#toxicleadership

Even if you bailed out the entire project the day before, some are ready to throw you under the bus the following day. And I'm talking about people here, not in Europe, not in Asia. Right here at home. They are untouchable and they keep passing it down the line without caring how much you'll end up with. Just a bunch of a--holes expecting you to break your own back so they can get their big bonuses.

Pizza guy - CRO for Global Enterprise

Used Car Salesman - CRO for Business Markets

Muppets Swedish Chef - Chief Product & Marketing Officer

Flounder from Animal House - VBG CEO

Anyone else?

All I’ve heard is Gibbs is destroying everyone and heritage Product Solutions managers are micromanaging and pushing out the Upstreamers

Sharing some of my observations and experiences in the Carelon care navigation and BH divisions. Seems to be almost weekly changes in leadership, monthly shifts in priority initiatives. The actual goals and objectives are obvious: Find ways to create numbers out of thin air to demonstrate any kind of value (nonexistent), systematically eliminate whole depts and and cut teams back to skeleton crew numbers, while at the same time increasing metrics. Create useless campaigns and programs to be managed by nonclinical associates to reduce FTE costs. Pretend that all is well and automation is the cure for past failures (while existing automation is a joke). Push their bs technology and blame frontline associates rather than admit that these systems are absolute trash.

Boots on the ground sentiments are grounded in constant fear of the next layoffs and surviving the wrath of sociopathic leadership. Morale is at an all time low.

On the other hand, if you lack any type of integrity, enjoy doing a job that only supports fluff for SLT bonuses, throw people under the bus, lack humility and do not ask any questions or voice concerns...you will THRIVE in Carelon. Anxiously waiting for any opportunity to get out of this joke of an organization. Maybe its not purgatory, maybe it is actual he-l.

All year, the talk at our company has centered on Project Aegis, responding to AI, and shifting how we work toward being more Agile and collaborative. What I see instead are tech teams running like it’s the year 2000.

I can’t make sense of how some people on my team have been at State Street for 20 to 30-plus years, deliver no measurable value, and still have no pressure to change. Management feels toxic, and some of the project managers in GTS seem disconnected from the work and the builders. Leadership takes credit for good results but rarely owns the mistakes.

I’m a newer grad who came from FAANG, and this place feels like somewhere careers stall out until retirement. I’ve never worked somewhere this dysfunctional that is also this comfortable with it. The firm doesn’t seem ready for the digital age, and it looks even further behind on AI. People with 20 years of tenure would not survive a single review cycle in tech.

I’m not sure whether my experience is unusual or part of a wider pattern. We’re walking into offices where desk utilization is under 15% on any given day but told to comply for productivity and collaboration (while MD+ are OSL or 2 days a month in office). The messaging is so butt-backwards that I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Want to reduce LRs? Just promote terrible VPs who drive everyone to quit. It has to be the reason Cisco promotes people who are utterly clueless and have no track record of success to VP positions. The vile VP then lords over everyone, drunk on power, grinding the workforce into the ground. No severance required when people quit voluntarily. Genius.

Record profits. Billions in buybacks. Wall Street applause.
And on the ground? A culture running entirely on fear, silence, and institutional burnout.

Question a flawed strategic decision, push back on an impossible deadline, or bring real operational truth to the table, and you are immediately marked as a problem. Upward mobility isn’t tied to engineering rigor or delivery; it’s reserved for yes-men and political preservation.

The Leadership Disconnect: Middle managers and Directors have virtually zero autonomy—they exist merely to absorb blowback from the top and pass down unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, executive layers operate with zero accountability, handing down aggressive mandates and public criticism while remaining completely insulated from the ground reality.

HR Is Not Your Ally: Don't let the glossy "culture of care" slides fool you. Going to HR with a genuine grievance doesn't solve the issue—it puts a spotlight on you as an inconvenience to be managed out. The unspoken rule is clear: keep your head down and stay silent.

Human Cost of Record Margins: When restructuring hits, loyalty means nothing. Thousands of people who sacrificed weekends and gave years of their lives to keep legacy platforms alive are cut loose with the bare legal minimum severance—all so executive bonuses stay padded and margin targets look pristine on paper.

