#cost

FTEs got laid off, contractors stayed on AND many got their contract renewed till 2027/12, right before the layoff! Contractors cost WAY MORE than FTEs, the math just doesn't add up!!!!

Did anyone notice that the last cycle saving account contribution didn't get credited to your sunlife account? Isn't this stuff supposedly regulated and a company could be penalized for error, like some type of interest/missing opportunity cost.

“How much less are the salaries in US Bank’s Chennai India technology center vs US based roles?”

ChatGPT: Quite a bit less. The public Chennai salary data are still sparse and sometimes internally inconsistent, but a reasonable estimate is that U.S. Bank technology labor in Chennai costs roughly 70–85% less in direct salary than comparable U.S.-based technology labor.

There are "senior leaders" within IT, specifically within the IT S&S org that have been blessed with the ability to be FULL TIME REMOTE.
Why are these "specials" allowed to work from: Florida, Ohio, San Antonio, Houston.
How is it cost effective for all these leaders to spend 3M $ to meet in MN once a month for a week?
Can anyone shed some light on this? Big bright spot light...

I just paid $4.29 for gas and dreading returning to office full time. Why isn’t Fidelity addressing this giant elephant in the room? This combined with everyday living expenses, how are people making it work?
If they want us back in full time, fine. But is now really the best time? They could let the dust settle, let prices come down, and then require full time back in office; we could continue our schedule we’ve been following for years now until then. It just seems completely tone deaf and I am sick of pretending this is fine and the new normal.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/ev-and-future-tech/articles/585-hp-chinese-ev-looks-144500118.html

• Revenue +10% YoY to $2.396B, despite the average fleet being 1% smaller. That’s a strong sign that Hertz is getting more revenue out of its fleet.
• RPD +9% to $61.98 — a very important metric for Hertz. RPU was +8%.
• Adjusted EBITDA $81M, up from $18M last year — a $63M improvement and, importantly, above the top end of revised guidance. That’s one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the improvement is real.
• GAAP net income was +$64M, versus a $294M loss in Q2 2025. That’s a huge year-over-year improvement.
• The RPD vs. operating-cost spread improved 17%, for the third consecutive quarter. That’s particularly encouraging because it suggests the improvement isn’t simply a one-quarter fluke.
• Hertz says its full-year RPU should now be above $1,500, its “North Star” target.
• The fleet is much younger: 94% of the U.S. core fleet is 2025/2026 model year.

I found out the other day from a site lead that Boston is imminent. March 2027 is the projected day to have us into Boston both Westborough and Everett. This is very alarming. This is going to incur so much money for me coming from Westborough. I know that they just closed their are in the process of closing the Delaware office so they definitely are getting their ducks in a row to make sure that there’s only certain areas that are open. The site lead was hesitant to let us know but ended up telling us because he felt bad. it’s very concerning to me that both my manager and my director are not even relaying this information. I understand it will cause a spike in people departing, but wouldn’t you rather be forthcoming to individuals that you call a “family I don’t know my time here is definitely up. I’ve been looking, but just haven’t had any luck with finding a new job hopefully I can continue to do this through March 2027. I do not really want to go four days a week into Boston. The cost alone would drive my measly salary more into the ground.

Los Angeles Unified School District is projected to face a significant cash shortfall, prompting concerns about its financial stability. The district must revise its fiscal plan within 45 days to avoid increased county oversight. Experts suggest that declining enrollment, expiring COVID-19 relief funds, and rising operational costs are contributing factors. Tough decisions, including potential layoffs, furloughs, and school consolidation, are anticipated. The district is urged to rely on its own cost-cutting measures rather than expecting substantial state aid.

Los Angeles, California

https://edsource.org/2026/lausd-financial-crisis-looms/763170?amp=1

Entire empty buildings, with equipment on a single floor, are kept at refrigerator-like temperatures. Why?

Was there for quite a while paid upwards of $1300 a month for many many years.

Deductibles were high, even on the plan where they deductible was the least amount.

Prescriptions were expensive, even with that insurance.

Post Baker Hughes I’m coming to realize that their insurance was not all that great..

