things that don’t apply to this role.”
“I attended a webinar once.”

Cool. So… who’s actually doing the work?

Apparently no one - because whenever accountability shows up, it’s immediately chased off by a blizzard of excuses that have nothing to do with the task at hand:

“That’s not really my responsibility” (it is)
“We’re waiting on alignment” (with whom?)
“Process changes” (none occurred)
“Bandwidth” (translation: vibes are off)

These are jobs they’ve held for years, yet somehow every request is treated like a surprise pop quiz in a subject they’ve never heard of. The degrees get louder, the excuses get stranger, and the actual output remains… theoretical.

Accountability? That left the building a long time ago — probably reassigned to a committee that never meets.

At this point, UCR doesn’t need more certifications. It needs a basic refresher course called: “So What Is It You Do Here, Exactly?”

Managers do RIF training on Jan 27 and then the RIF happens during Jan 28, 29.
A terrific way to end employee suffering at earth's most toxic employer!

Consider everyone a competitor, not a coworker. I trusted someone and they used it against me to look better. Its every person for themselves.

If you are impacted by today’s layoff please post here to help consolidate information. Please post your division (Optum Tech, Optum Insight, OptumRX, etc) if you feel comfortable, how many people in your team. If you want to go deeper like M&R, E&I, etc that helps.

Don’t forget, you will get through this, you will bounce back. This place is toxic and I hope we all can find some peace.

Dell Technologies faces criticism for a stressful, micromanaged culture, frequent layoffs creating job insecurity, bureaucracy hindering innovation, and poor work-life balance due to high workloads and recent strict return-to-office mandates. While some see value for new grads, many reviewers cite toxic environments, slow growth, and management issues leading to anxiety and low morale, especially in roles like marketing or support.

Key Issues Raised by Employees:

Culture & Management:

Micromanagement: A top-down, cost-cutting approach leading to high pressure and anxiety.
Toxic Environment: Some teams, especially Marketing, are described as toxic and lacking focus on employee well-being.
Bureaucracy: Slow decision-making, complex funding, and stifled innovation due to hierarchy.

Leadership & Strategy: Perceived lack of clear direction and an "old-school" mindset.

Job Security & Growth:

Frequent Layoffs: Constant "Reduction in Force" (RIF) cycles create fear and uncertainty.

Limited Advancement: Middle management stripped, and growth opportunities feel scarce or slow.

Stagnant Technology: Some feel the company uses outdated tech and misses trends.

Work-Life Balance:
Intense Workloads: Massive workloads and pressure, making breaks difficult.

Return-to-Office Mandates: Recent strict 5-day-a-week office policies have frustrated employees.

Compensation & Recognition:
Low Pay vs. Competition: Some feel pay isn't competitive.
Lack of Rewards: Pressure doesn't always translate to raises or bonuses.

Positive Aspects Mentioned (Often for Entry-Level):
Good for new grads needing experience.
Valuable industry exposure and benefits.
Strong focus on collaboration in some areas.

In essence, many employees feel Dell prioritizes profit over people, leading to stress, low morale, and a sense of being disposable, despite offering potential benefits for those early in their careers.

Example , just know It’s not what you know or how well you are at your job, it’s how well liked you are by management. Good luck everyone!

Anyone working in tech - is there any area that is not completely and utterly dysfunctional? Seemingly everywhere I look, we are lead by absolute muppets?

Success and failure come from the top down. Abby has to be free falling because the company is getting worse by the day. Just grow a pair and fix the management crisis.

It’s pathetic that anxiety leave is a regular reason for people to be out of work. Life really isn’t that serious and if someone is below grade 5, really why are they stuck with incompetent management that su-ks the soul out of them? This is the company culture at this point.

Nice knowing yall!

I got partially meets expectations at year end. I have just got £4.5k in bonus. This company is an absolute joke even to the well treated analysts but it is hard to find reasons to leave when analysts can expect these bonuses for sub par work. The atmopshere in office is tense as we can sense the hatred as the rumours spread. Other analysts have reported managers and supervisors being overly critical or leaving them out of work out of spite. Worst of all, most analysts considering leaving after the 2 year program.

Toxic work place

I am not the OP but I agree, this needs to stay on top. The original is posted multiple times below. With nearly 15,000 views, it is definitely resonating with personnel. You don't have to be in HSE to know exactly what this poster is talking about.

I have worked for three companies before this one. Each had its flaws, but each, in its own way, understood something basic about decency. When I came to CVX, my fourth, I was told, again and again, that the culture was different. Healthier. Kinder. A place where people stayed because they were valued.

I believed it. For a long time, I wanted to.

Six years in, I can say without hesitation that this is the most hostile environment I have ever survived and I started on a rig in Midland, TX.