The outside sees a global payments powerhouse. The inside is an engine running on intimidation, fear, anxiety, and disposable talent. From Vira, all the way to Yanilsa, Luba and other SVPS, the work is exhausting, it’s demoralizing, and people deserve to know the reality before walking through those doors. these are the most toxic people I've ever worked with.

If you still work for this company, you are an imbecile. It has been dismantled by incompetent leadership. Get out while you still can.

This may come in handy for those who suddenly come across this type of manipulation from a toxic manager, and how to recognize it happening to them: if you out of nowhere start getting feedback that you aren't using the best time management or aren't prioritizing your time well (even if you aren't missing deadlines); that should be your cue that they either want to throw more onto your plate with no compensation or level change OR that you are on your way to being managed out. If your past reviews were stellar or above average - and you didn't see this coming - also take that as a warning that they want you out. And they will use several means to accomplish that.

According to Google AI: Gaslighting employees into believing they are bad at time management is a manipulative tactic where an organization or manager shifts the blame for systemic dysfunction, unclear strategies, or unmanageable workloads onto the individual's personal skills. Instead of addressing poor planning, understaffing, or shifting priorities (which are constant here at TGT), leaders push mandatory time management workshops or imply the employee just needs to "work smarter" (to deflect accountability from the huge mess we are at the leadership level). We all know about the goalposts being moved constantly - needing for TMs to have to work weekends to meet the deadlines. Don't let them gaslight you into thinking you su-k at your job. It's them, not you. Management and leaders always avoid admitting a lack of coherent business strategy or resource allocation by making you feel inadequate.

It definitely does a number on your psyche; and you start developing imposter syndrome. Don't give in. Start looking for a new job. The culture has changed significantly at the Bullseye; and it make take years to repair. Hope this PSA is helpful to anyone currently there.

BTW, HR is not there to help you with this. They are not your friend. Once you start complaining about workload (whether to your boss or through those "anonymous" surveys), they will see to it that you are no longer there.

See the posts full of sarcasm, ridicule, demeaning, belittling and frankly, juvenile behavior. That's Humanas leadership at its best.

Let's have an honest conversation and admit that we have too many (toxic) managers that don’t lead but only got into these positions with no prior training and they drain the room, break the team, and call the wreckage “success.”

I spent years building my reputation as a strong employee, with nothing negative on my record, only for things to go completely downhill under the newer management in my group. I've been experiencing threatening and retaliatory behavior, and it's taken a serious toll on me. My health coverage is essential, and there aren't many comparable jobs where I live, so I'm stuck for now. I'm still doing my job, but I won't keep sacrificing myself for a company that has treated me this way.

sales r u enjoying having to upload all info to online system to replace ur job thx to Scott Katie Kyle etc? Are you rdy to be replaced coz vp plan is joke?

They need to fire Katie and Kyle now! They are the most h0rrible le@ders joke and cook and link all bad

The summit this week to reset the E&I Department is less of a strategic breakthrough and more of a desperate exercise in corporate CYA. After twelve long months of toxic management, ignored warnings, and immense personal strain placed on frontline staff, leadership is attempting to sweep a year of chaos under the rug with a single meeting. But true ethical leadership isn't about deflecting blame when things collapse, it requires genuine responsibility. You cannot hold an honest reset while refusing to acknowledge how we got here, who enabled the crisis, or who is still sitting at the table.

Hosting a reset meeting is a farce when leadership ignores the actual timeline of events. For an entire year, investigators were pushed to their absolute limits under unrealistic deadlines, while HR took months of internal and external reviews just to conclude what everyone on the ground already knew: CJM was a terrible fit. To add insult to injury, every employee who bravely raised a concern was met with zero follow-up and total silence.

How does it make any sense to host a reset summit when the very leaders who enabled and drove this toxic environment (SV, LW, MZ) are sitting right there in attendance? While frontline team members faced retaliation and targeted pressure for speaking up, CJM, SV, LW, MZ operated with full protection. You simply cannot repair a broken culture alongside the people who broke it.