Now at a different employer with their insurance, it’s 1/3 cheaper per month deductibles are very, very low and prescription medicine is cheaper.

We have been "cost saving" for the last 5 years and we are STILL CUTTING. I chose to control my future rather than wait - this year or next - to be RIFd. This company does not care if you are an amazing employee - we are just numbers always take the money

https://www.twz.com/air/boeing-has-now-eaten-3b-in-air-force-one-cost-overruns

Lee College is proposing significant budget adjustments for fiscal year 2027 due to an anticipated $4 million reduction in state funding. These changes include eliminating 23 vacant positions, which represent $1.6 million in salaries, and cutting a summer course. The college will also implement a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for employees and increase the benefits budget. Despite these reductions, six new positions will be added, primarily to support the Huntsville Center's Associate of Arts program. The college board will finalize the budget in August.

Baytown, TX

https://baytownsun.com/local/lee-college-cuts-costs-closes-positions-no-layoffs-expected-for-fiscal-year-2027/article_830d3383-23ac-4d4a-bc7d-49de9ad9756d.html

Dominik Asam discussed the company’s enterprise AI strategy, explaining why businesses are becoming more focused on AI cost:

There is now a recognition that AI tokens are not free. Every enterprise we talk to is grappling with the fact that token spending is going through the roof.

There is now a recognition that throwing tokens, in a probabilistic way, at every problem might not be the most efficient approach.

There is also a fear of vendor lock-in, as certain models are starting to increase their prices.

That is why SAP has chosen a completely different architecture. I checked this morning, and we now have 58 large language models integrated into our AI platform.

This allows us to take advantage of competition across models, both in terms of performance and cost. We can also route each task to the most appropriate model.

Sometimes you do not need the most expensive model.

Even more importantly, sometimes you do not need a model at all. You can solve the problem in a deterministic, algorithmic, and easily auditable way by simply crunching the numbers.

At SAP, we have the ability to leverage all of these approaches.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8JPBNvs/

Which would you have picked if you had the option? Charlotte would make sense only for commute to work and cost of living. Dallas on the other hand has lots of companies if T lays you off a year later. Both cities are new to family and kids are still in schools.

How can fiscam justify the push of AI now that the costs are becoming clearer?
Another cost to drive share price much lower!

Just learned that there are lots of folks as monthly contractor under Salm / Jef h team in technology used as rate cart driver. Also, very expensive opex contractors still around. This is really new to me. We got laid off but this?

Further targeted layoffs are likely as part of sustained cost discipline. Q2 earnings (July 24) will provide the next update.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemmagreen/2026/07/02/ai-costs-more-than-the-people-it-replaced/?ref=wheresyoured.at

Most CEOs are starting to become aware of this and are trying to figure out solutions. Not us, though. SAP is doubling down. Wait until we start getting charged non-subsidized rates.

The rest of the tech world is now concerned about AI and its expense. Tokenmaxing is over. Industry is pivoting back to people. But what is CDW telling the street? That they will save 200M by using AI. Not likely, and late. What is CDW telling employees? "USE AI!! AI forward everyone" The amount of useless AI output is a major hidden cost in both tokens and time. Just wait until Q2 and Q3 to see the surprise token expense hit the bottom line.

SDS layoffs every 4 months but it costs over $500,000 to fly and lodge all SDS VPs and CIO as none of them live within 1000 miles of office. Is that wrong?

Real talent cost as much as PHK.

https://iowastartingline.com/news/labor/40-of-iowans-cant-afford-rent-and-bills-iowa-workers-almanac-layoffs-and-news-for-june-25-2026/

Companies poured billions into AI with sky-high expectations. It was supposed to be the ultimate productivity hack — slashing costs, supercharging innovation, and delivering effortless competitive advantage. Executives bet big that generative AI and automation would be the simple solution to margin pressure, talent shortages, and sluggish growth.

Now the reckoning is here.

Early pilots looked magical. Chatbots answered queries, code assistants sped up development, and analytics tools promised smarter decisions. But scaling those wins across the enterprise is proving far more expensive and complicated than the headlines suggested.

