#toxicenvironment

I left in 2022 because I couldn't take the hostile work environment anymore. Are things still the same or have there been any improvements? I don't know why I'm suddenly curious nearly three years later. Call it New Year-induced nostalgia or whatever, I guess.

In a toxic environment, poison is gold.

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.

The Dell culture has taken a turn for the absolute worst. I’ve never seen anything like it. They allow complete disrespect go unanswered by HR. Breed a toxic and narcissistic management environment. Allow for people to just sh!t all over each other without consequence. Their management is ignorant, insulting and arrogant. I’m waiting for a meeting at some point to just break out into a brawl as people are getting to that point.

Lately I keep seeing coworkers walk out for jobs that pay noticeably less (I guess this job market only allows for that), and that says everything about where things stand. The nonstop tension around layoffs has pushed people to a point where any exit feels better than staying. No one even talks about matching their old salaries anymore. The environment has gotten so heavy that most of us just want out before the next wave hits.

They’ve made the conditions so difficult that we either leave on our own or stay completely miserable, and at this point it feels entirely by design. They’re not even subtle or creative about it anymore. What’s next?

Thanks to ESRO, all Optum tech teams have to adopt a CloudFlare firewall as the entry point to their applications. As such, this company has now become a single point of failure for all of Optum. If they are down, not only is our website down, but all internal and provider facing applications.

Guess which company went down again today for the second time in the past few weeks?

But of course, im "not a team player" and not "aligned with strategic direction" for raising concerns about vendor lock in and huge increases in systemic risk to the company.

Company is finished with the layoffs. Company is done with mistreating its employees. Although your manager or director still might be an a-s.

company is a real nightmare to work in.

i don't see how they ca n avoid layoffs after the meltdown

Welcome to BNY Mellon, where corporate communication is less about informing employees and more about testing their tolerance for absurdity. Think of it as a daily improv show where the punchline is always the same: we don’t believe you.

At the top of this spectacle sits Robin Vince, delivering pronouncements with the solemnity of a statesman and the substance of a clown balloon. His memos promise transformation, transparency, and trust, but associates know these are just corporate Mad Libs—insert buzzword, ignore reality. If they say “transformation,” translate it to “chaos.” If they say “transparency,” read it as “fog machine.” The safest approach is to laugh first, then check if your department still exists.

HR, Public Relations and James L. serve as the Ministry of Spin, ensuring every announcement glows with positivity so artificial even Eliza would blush. “BNY Mellon is thriving!” they declare, while associates quietly check their workloads and wonder if thriving means "dodging HR land mines" or “running on fumes.” Employees now treat official communications like parody scripts, reading them aloud in dramatic voices for comic relief.

Then there are the Directors and wannabees who rush to LinkedIn to applaud these corporate fairy tales. Their posts are the digital equivalent of clapping at a bad magic trick like a trained harbor seal: “Amazing leadership!” they gush, while everyone else mutters, “You do realize the rabbit was stuffed in the hat the whole time, right?” These cheerleaders don’t inspire confidence; they inspire memes.

Inside the company, two realities coexist like parallel universes. In one, associates slog through toxic culture, opaque decision-making, and a daily grind that feels less like a Fortune 500 firm and more like a reality TV show where no one wins. In the other, leaders announce breakthroughs, cultural transformations, and “authentic transparency” with the confidence of actors who forgot the audience already read the spoilers. The result is cognitive dissonance so bad and so intense employees could qualify for dual citizenship: one in the land of lived experience, the other in the fantasy realm of executive spin.

Distrust has become so pervasive that employees now play a game called “Spot the Lie.” Every new communication is dissected for euphemisms and omissions. “Restructuring” means layoffs. “Efficiency” means budget cuts. “Innovation” means someone discovered Teams has GIFs. The prize for winning? A sense of smug validation and the knowledge that you’re not crazy—the memo is.

BNY Mellon’s leaders may believe they’re shaping perception, but in reality they’ve cultivated a culture where disbelief is the default setting. Credibility isn’t just low; it’s subterranean. Employees don’t ask, “Is this true?” They ask, “How false is it, and how quickly will it collapse under scrutiny?” Cynicism has become the lingua franca, the coping mechanism, and the unofficial brand identity.

In the end, BNY Mellon has achieved something remarkable: it has turned corporate communication into performance art, a theater of the absurd where every announcement is greeted not with applause but with laughter, sighs, and sarcastic memes. The Executive Committee may think they’re leading a financial institution with great vision, alignment and execution, but associates know the truth: they’re trapped in a long-running satire, and the punchline never changes—we don’t believe you.

If you’ve been crushed by the toxicity of this company - know you aren’t alone. This is a culturally unhealthy organization ruled by politics and very bad decisions at the top to middle of house. The management here is a total joke, ruled by their own self interests. Share your own stories of how messed up your time at this company has been below. 👏🏽

I hate the people here. Fu--ing rude and obnoxious.

PepsiCo called they want their toxic CIO back lol as pep employees are having a field day with all their toxic bosses.

Can we talk about how awful the company culture and military like the culture is at Schwab?

