#careerpivot

Sitting here on the beach pondering my next move. Do I really want to rejoin the corporate grind? Nahhh...

Toes in the sand, drink in my hand.

Hope your post Intel journey goes well.

I worked my a-s off for this company for ten years and barely broke 65k. With news of the NM layoffs, I decided to look elsewhere and found loads of companies hiring. I immediately found employment making over 70k starting. It just su-ks to think back on how dedicated I was to this place and was given such a low ball offer to mine to Covington. Up yours Crystal! Life is so much better outside of the bullsh-t corporate green Fidelity umbrella!

Although I shouldn't be surprised, I was. I received the out of cycle 1x1 and was notified yesterday that my role was being eliminated and that my last day was this week.
I'm not here to complain, point fingers, or play victim. But want people to understand that there is never a better time to prepare for your future career than now.

I panicked at first, but now, with some time to really assess my situation, it almost feels like a blessing. I wasn’t planning on leaving, but I was so unhappy that having them make that decision for me actually did me a favor. I’m still looking for something new, but I have a few interviews lined up, and even without a secured job, I’m happier than I was at Optum. Go figure.

I imagine there are many of us (mid career 10+ years) that assumed we would retire from this company. However this was the year that got some of us, and now we are left standing. However are you holding up? What are you doing now/plan to do next? Genuinely interested in hearing what folks have to say.

Longer you stay rustier you become.
And they treat you bad and may let go any day.
Even if you make it to MR75 no benefits and even harder to get out.
Cash out your meager pension on the way out. Better use it to get debt free.
Explore options to buy your own insurance.
Live below your means, get debt free , update your skills, invest in indexed funds and get outta here.

Anthem expanded rapidly and with each acquisition decided who to keep or dump, but instead of keeping those with true subject matter knowledge or leadership skills they selected based on favoritism, self-promotion and the ability to take credit for the work of others. The current state is an extremely top-heavy royal court of tone deaf “leaders” who in my opinion, add little to no value. Because they are in over their heads, I believe they relied on overpaid consultants who sold them on a dysfunctional and elitist business agile model.

Senior leaders were to identify their subject matter experts and make them a grade 15, with stock options after 3 years, higher bonuses and unlimited PTO. But instead of choosing the most worthy, they chose their glam squad, the people who make their PowerPoints and make them look good.

Now that they believe they’ve secured their “brain trust” phase 2 appears to be a business strategy where they replace current experienced employees with a) cheaper on shore hires, b) offshore employees, or c) will completely eliminate positions and replace with AI. If you are still working long hours and weekends trying to bail this sinking ship, just stop. There is no place for you in the lifeboats and there never was.

If you are a grade 15 category and one of the, I’d estimate 40%, who are carrying the other 60%, who use their unlimited PTO all the time, I would put in to take the month of September or October off and see if your peers step up; spoiler alert- they can’t so they won’t. You should plan to leave the minute you get vested.

Agile philosophy means you learn and expand your role; it doesn’t mean you take on the workload of three people. Collaboration in Agile is organized, it isn’t just random in office time to check a box. Return to Office mandates will result in others leaving, when collaboration has the people who work witness first-hand the lack of knowledge and work output among others who are paid much more and do far less.

Elevance has now created an organizational caste system. It used to be if you worked hard, you succeeded, the company succeeded, and everyone reaped the benefit; even if some were better compensated than others. Under this new methodology, there is a largely unworthy noble class that does very little, other than attending meetings where they assign out work to the small minority of grade 15’s who work and to grade 14’s and below. It takes no skill to say something is broken, it is fixing it that requires knowledge and effort. As shown last year, when bonus time comes around the pie is sliced so that those who do less are rewarded more.