The costs are piling up: massive compute infrastructure, eye-watering energy consumption, specialized talent that commands premium salaries, constant model retraining, and the hidden expense of integrating brittle AI systems into legacy workflows. Many organizations are discovering that AI doesn’t magically replace headcount — it often requires more people to manage, monitor, and refine outputs. Hallucinations, bias issues, and compliance risks add further friction and potential liability.

The result? A growing number of leaders are quietly coming to terms with a harder truth: AI is a powerful tool, not a plug-and-play savior. ROI timelines are stretching. Some projects are being quietly deprioritized or rightsized. The hype cycle is colliding with balance-sheet reality.

That doesn’t mean AI is a bust. Far from it. The companies that will win are the ones treating it as a long-term capability build rather than a quick-fix expense. They’re focusing on narrow, high-value use cases, investing in data quality, building human-AI collaboration models, and being honest about both the upside and the total cost of ownership.

The era of “just add AI” is ending. The era of thoughtful, disciplined AI adoption is beginning.
What are you seeing in your organization — genuine transformation or mounting costs? Curious to hear real experiences.

#AI #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #TechAdoption

Cesar just announced the President Club. Roughly 150 people going to Four Seasons in Sydney. What's something like that gotta cost? How many FTEs could it have saved?

How are we paying for this??

The last Cost of Living Raise in stores happened in 2021 (part 1) and in 2022 (part 2).

The last Realignment happened in mid-2024.

The company seems to realign and give cost of living raises every few years since 2015.

Any chatter about the next ones?

Do year end reviews have any bearing on the upcoming layoffs ? Do direct managers have any input ?

Is it all cost related ?

Gas prices keep climbing, yet we’re still pretending there’s a business case for forcing people to drive to an office five days a week to do work that happens on a laptop.

Every increase at the pump is another pay cut for employees.

More money spent commuting, time wasted in traffic for the same work and same Teams calls that can happen anywhere in the world.

The cost of RTO keeps going up. The benefits remain impossible to find.

Well, the reality of its price and ROI. It's going to be so much fun to sit here and watch as the price tag balloons to ten times what it would have cost to keep the people who were laid of to be replaced by it. And then to watch them scramble to get the same quality of people back. I'm seated.

Many companies who totally dependent on AI are realizing the true value of employees. Dan is doing continues layoffs just like anything... AI is much much costlier.

Even though there no travel for everyone else , no money, LP and CB (costs extra on a plane) went to see that Investor that now has 6% stake in Prague yesterday. Wonder what they talk about? Why could not be done on teams?

We are told we are an AI first company.

Now we are being told not to use it too much as it's costing too much money!

https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs

I don’t understand why we own ships and have such a large maritime presence/teams? Seems like a ripe area for ENGINE or simply rent ships from someone else. I can’t imagine we operate ships less expensive than the open market!

Cracks are starting to appear in the AI will save us so much money narrative.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ai-cost-tokens-gemini-flash-openai-anthropic-gemini-search-2026-5

On Monday, June 1st, Copilot moves to token-based billing with major adjustments to token-cost multipliers. Some models will cost 60x more per token than others. Most of what users would call the "useful" models will become exceedingly expensive in comparison to the others.

Guess I’m finally going to start using AI as much as Sandeep has begged for.

Get ready to open your wallets, you d-mb fu--ing ghouls.

Tech Firms and Large Employers just now realizing cost of compute is higher than paying human workers.
Nvidia VP Bryan Catanzaro told Axios that for his team, compute costs now run far beyond what his employees cost. Uber's CTO burned through his entire 2026 AI budget on coding tools alone — and that was by April. (Axios)
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger claimed that his team spent more than $1.3 million in token costs in just a single month. Because of this, it’s now apparent that using AI is more expensive than hiring people, especially since it offers only limited productivity gains at the moment.
Despite no clear evidence of AI improving productivity and no widespread data supporting the idea of AI displacing jobs, big tech firms have committed $740 billion in AI capital expenditures this year — a 69% jump from 2025. That spending has coincided with more than 92,000 tech layoffs in 2026 so far. (Fortune) So companies are simultaneously spending more on AI, laying people off, and discovering the math doesn't pencil out the way they projected.