Along with the constant broken promises for career growth to employees feels fraudulent!

They have been playing all kinds of dirty tricks on employees to push them out aggressively.

But I’ll put up with whatever nonsense they throw at us, because there’s basically nothing out there right now. It feels like we’re completely cornered, and I hate that feeling.

The "we're a family" messaging from leadership feels completely fake at this point. It seems like most of the truly talented people have already left, and the communication here is just shocking. I regularly hear managers shouting at people in meetings and no one even bats an eye. Nothing is organized, no one knows who is responsible for what, and the execs keep selling this beautiful vision that has nothing to do with the chaotic reality on the ground. The whole atmosphere is just toxic. What the he-l has Nike turned into?

After all this i kind of want to get severance. It would be a nice chunk of money. Plus I can get a job pretty quick and get used to it while getting paid from verizon. I think I want to get severance now. I don't know if I want to stay with verizon long term like I thought I wanted after this. I think the culture is about to be toxic and I mean toxic as in nothing is ever going to be good enough.

I guess when the thought of losing your job is gone, you can go back to being a POS

Lets have more layoffs before Txgiving and Xmas so we all can be done with this craphole once and for all

I can barely drag myself out of bed on workdays, and I dread coming in. Burnt out doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’ve worked at several companies before, and this has been the most toxic, exhausting, and unrewarding experience of them all. At this point, I’m willing to face a brutal job market and even a long stretch of unemployment if it means protecting my mental and physical health.

We have a culture of fear now at WF that has destroyed innovation with all of us walking on eggshells

Get ready for mass layoffs in towers!

The lucky ones are going in the transaction, even if it’s zayo.Better than this toxic a$$ EMT and new ceo leader that all he wants to do is use his audit team as the gestappo!

If the execs had any clue how many core employees on their “critical initiatives” are just weeks away from working at another company, they’d lose it. The people holding this place together are the ones leaving, and they have no backup plan for that.

So many people are hanging on to hope of change to RTO that if 5x RTO bleeds into next year they’re in for a rude awakening, and when they realize their mistake as late as they usually do it’ll be too late. Once you leave toxic T nothing can bring you back. Nobody is willing to accept 5x RTO when they can work remote or hybrid for a better company who actually respects them. The job market is opening back up, so FAFO is about to hit hard.

What will you do when all the high performers walk or retire and you’re stuck with a bunch of duds nobody else wants? Good luck!

Neustar sold OneDev and OneTru to TU. OneDev 1.0 was a failure. Then They moved to OneDev 2.0. That too failed big time. Once that too failed, they moved the Neustar execs running these two to OneTru. OneTru is failing fast. Initially they wanted everything to be moved to OneTru AWS. Now they want to move to OneTru GCP when it is not close to production ready. Whenever the lips of SVPs and EVPs are moving, you know they are lying. The environment is absolutely toxic.

One of the worst companies i have ever worked for and getting worse by the day. I dont see how they continue to be allowed to operate like this or pull as much bs as they do to their customers and employees. Robin and his cronies need to go

I want a few of my colleagues to be laid off. I rather see them suffer and unemployed than me

HR at this company stopped being about people a long time ago, they love to talk about supporting employees, WLB, open communication. but try bringing them a real issue and see how fast they shut down. The second you speak up youre labeled as negative or not a team player. Totally useless. All effort is made to protect the higher ups and the co, nothing for the worker. Disgusting.

Now I’m anxious, depressed, and numb. Every single day I get more work with a "do this or else" attached to it. I'm starting not to care anymore. What are they going to do, fire me? By now, that seems like a better option than continuing to work here.

I used to like working here. Dell's new approach is to squeeze everyone until they break, then act (emphases on act) surprised when people leave. They crack the whip, throw fear around, shorten deadlines, and generally do all they can to make everybody's lives miserable. Watching it day after day is exhausting and depressing.

It’s 100% confirmed that Associates in the US and India are being let go this week. Which day depends on your team and location. Those left behind will wish they were let go. The confusion, toxicity, and expected hours you’ll be working is going to get even worse. Much much worse.

Remember that this is all being done to reduce costs and try to raise the stock price. Dont blame yourself. Take the money and run.

Funny thing is, everyone at EM hates being here so much, that’s the only thing that seems to be holding us together. No shared pride, no excitement, nothing, just collective misery. Somehow surviving the place feels like a team effort, and that’s the only bond anyone has these days.

I have been there and have never seen a more political work place in my life. The least talented get promoted. The most talented are set up for failure, termination and layoffs.
I am pretty sure I am the next to go in the next round coming soon I suspect end of year.