With recent layoffs the royal court is scrambling to find peasants to pick up the slack; don’t fall for it. Let the favorite children who still get decent raises and bonuses finally do real work and fix things; if they can. Do enough to keep your job and your sanity until you can find something better. Set an alarm and work an 8 hour day, but when the alarm goes off if you think about working one minute more, remember that there is a VP that is taking 6 paid weeks to climb Everest and will return and still have more PTO, while you are neglecting your friends and family. Don’t overexert during upcoming peak and before you ever consider working a weekend realize that Elevance must be well staffed since they’ve yet to revoke unlimited PTO.

This is the logical conclusion of Elevance policies. Almost every working employee could likely qualify for an anxiety diagnosis. The lack of transparency in layoffs, where employees are disappeared overnight like you’re living in a communist regime, leads to a fear response. In the short term, you might get a burst of productivity, when workers try to do more to avoid getting on the RIF list. But when the RIFs keep coming, and there is no transparency or apparent logic to the RIF’s, the avoidance phase sets in. The weekend or PTO provides short term relief, but you come back to the same stress and if work piles up during PTO it is even worse. Politely turn down the extra work and cite health reasons; it is not a misrepresentation, maybe they can create a new diagnosis code for Elevance induced anxiety- Elevancia.

Calculate the hours you work verses your pay to arrive at your true salary. Calculate the cost of a commute that you may not have agreed to when you were hired. Calculate the impact of stress. Give the minimum you can but don’t buy into the fact that you owe more to fix problems that other’s incompetence and egos created. Notice that some of the fixers are leaving, so believe if or not, it may get worse.

Don’t sacrifice your physical or mental health for an organization that views you as completely disposable. If you set boundaries and get RIF’ed, it potentially was only a matter of time anyway. RIF’s no longer appear to be an unfortunate business necessity, but rather an Elevance business strategy. If the stock drops enough maybe the board will finally step in and replace the current inept leadership team and their royal court.
#IChooseMe
#Elevancia
#PeasantsUnite

More than 15 years with Nike. I gave it every chance to change and improve because of those good early days. But I’m done waiting and wasting time with a company that lacks vision and a real future. I just landed another job. Not better by any measure, but in a different environment. If I stayed here another day, I’d have jumped out of my skin. Wishing you all the best. And if you end up as fed up as I am, don’t hesitate - leave. There’s no point staying somewhere that makes you feel awful.

I didn’t want to have to start interviewing again, but the situation left me no choice. The thought of sending out resumes and preparing for interviews feels draining, but staying in a place that doesn’t value your work to this extent is even worse. I'll rather be uncomfortable then staying here longer than I have to.

I was laid off, and I don’t have regrets. I’d been bracing for this, the anxiety had been building for a while, so in some ways, it feels like a relief. I’m also grateful it gave me the push I needed to start looking elsewhere. I stayed at Oracle too long, became complacent, and lost sight of other possibilities. Staying in one place for too long isn’t great for self-confidence or professional growth, especially with how companies have been operating over the past decade. The job market is tough, but here’s hoping I prove I’m tougher.

Good luck to the rest of you, and don’t let yourself fall under the psychological pressure the corporate environment, and especially layoffs, can create. There are always other options, and other opportunities to prove to yourself that you’re good at what you do.

For those of you who are still with the company and are unhappy with the state of affairs, you need to start designing your exit plan. That may mean updating your resume, looking for new roles, hitting your network for opportunities and/or brushing up on new skills. Don't wait for senior leadership to tell you it's time, you control yours and the future for your family. Secondly, set a date. Once you have a set date of when you want to exit, whatever nonsense is happening will impact you less and you will be working towards something productive besides feeling unhappy about what senior leadership is doing and not doing. My last comment is about the topic of Toxic Leadership which has seem to come on to this board as a main point of concern. Toxic Leadership is always 100% a problem with the tone at the top. A top research in labor studies told me that these type of leaders learned, at a very young age, that if they did not have absolute control that they had no value. It is why the behaviors are so pronounced when they are in position to oversee others and to maintain it they surround themselves with yes men or those that will help create a work environment that normalizes the behavior. Remember, good people don't go around trying to destroy others.