What makes it dangerous isn’t incompetence or chaos, it’s intention. Everything here is calculated. Smiles are worn like disguises. Praise is given only when it can be reclaimed later as leverage. If your work is good, someone else will quietly attach their name to it. If your ideas land too well, they stop being yours almost immediately.
And if you are noticed, truly noticed, by the wrong person, especially your boss, the consequences are swift and surgical. Threats are not confronted; they are dismantled. Slowly. Invisibly. By the time you realize what’s happening, your reputation has already been rewritten without you in the room.

Gossip is the real currency here. Cruelty, its favorite language. Personal lives are treated as public property, mined for weaknesses. An affair. A secret. A truth shared with the wrong person. Even something small, once discovered, is inflated until it becomes unmanageable. Stories grow teeth. Context disappears. Suddenly, survival feels like something you have to apologize for.

This is not a place where mistakes are forgiven. It is a place where they are archived.
I used to think cultures were defined by mission statements and values posted on walls. Now I know better. Culture is what happens in whispers, in meetings you aren’t invited to, in credit you never receive, in silence when you need protection.

If this place has taught me anything, it’s that the most dangerous environments are the ones that insist they are safe.

We've all been working our behinds off, so what this latest "warning" sounds like is more "now you'll do even more hours and skip holidays and work weekends and you'll be happy about it or we'll fire you for poor performance." They want more free labor, as simple as that.

I want to stay one more year but I don’t think I can do it. I can’t stand this place anymore where it’s ki-ling my soul slowly.

This place post RIF has become a toxic nightmare. Where does upper management get off threatening employees with being fired on the daily and refer to us as mentally handicapped and cant get the job done. Upper management needs to realize sitting in a office everyday and sending passive agressive emails does not do anything besides makes us want to do less. This place is toxic and is a joke only a matter of time before we are sold or the government bails us out.

For the better part of past 2.5 years, my manager has been "dangling the carrot" in front of me as a promise to give me opportunities but reality is I have to find my own ways to showcase my work.

I have noticed this snake keeps shutting down my thoughts / ideas in group calls.

Apart from that, there's a pattern I noticed of finding ways / excuse to invalidate my work as well as giving a new joinee in the team more opportunities, asking team to reach out to them for assistance (if any).

Is this normal at Fido?

As long as there are those around who remember what was, there will be people who will resist what will be. We are in the endgame folks, he means to wipe us all out and he’s got the stones to do it.

:(

Has anyone here worked somewhere else and seen worse internal politics than this? The environment is the next level of toxic, with some managers yelling at people all the time like it's normal. I've worked in tough places before, but this one stands out in a bad way.

Why is this not making the news ? Worst layoff possible. Got an email that role is impacted and to join a group meeting. Cam off, mic off, chat off, cant ask questions, no explanation of why and why you?? Cold and heartless.

(original post is 11 down)

I have worked for three companies before this one. Each had its flaws, but each, in its own way, understood something basic about decency. When I came to CVX, my fourth, I was told, again and again, that the culture was different. Healthier. Kinder. A place where people stayed because they were valued.

I believed it. For a long time, I wanted to.

Six years in, I can say without hesitation that this is the most hostile environment I have ever survived and I started on a rig in Midland, TX.

What makes it dangerous isn’t incompetence or chaos, it’s intention. Everything here is calculated. Smiles are worn like disguises. Praise is given only when it can be reclaimed later as leverage. If your work is good, someone else will quietly attach their name to it. If your ideas land too well, they stop being yours almost immediately.
And if you are noticed, truly noticed, by the wrong person, especially your boss, the consequences are swift and surgical. Threats are not confronted; they are dismantled. Slowly. Invisibly. By the time you realize what’s happening, your reputation has already been rewritten without you in the room.

Gossip is the real currency here. Cruelty, its favorite language. Personal lives are treated as public property, mined for weaknesses. An affair. A secret. A truth shared with the wrong person. Even something small, once discovered, is inflated until it becomes unmanageable. Stories grow teeth. Context disappears. Suddenly, survival feels like something you have to apologize for.

This is not a place where mistakes are forgiven. It is a place where they are archived.
I used to think cultures were defined by mission statements and values posted on walls. Now I know better. Culture is what happens in whispers, in meetings you aren’t invited to, in credit you never receive, in silence when you need protection.

If this place has taught me anything, it’s that the most dangerous environments are the ones that insist they are safe.

It’s worth asking why Dell dominates layoff forums: the highest volume of posts, the most active threads, and some of the most negative employee sentiment on the internet.

If they don’t cut me this year. I’m 100% leaving next year. I can’t be waiting for severance packages. This place feels like cancerous where I’m slowly dying….

Ever wonder what it feels like to work inside a corporation that’s shrinking, expanding, consolidating, offshoring, rebranding, cost‑optimizing, culture‑eroding, “thriving together,” recharging, refreshing, and “strategically transforming” all at once—while leadership insists everything is BAU and perfectly normal?

It’s like watching a building burn while someone in a branded polar fleece calmly assures you it’s “just a controlled enhancement to long‑term stability,” right before the ceiling collapses behind them.

