#trust

Managers lecture about psychological safety but nobody is willing to speak up, challenge, or take initiatives anymore because the blaming game is strong. Don’t trust their words. Look for actions instead.

Anyone else remember when Ricky got up on stage at that 2025 end-of-year townhall to proclaim that we would be getting COLAs on top of our merit raises in 2026? It's been nothing but radio silence since then, share prices are down 13% YTD, and we're shifting into cost-cutting mode— the writing is on the wall, and we're not getting that COLA, but we all know Ricky and the EC will sure as he-l be making out like bandits with their equity comp.

"Trust— earned over a lifetime, lost in an instant." Maybe you should start listening to your handler, Ricky Boy.

This African proverb explicitly warns that in an emergency, you have to stop trying to "be right" and start trying to survive. If you keep bickering, you’re essentially choosing to allow the house to burn down just to win the argument. This is the perfect depiction of what is happening at BNSF and everyone is playing right into it. Managers against employees. Employees against managers, Employees against employees, managers against managers. HUGE Trust issues. Is this a huge daycare??? The competition loves how BNSF is having its managers go after their employees and pitting everyone against each other. "A house divided against itself cannot stand" -Matthew 12:25 The leadership is probably the worst i have ever seen. If you want to thrive, take Buffets advice and "Stop writing people up" Even he saw the ridiculousness in the way it was being ran. Looks like its gotten worse unfortunately. So glad I left that toxic place. Never in my life did I see more people against each other than at the bnsf. That culture shift starts at the top. If you want your company to change, then YOU have to change.

How many of yall actually answer truthfully? Do they really know who submits each survey?

Right now, fear is everywhere at Oracle. For a long time, the company’s raises and promotions have been pretty bad compared to places like Google or Meta. But despite the lower pay, so many people stayed. They were the real backbone of the company’s success, and they stuck around because they needed the stability for their visas, their families, or their health. They pushed through all the office politics and the lack of growth, thinking that their loyalty would eventually count for something.

But Oracle just proved those people wrong. The company treated its most loyal workers like they didn't matter. When the layoffs happened, their severance was tiny because their salaries had been kept so low for years. On top of that, they lost their stocks and were told they couldn't be rehired. It’s devastating to see people who gave everything to the company be left with no voice and no support.

Now, the "survivors" who are still there are realizing the same thing could happen to them. In this new AI era, you feel like just a name and a number on a screen. With everything moving to Nashville, there's this constant worry that your laptop could be shut off at any second. Honestly, no one is motivated anymore. We don't know when it is our turn. The whole company feels like it's in mourning, with everyone just doing the bare minimum to get by because the trust is completely gone.

As a whole, HR Advisory Services for Elavon / MPS is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They are literally salivating to fire individuals. Spreadsheet management hacks at best. Placing any trust in this team of veiled “consultants” would be a bad move. Stay far away, the clock is ticking and they’re out for blood.

1️⃣ Lack of Leadership
Employee: “I stopped looking up because there was no one to look to.”

Great leaders set direction, model integrity, and earn respect every day.

2️⃣ Lack of Trust
Employee: “Every time I spoke up, it cost me something.”

Great leaders reward honesty, defend their people, and prove every voice matters.

3️⃣ Feeling Undervalued
Employee: “My work spoke loudly. No one was listening.”

Great leaders notice effort, name impact, and show appreciation often.

4️⃣ No Growth Path
Employee: “I wanted to grow. They wanted me to stay the same.”

Great leaders build clear paths and invest in growth early.

5️⃣ Lack of Challenge
Employee: “I used to feel alive solving problems. Now it’s just tasks.”

Great leaders reignite curiosity by giving purpose, not just projects.

6️⃣ Burnout
Employee: “The more great work I do, the more they expect.”

Great leaders protect energy, balance ambition, and stop rewarding exhaustion.

7️⃣ Lack of Inclusion
Employee: “I was in the room, but never really part of it.”

Great leaders create environments where every voice is heard and valued.

8️⃣ Unfair Pay
Employee: “They said they valued me, but not enough to show it.”

Great leaders match reward to impact and make fairness non-negotiable.

https://www.stephanieshills.com/weeklynewsletteroptin

One Senior Director was asked to deliver the bad news. He did it.
The day after, he was laid off.
The question is: How can you trust?

It is difficult to maintain confidence in the current Light & Wonder executive leadership, particularly as their transition from Aristocrat has been overshadowed by a perceived lack of transparency. The decision to displace established leaders in favor of former associates suggests a preference for insular hiring over organizational stability.