Optum wants so desperately to be a leader in consumer health, but is COMPLETELY out of touch with consumers. The consumer executives: Rita Kahn, Katie Schumacher, Robbi (ROBERTA) Thatcher have NO idea how to run a best-in-class product org. From process, to roles, to strategy, to roadmaps, etc. It’s a performative executive DEI club. Also recently added: Benson Chan, a waxy-looking self-indulgent Canadian who is a a big phoney and previously fired from Amazon Alexa. These people don’t lead, are not motivating and aren’t close to the work at all. They just repeat the same talking points at town halls. In 2026 they are injecting $55M of new capital into…. wait for it.., a chatbot called “Optum Companion” that doesn’t actually do anything better than before. Do consumers want this? No! But they will stick it everywhere. It’s more tech determinism cr-p being shoveled at consumers, also led by other executive a--hats like Sandeep Dadlani and Julie Durham who are constantly cheerleading on LinkedIn about AI and “100x” to boost their own personal brands/egos. As for the employee experience and culture, it has become a toxic culture of fear and loathing. Constant rounds of layoffs, and ever increasing return-to-office mandates that can be expected to continue until everyone works in MN or India. The market also agrees, and the stock price has lost practically all gains over the last 5 years. “Healthy Optum-ism” is a hilarious new attempt to revive a failing brand, but is so cringe, it’s unbearable. If you survived this latest round of layoffs (read: firing squad), then I wish you luck, but honestly, do you want to work at a soul-su-king place where you’re always looking over your shoulder wondering if your number will be called next. F this place. Let it burn to the ground.

Received my get out of jail card this week and I'm over the top delighted. Over the last 10 years, this place has become so toxic, it's sickening. Pay for performance is a joke. Senior managers, who don't know the staff or what they do, are forcing lower ratings to get their 25% (used to be 10). If you don't have enough, they force more. Bonus amounts, given by direct managers, are changed by higher ups. It's unethical but don't bother reporting it. HR works for them, not us.
Save as much money as you can. Print all your employment records. Use their training portal to take resume building classes (after your AI training to replace yourselfof course). Go into the office, stay all day, and keep your head down. I wish you all the best of luck.

I have landed a new job after being laid off at Optum (so there is hope and rest assured there is life after Optum). As I meet new colleagues and mention my background the recurring theme is “I have a few buddies over there and all of them are desperately trying to jump ship” or similar. On the other side, I have had job seeking friends and even a recruiter I used in past reach out and say “I am looking at a posting there but I hear it’s just terrible” etc. it seems anecdotally that word has hit the street and if when this offshoring fails and they try to refill in US it might not even be possible to get anyone good.

100% the worst company you'll ever work for?

To me, it's not the worst company I have worked for, but it is one of the most Dishonest, Toxic work environment , and Low Moral Cr-p shoot of a company.

"Everybody has their own opinion"

My manager has this way of talking that makes you question your own work constantly. He acts like we are lucky to even get a paycheck here. I see my teammates come in every morning looking completely defeated. It is really hard to watch good people get treated this way. I wish I could quit.

Seems like Quest Software’s management has completely lost the plot. Leadership keeps talking about “AI” like it’s some magic fix, but it’s obvious most of them don’t even understand what the products actually do. It’s all buzzwords and no direction.

The work environment has become toxic — people are walking on eggshells, afraid of being the next one on a PIP. Feels like they’re trying to push people out instead of doing proper layoffs so they can avoid paying severance.

There’s a lot of backstabbing going on now, too. Everyone’s in survival mode, trying to protect themselves because no one trusts leadership anymore.

Used to be a great company with solid products and good people. Now it’s chaos and confusion from the top down. Sad to watch what it’s turned into.

Purpose: To enforce mandatory physical presence and ensure measurable, minimum value generation during all assigned work periods to maximize shareholder return.

1. Mandatory Physical Presence and Monitoring

All workstations are equipped with a Certified Occupancy Sensor and a visible Presence Timer linked to the employee's system. Departure from the seat before the Work Cycle reaches "Complete" status (Green) is strictly prohibited.

1. Value Creation and AI Productivity Metrics
   All digital activity is subject to continuous monitoring by Proprietary AI Productivity Tools (PAPT). These tools track and quantify:
   Activity Volume: The prerequisite amount of digital activity (e.g., keystrokes, application usage, meeting participation) required for the cycle.

Created Value: The prerequisite amount of measurable output (e.g., ticket closures, code commits, report finalization) deemed necessary for value generation.

1. Incomplete Work Cycle Protocol for Salaried Employees

If an employee fails to achieve both the Activity Volume and the Created Value prerequisites, the Work Cycle will be designated Incomplete (Red Status).

Salaried employees with an Incomplete Work Cycle will be required to immediately extend their workday until all prerequisite metrics are met and the timer reaches "Complete" (Green Status), regardless of scheduled end time. This constitutes uncompensated time necessary to meet core job requirements.

1. Mandatory Adherence Tier and Workstation Restraint

Any employee registering three or more Incomplete or prematurely terminated Work Cycles in a 30-day period will be automatically placed in the Mandatory Adherence Tier.

These employees must formally consent to the installation of an Electronic Workstation Restraint System (Seatbelt), which will remain locked throughout the work period.

Failure to consent to the terms of the Mandatory Adherence Tier and the installation of the restraint system will be viewed as a refusal to comply with mandatory operational policy and will result in immediate termination.

Authorized Release will only occur during assigned scheduled breaks, lunch periods, and one (1) pre-approved, ad hoc restroom break per half-day shift.