And because it’s a new year, leadership has prepared a cheerful continuing resolution —delivered with the warmth of a broken space heater and the sincerity of a captured strongman awaiting arraignment for crimes against humanity:

“Expect increased toxicity, more layoffs, more offshoring, and steady gaslighting to brighten and warm your spirits.”

Truly inspiring. Afterall, nothing says fresh start like a forecast of cultural decay wrapped in corporate confetti and lightly dusted with the faint aroma of smoldering ethics.

But wait—leadership wants you to celebrate.
Yes, CELEBRATE!

So plaster on your best “I’m totally fine” smile and go take a few selfies and post on social media.

And don’t forget to hashtag your favorite EC member—you know, the one hiding behind “strategic pillars” like a kid playing corporate hide‑and‑seek. Extra credit if you catch them mid‑pose for their next phony empathy post, those perfectly curated LinkedIn masterpieces where they pretend to care about employee well‑being while quietly checking their bank statements and discreetly approving the next round of “optimization.”

Because nothing captures the modern corporate experience quite like being told to “embrace the journey” while knowing your organization is in a sharp nosedive.

Tray tables up, folks!

i was part of the old EMC Corp before it merged with DELL. It had nasty culture of its own so I do not think DELL is some unusual company in that regard. At EMC there was a distinct bro and ol' boys club culture + substantial bias emanating mainly from one very specific ethnic group which is well known for its intolerance of those who are not one of their own kind and lacked powerful connections. As soon as I moved from EMC Corp I saw a different world out there especially after i moved to a different industry. Feel very happy now, these nothing but distant memories - relics from a past I do not miss in the slightest.

Stubborn, zero business acumen, dishonest , intolerably arrogant

Yes it is is difficult to stand the above qualities, and even harder when they add no value to the bottom line, do easy work stuck in a corner in their lab ir on their big screen monitors.

And yes research helps us have talking points for investors but largely it is a waste of money. Nothing to show for, failed projects don’t help build any i ternal confidence either.

The most toxic individuals I have worked with in exxon have been part of the research company, specifically Upstream Research Company. They’ve spent billions knowlingly on failed projects. It is even true today, an internal audit must be done on the valuation claims of all Upstream projects, they are inflated numbers.

So we have someone new joining our team and ever since they joined they have been on my a$$ to know how I do what I do.

While I understand the enthusiasm, I feel my manager is purposely bringing such individuals in the team (the latest being the second person) who seem to be "teachers pets", more noise for less work kind of person.
And I can tell they're someone who just wants to "have their signature" in everything that happens around.

PS: These new members are in same region as my snake of a manager.

Should I be worried???

The only truly permanent thing around here seems to be my manager. He would probably survive a nuclear holocaust. And not because he’s a good manager or indispensable for his competence or people skills, but because he’s a perfect fit for the toxic culture.

Now they've graduated to firing people and forcing everybody out without severance by creating a toxic atmosphere that nobody with any options wants to stick around for. Those who were laid off with severance were among the lucky ones, if you ask me.

In a toxic environment, poison is gold.

Lately, it’s like I’m being pushed out without anyone saying it outright. Whenever I ask questions about a process, I get shut down and told to just figure it out. I’m not given the same time to learn new tasks as others, and when I flagged a coworker for mistreatment, it felt like I was the one in the wrong. Meanwhile, that coworker got promoted the same month after treating me poorly. I put in the work, my performance is strong, but recognition and support seem non-existent. Even small gestures others get, like acknowledgment on anniversaries, completely skip me. I honestly don’t know who to trust. Anyone else dealing with something similar?

I thought I would fall off a cliff when it happened, but instead I’ve never felt so unburdened. It wasn’t just the relief after all that anticipation, but also realizing how much I actually hated my job and how completely I had lost perspective on what matters while constantly being on edge in a small, toxic team. I just hope I don’t reach a point a year from now where I feel awful and am still jobless.

Not having to work for the hollowed out dead shell of a once great company.

Not having to act like the id--t leaders in tech have a clue as to what they are doing.

Not having to work with unethical, trashy, leaders in tech.

Not having to pretend that Nike is still cool.

Not having to endure the toxic political culture.

May god help all of you out of that sewer.

Spread it. Ahole toxic bully is looking to come back here.
My husband's friend works at Korn Ferry. Apparently Seth met with them. He seemed desperate to find his way back into PepsiCo.

Holy he-l. Just when you thought it can't get worse, we hear this awful rumor.

It went from being a place where people actually collaborated to one where everyone is just looking out for themselves. The leadership at the top seems to have no real plan or vision to fix anything. There's no trust left, and the constant negativity makes it impossible to do your best work. I really miss how it used to be, and it's sad to see what it's become.

AB Closes 3 plants - Fairfield, Merrimack and Newark - Employees allegedly given opportunities at other breweries.

Toxic corporate environment - I know because I lived it.