Furthermore, an approach that prioritizes rigid internal directives over collaborative expertise has made it challenging to foster a culture of mutual trust.

Our leadership may not be the best but they did pull us out of a difficult situation during Covid and have consistently helped SAP grow to even greater heights. Unfiltered has very low participation. So please participate in this survey as today is the last day. It really helps leadership make good decisions. And the leadership also saved everyone from layoffs as despite all rumors, there was no big layoff announcement. Do not forget to help SAP get to 100% trust in board. After all, we should reward our leadership for the great work they are doing despite difficult macroeconomic conditions and discontent amongst employees who do not want to work hard enough.

There used to be a real sense of looking out for each other — that’s what made this place different. Lately, it feels like that’s been replaced with back-channel conversations, politics, and a constant need to watch your back( since the near shore, off shore concept started) They have more holidays, vacations that us folks .they are cost effective for l10 and below but most of them are banded and they definitely are not mature for it. No back ground check just got hired . i have few in my workspace.

It’s getting harder to trust intentions. Decisions don’t always feel transparent, and visibility doesn’t always align with contribution. That creates an environment where people are focused more on positioning than actually delivering.

Also hearing increasing concerns from the I&O space — behavior that comes across as bullies, b***, aggressive or dismissive, which isn’t what we should be normalizing as ‘leadership’ or ‘accountability.’

This isn’t about one team or one geography — it’s about the culture we’re building. If we don’t address it, we risk losing what made this place strong in the first place.”**

Riddle me this Batman - how is there an IT workshop going on this week in the Jersey City office and we just had an IT Town Hall where the CIO says there’s nothing new to share. You are leading the workshop! and clearly planning for the IT work related to the merger. As one commenter said in the mtg, just say you can’t discuss it at this time instead of saying you don’t know. You clearly know as you are ELT and you are leading the IT merger workshop for Corebridge. This is where you lose the trust of your people.SMH

Any thoughts on this? Can the anonymity be trusted or should I wear three layers of VPN to fill it out?

Can anyone locate the results for "When Sr. leaders say something you can believe that it's true"

Careerminds research highlights widespread issues with how companies handle layoffs. Many employees first learn about job cuts through workplace gossip. Only a quarter of laid-off staff felt leadership was transparent about the reasons. Poor communication significantly damages trust among both departing and remaining employees. Half of remaining staff considered leaving their jobs due to these communication failures.

https://www.benefitspro.com/amp/2026/04/23/poorly-handled-layoffs-are-costing-us-employers-their-remaining-talent/

Not some. All of it.

A coworker did about two years ago. Packed his entire family and all, just to be laid off within six months. Trusting this place will have your back because you uprooted your life for them is id--tic.

Morale at Cherry Point feels like it’s at a historic low. What was once considered a standout site in the Pacific Northwest, known for its strong culture and sense of family, feels very different today.

Many employees feel disconnected from leadership, and recent organizational changes have made the refinery feel unfamiliar to those who have been here for years. There’s a growing perception that leadership is not fully engaged with the workforce or the site’s legacy culture.

Recent safety concerns have only amplified these feelings. Employees want to feel heard, valued, and safe—and right now, there’s a noticeable gap between leadership decisions and workforce sentiment.

Cherry Point has always had the potential to be exceptional. The hope is that leadership will re-engage with the people on the ground and work to rebuild the trust and culture that once made this site so strong.

If you currently work here or have worked here recently, I’d be genuinely interested in hearing about your experience. Is this something others are seeing as well?

Something has shifted over the last few years, and it’s hard to ignore.

I’ve never really felt like I worked for DXC — my focus has always been on doing right by the client and delivering a good outcome. But recently, it feels like we’re neither wanted, respected, nor trusted to do the job we’re here for. Work is withheld or second-guessed at every step, with everything needing detailed oversight. It’s draining, and it doesn’t exactly inspire anyone to go the extra mile.

That lack of trust is one thing, but when it’s paired with years of a 0% pay rise policy, it becomes even harder to stay motivated.

People often say financial reward is only part of a job — and that’s true. But right now, there’s very little else to balance it out. There’s no real sense of job satisfaction, no recognition when something is done well, and often not even a simple “thank you.” It increasingly feels like the expectation is that having a job should be enough in itself.

For me, that balance has tipped. What used to be tolerable — even enjoyable at times — has turned into something I genuinely dislike. The disconnect is such that it’s hard to care whether projects succeed or fail, especially when accountability can so easily be shifted elsewhere — to a missed detail, a PM oversight, or yet another broken process that makes delivery unnecessarily difficult.