What happened here is every company’s worst-case scenario: employees crying out for help while leadership turns a blind eye. Team members endured horrific psychological strain, spending sleepless nights wondering if they would even have a job tomorrow. Meanwhile, executives sat back protected, collected their paychecks, and cashed out their stock options while money and a full year of progress went down the drain.

This was an executive leadership failure from the top down, starting with CK. If leadership actually wants to heal this department then CK must open the summit with a real apology, admit he protected a so-called expert at the expense of the team, and step aside if he can't fix it. The new interim E&I Officer must be given unfiltered access to every complaint directly, bypassing executive summaries.

Ultimately, an institutional "reset" cannot be considered credible when it refuses to address the root causes of the crisis, the leadership failures that enabled it, or the continued presence of those responsible at the decision-making table. True organizational restoration requires more than performative gestures; it demands full transparency, decisive corrective action, and executive-level accountability. Until leadership moves beyond empty rhetoric and confronts these systemic failures directly, this summit remains a superficial exercise in damage control rather than a genuine path toward structural reform.

I'm dealing with two directors who are making this place absolutely miserable. One of them keeps trying to claim my work as his own, like I won't notice or something, and the other one spends all her time tearing down what other teams accomplish just so his looks better by comparison. It's so petty and draining, and I'm getting sick of watching good work get buried just because some people can't stand not being the center of attention.

They turned constant anxiety and instability into just another Tuesday. Abusive leadership isn’t the exception, it’s the standard. You’re supposed to just accept it and keep going. That’s not okay and I’m getting really tired of pretending it is.

You will not grow your career here. Instead you will drown in confusing political games that make no sense. The work environment is so toxic it is genuinely damaging to your mental health. There is nothing here worth staying for. Nothing.

My life has become a he-l.

The VP is micromanaging every minute of my life and behaving I am responsible to ensure he does not get laid off and lose all the RSU he has accumulated in millions.

The fabric of what made Verizon as Verizon is the Credo. It energized the V-Teamers to be the best in what we do and what made the company as it is over the years.

• Integrity: At the center of who the company is; built on honesty, ethical behavior, and trust.

• Respect: Valuing diversity, embracing individuality, and listening carefully to others.

• Performance Excellence: Setting high standards, prizing innovative ideas, and working as a team.

• Accountability: Taking personal and organizational responsibility for actions and never letting customers or coworkers down.

• Customer Focus: Building on a strong network foundation to deliver reliable services and superior experiences.

• Agility and Action: Fighting bureaucracy, acting fast, taking risks, and treating change and crises as opportunities.

V-Teamers use to care for V-Teamers. Today, it's every person for himself or herself. The Core Values don't exist anymore in the company's culture. With leadership changes over the years with Han and now with Dan, the Credo is a thing of the past. It's all about AI, shareholder value, office politics, etc. ... Smoke and Mirrors.

Toxicity and uncertainty are at an all time high. V-Teamers are waiting to be RIFed to get their severance packages and move on. The office environment is survival of the fittest; who can kiss a-s; it's not what you know or what one can do, but who you know; etc. It's sad, disappointing and disheartening.

Good Luck and Best Wishes, V-Teamers ... We deserve better and the grass is greener on the other side of the road.

It's taken from the wall street discriminates and reproduced below without any editing. Whoever wrote this, is absolutely bang on the money and most likely got managed out because had enough skillset and knowledge to be hired elsewhere, didn't need to k1ss @ss and for this reason was probably branded 'difficult to manage' and managed out. The last line is very telling of the present circumstances in a few different palaces in the US

Yes, indeed. Citi MDs are entitled, lazy, bossy, and selfish. For the uninformed reader, let me explain what that means.

Entitled. Citi MDs think the title is an anointment in recognition of their talent. It’s just the opposite. They were chosen for being the biggest followers of all, the ones who blindly implement imbecilic instructions from the top, ethics and right-doing be damned.

Lazy. Citi MDs (and directors) don’t do the work. They’re middle managers who relay orders without creating any value, a buffer between senior executives and the people doing the work.

Many insist you go through their EA just to get on their calendar. That process props up their sense of superiority and lets them dodge hard conversations and any accountability for giving you the runaround.