It raises a bigger question: how sustainable is this? Because from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t feel like something that can continue for much longer, and I will be happy to see it collapse.

Carrot + stick + fear + metrics” = control-based management Transparency = trust-based management

GK’s brand reputation clearly stands for doing what’s best for the stock and not for the employees.
It’s time to show her again, like we did after the first townhall, that we do have a say.
Go on Glassdoor, indeed, etc. and tell those looking for work at USB that this place su-ks and she, along with her MC, are a bunch of knuckleheads with no care for the employees.

Ask the tough questions on the townhall. Vote up the questions about trust, transparency and lack of care for employees. Call out the head of HR for being such a terrible leader and policy maker and reach out to your local news and let them know about this last RTO mess they created.

What kind of company changes rules and then publishes bad data based on those changes? If I can't trust the data now then why should I trust it next month?

Layoffs ki-led any sense of teamwork. Don't let anyone near your work or they'll take credit. Hide your files. Even managers are doing it.

Tech bosses say AI will make us work less. So far, that's mostly meant fewer of us will be working for them full-time in the long run. So be distrustful of anything you hear from leadership.

More enjoyable:
Getting a root canal without novocaine.

More trustworthy:
Eating a tuna fish sandwich sitting out in the desert sun all day.

Your turn.

Serious question: is this an actual leadership change… or just another episode of “nothing to see here, carry on”?

Because if you’ve been here longer than five minutes, you’ve seen this headline before. Big announcement. Big promises. Same results. Now we’re being told the MM exit is happening in July.
July??

So we’re just supposed to sit tight for a few more months and pretend everything is fine while the same dysfunction keeps running? That the damage they did to people didn’t happen? At this point, it’s not even skepticism, it’s pattern recognition.

Let’s recap what employees have actually experienced:
• Constant churn
• Strong people walking out the door
• “Transformation” that somehow makes things worse, not better
• Leadership narratives that don’t match reality on the ground

And now we’re supposed to believe this time it’s different?

I think the real internal reaction is:
“I’ll believe it when I see the calendar hit July… and even then, I’ll give it a week.”

Also—genuine question—how much did this last year of “strategy” actually cost the company in lost talent, momentum, and dollars?

Because that’s the part no one ever addresses. If this is real, great. Long overdue. But respectfully… employees aren’t celebrating yet.

We’ve learned, we have the scars, the damage has been done and we will pray for the future org they fake their way into.

Let's talk about what actually happened.

Avaya didn't just restructure. They cut thousands of experienced people — account managers, engineers, support staff — people who had spent years building real relationships with real customers. Not contractors. Not redundant roles. The people customers actually called when something broke or a deal needed to get done.

And those customers noticed. We watched it happen in real time. The calls shifted overnight. Not "what's the roadmap for Infinity" — it was "who do I even talk to now" and "should we start looking at alternatives."

Now there's a LinkedIn post about hiring to sell Infinity. Like the last few years didn't happen.

Here's the thing about trust in enterprise tech — it's not a product feature. You can't relaunch it. It lives in the people who showed up consistently for years, who knew the customer's environment, who picked up the phone. A lot of those people are gone. And the customers they served remember exactly why they left.

BlackBerry had better hardware by the time people stopped buying it. Didn't matter. The relationship was already broken.

We're not saying Avaya can't survive. But surviving and winning back the people you walked away from are two very different things. One is possible. The other takes a lot more than a job posting.

There is a pattern of behavior where the individual keeps project teams siloed and separated, while expecting everyone to remain aware of all activities. At the same time, information is selectively hidden within teams, creating confusion and lack of transparency.

Communication is often done in Hindi, which can exclude some team members from fully understanding discussions. The individual also appears to influence people to report directly to him, positioning himself as a central point of control. When status updates are requested, he tends to protect those who report to him, which encourages more people to align with him for safety.

Conversely, those who do not report to him are often put in a negative light—either blamed, overlooked, or set up in ways that impact their performance or perception. There are instances where opinions are shaped against certain individuals, affecting their growth, ratings, and opportunities. Senior leadership responsibilities such as supporting, mentoring, and enabling team success are not being fulfilled consistently.

This environment has led to decreased trust, lack of collaboration, and has been a contributing factor in multiple team members choosing to leave.