One Risk MD blamed her unresponsiveness on not having a Chief of Staff. Never mind that those roles were cut in the reorg, or that she was never senior enough to have one. It was a cop-out for poor time management, a skill she should have mastered as a VP.

Bossy. Citi MDs lack vision and subject-matter knowledge. They can’t inspire you or coach you on your work. They issue an edict and expect it to be carried out like gospel. They won’t follow up or notice you’re struggling. But once someone points a finger, they know exactly where to go to pile on.

Selfish. Citi MDs care about one thing: their next promotion. They create the illusion of success while adding no value to the bank.

Many of them are proud to call themselves “institutionalized.” That may be the best explanation for why transformation has failed. You can’t change how an organization works with the same people who embody the behaviors and mindsets that need to change.

When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus. Truth.

Every day gets more and more painful under this old geriatric clown who ran a printer company into the ground.

Imagine being the reason someone quits their job. They came to work to earn a living and pay bills, but your toxic behavior made every shift so miserable that leaving felt like the only way to find peace.

How many toxic leaders can you count?
I can count 5 off hand.

I tried playing hardball with my manager last month and it didn't go the way I'd hoped. I walked in ready to threaten leaving if they wouldn't bump my pay, but I didn't actually have another offer lined up. My manager basically called my bluff on the spot, told me if I wasn't happy I knew where the door was, and now things between us are awkward as he-l.

What are my chances of being outright fired over this?

If you've ever worked for a genuinely toxic and vidnictive boss, you probably know how this goes... You try to push back and things get much worse... Somehow you're always the one who ends up paying for it. You might be 100 pct right about the situation but being right doesn't mean much when the boss has all the power. And don't count on HR or upper management stepping in. They probably know that boss is sh-t but they don't care enough to do fix the problem.

At some point you have to ACCEPT that the boss isn't going anywhere, so you need to. Obviously that's easier said than done, especially in this job market. Maybe you can't afford to leave right now. Maybe you need to pick up a few skills first. Fine. Give yourself a year, even 2 if that's what it takes... Gotta have a plan. Focus on relationships with people who care bout u and spend whatever free time you can manage working toward something better.

OK, sometimes it's just a bad fit or a communication problem. Give it a few months, have an honest conversation, and see if anything improves. But if you've been dealing with the same nonsense for 6 mo and nothing has changed, what makes you think another 6 months will be different?

The worst thing you can do is complain about your boss for 3 years while doing absolutely nothing to change your situation. I've seen that happen too... People get comfortable being miserable, not good... Build up some savings and keep in touch with people you've worked with. You never know when you'll need another job, and having some $$$ in the bank and a few people you can call makes a difference. Especially when the day comes that you've finally had enough... Like me...

I know it’s a movie name but that’s what I’ve been telling everyone left at Oracle to do.

And please for the love of Pete do not refer people in.

This company is not normal.
This leadership team is not normal.
This way of working is not normal.

Overall, this is not normal

What credentials does she have? Anyone who questions her is in fear of getting laid off or leaves out of frustration. The lack of accountability at Nike is infuriating which is why we are failing. Get rid of these toxic leaders who don’t value talented colleagues

How many people are looking for another job? We all know they are getting ready to bring us back into the office a lot more next year. I'm going to quit...tired of paying tolls, gas, sitting in traffic and the environment is just completely toxic. Other than a few people, I do not want anything to do with the people they are hiring. Trash dump and hate being in office. It will be time to move on. I hate this place...su-ks!

Fiserv clients , Fiserv stakeholders , Fiserv associates -we all know this place is f’kin done - the guys at the top care about nothing but for $$$$ they can steal , fill their pockets and run over hard working poor associates. Depressing , toxic workplace environment - do not come here - no one cares , seriously. This place will very soon be buried into the ground , no longer sustainable , it is DONE and DOOMED

Only took Frank 5 years to destroy a company and culture that had existed for 40 years. That's an incredible testament to his skills. That Bankster and his team could turn anything into a tu-d.

Here comes to toxic positivity, all the id--ts who drink the kool aid will tom tom about how they are lucky to work for such a great brand and then have learnt so much and of course the people!
Either they are true id--ts or they trying to su-k up the the VPs hoping they will get to keep their jobs with this toxic sh-t! Happens every time.