I can imagine how everyone feels, especially the veterans. I'm still here, but it doesn't really matter, does it? They can drop more of this on us anytime. We're being betrayed by a company so many of us have given years to. I'm saying this knowing I might get ridiculed. And I know, on an intellectual level, that this is how things work. But as a human being and a professional, I feel we are being betrayed.

The recent surge in share prices are not a reflection of the market now thinking Phillips 66 is a better investment than peers.

YTD we are trailing all refiners, including PBF, Delek, and even CVR and are right in line with the broader S&P energy index. Bets on refining were made with the start of the Iran war and we did not benefit. We just followed the inflow of money into energy.

We still have a long way to go before we earn the trust of investors. We must deliver Q1 results given the current favorable margin environment.

I spent the last few years training and helping several contractors in the labs. The contractors were always scared of getting fired and made many mistakes. I helped them fix these mistakes and protect them. The contractors always said they appreciated the help ve in and said they were grateful. I helped them because I believed in helping those in need. The supervisor was always looking for kiss a and snitches. The contractors were not trusted to snitch on other employees. Fast forward to last year and many of these contractors were hired on. The change was almost immediate by the newbies. They started kiss a bad and backstabbing everyone. Everyone of them had secret meetings with the supervisor to tell all. I have never hid my dislike of exxons inefficient bureaucracy and was surprised to be told by my manger that I should watch what I say. I have only shared these feelings with the newbies. So all my help was for nothing as these snakes are trying to ki-l me. I don't talk to these a holes anymore. They still try to get information out of me but I just ignore them now. Trust no one.

The atmosphere changed after the layoffs became the norm and it hasn't come back. People are hesitant to speak up, to take initiative, and to trust. I keep waiting for things to feel normal again, but they never do. It's no surprise, though, since we all know more layoffs are always a possibility.

Why is this leadership incapable of being fully transparent? They let us sit in uncertainty, guessing and hoping to hear something official that rarely arrives before we already managed to find out what's coming. Do they really not see how that's affecting morale and makes us trust them less and less?

I still think about a meeting where they told us we were crushing our goals. The vibe was good, people were relaxed, and it actually felt like things were going right for a change. Then a week later, half the team was gone. It’s hard to believe anything they say after something like that.

May 1st will be a new beginning and fresh start for fiber. Arium & Zayos paths are uncertain but they have a future good or bad. Crown however, is damaged and the trust has been broken every Crown employee will be looking over his or her shoulders for next layoff for years to come

I’ve been in a work environment where leadership is often framed as “shared,” with the message that everyone is leading. In reality, it doesn’t feel that way.

There’s a pattern of conversations being guided toward a preferred outcome, where input is less about open collaboration and more about aligning with what’s already been decided. It creates the impression of shared leadership, but often feels like managed agreement.

When someone has the authority to make decisions but avoids clearly owning them, it shifts responsibility onto others and creates confusion around accountability. Over time, it makes it harder to trust the process or feel that input is genuinely valued.

Strong leadership isn’t about telling people what they want to hear or steering them to a specific answer — it’s about transparency, ownership, and honest communication, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Curious if others have experienced similar

A new CEOWORLD magazine study surveyed 125,000 full-time U.S. employees. Most employees believe return-to-office mandates are "stealth layoffs." 72% suspect these policies aim to cut headcount without severance. Many workers engage in "coffee badging" or seek new jobs from the office. Strict monitoring correlates with lower trust, especially among Gen Z.

https://ceoworld.biz/2026/03/18/report-stealth-layoffs-and-coffee-badging-what-125000-u-s-employees-reveal-about-rto-mandates/

Things were kept under wraps for a while but now your Band 5 leader now knows what’s going down…they have to choose who is going to be riffed…who will sink or swim. Don’t trust a single thing they say…

HR will protect the company not you

1. Do you agree that the information contained in the database associates your name with your survey responses? If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

2. Do you agree that the unique link helps ensure that people don't take the survey twice? But in so doing, do you also agree that the unique link is also stored in the database, which associates your name with your survey responses? If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

3. Do you agree that Dell could retrieve your information if they ever needed to for things like legal discovery, etc? For example, if someone said something really stupid like made a threat or something, which has happened before. If so, then by definition it is NOT anonymous.

4. Do you trust Dell HR and/or Dell leadership?

True anonymity severs any PII between the user, user ID, employee number, etc., from existence. It never creates it in the first place - i.e., no logs, no db entry, no links, no memory, nada. That's not the case here by virtue of the way it is created, distributed, and stored.

As to whether the 3rd party who manages the survey would give up that information, that's an entirely different discussion altogether.

But it is NOT anonymous by definition, End of Story.