I have decades of experience at State Farm and literally if there was an embodiment of what toxic mismanagement is - it’s injury demand D1. I swear every time I try to have a glimmer of hope this company does something else to kick you while you’re down. Maybe 10% of management actually cares but when section and claims management shoves a ruler up your you know where to make you work harder. My mental health is completely deteriorated. If I can retire soon I intend to. There is no worst place to be.

Our PL and Manager seem to talk off and/or flex exceedingly in accordance with what was announced that our small team can do. Our PL came manage her own teams, forgetting who she approved for time off. When our day comes for our PTO we are chastised in a team meeting how it’s put her in inconvenience to staffing. We can’t even have our earned PTO in peace. Our team is so toxic, intimidating, and abusive. The stress is unbearable. We are all looking for a different job before we get reduced but so far nothing. And can we talk about reverse discrimination here??? It is real, folks.

Survey came out again. On my team our Manager consistently since being in her position from this past January brings up in our team meetings an intimidating tone about what we answer to the survey questions. Toxicity at its finest. We are all scared on a daily basis, afraid to speak up, and yet the one place we can express our concerns through our monthly surveys we are intimidated to persuade us into being afraid to express ourselves. I am general in what I share in those surveys and for good reason!! The one place to relief stress in an honest, forthright manner, and this is what we get: intimidation in hopes of silencing us to protect herself to maintain her own job security. So toxic.

Do not say that you are a good leader if everyone is in therapy because of you.

As some may know, KPMG US is making significant cuts to its Marketing organization — voluntary and involuntary. After many years here, one thing has never been clearer to me: the level of politics and cattiness on certain teams has been nothing short of corrosive.

I've witnessed director-level incompetence that makes you question how some people got the job in the first place. I've seen talented people made victims of passive aggression that quietly blocked their path to promotions and compensation they'd earned. And I've watched "fearless leaders" reward loyalty to them over loyalty to the work.

Plenty of those people are being shown the door this week.

I spoke with someone who felt impacted by one of those exits. What they said felt like a perfect microcosm of what's been happening:

"When the new head of APEX came in, I was genuinely excited — I thought we'd finally start operating like a real agency. But over time, that excitement faded. Processes were added, sure, but nothing that truly moved the needle. When we needed someone advocating for innovation, we'd find her on calls obsessing over window motifs or talking poorly about some of the most talented people on the team.

She reportedly told other higher-ups that the only Black man on the team was 'hard to work with' — which, if you know him, is laughable. A he-l of a lot of us would say the exact opposite. It's also a label that carries a particular weight when put on a Black man in a corporate environment, and that's not something you can just gloss over.

When I found out she got let go, my only surprise was the timing. When your job is to make a difference and all you've managed to spread is drama — it's only a matter of time."

It appears brighter days are ahead under new leadership — but I hope the directors exiting this week take this moment for genuine self-reflection. There is real room to grow, both as leaders and as people.

One last thing this person said — and I think it's worth putting on record in case a hiring manager comes across this:

"It's a damn shame they let Rick [Lavoie] go. When there was nothing but confusion, he was the one higher-up who showed up with answers and solutions. I can't count how many times I wished he was the one leading APEX. That was a leader worth following."

I went from really liking my job to dreading it. And it happened in six years I've been here, which is not that long for such a drastic change.

They are very cautious about who will be around them and when you by any chance happened to be in a such "Team" ( They always like to portray themself as a "FAMILY" ) you expect to be on a street in around 4-5 years, because they do not like you from the very beginning, like an adopted child, and will try to get rid of you as soon as possible. They use very many sophisticated techniques to justify their useless to IBM existence, hiring people for a short period of time ( 4 - 5 years ) to create a shield to protect their own existence. When a company wide layoffs get announced that shield ( first line of defense ) goes to the street and those bad people stay at IBM and continue doing nothing. Managers in such teams are very incompetent and stupidly execute commands from upper management. Here is a suggestion: to sweep any corner in IBM Silicon Valley LAB to get rid of all toxic managers, remember Intel did it 20 years ago and the company now is much of a better shape and health.