#culture

Highway to He-l by AC/DC

TLDR: It’s not one problem. It’s a broken culture, recycled leadership, slow everything, and no real accountability. Nothing changes until the people at the top do.

It’s the culture. It’s the nepotism. It’s the same insular leadership group playing musical chairs and calling it progress. Your reward for poor performance is getting moved to run another department.

It’s the fact that half the people on campus on any given day are contractors. It’s hard to build anything real when so much of the workforce is temporary and disconnected.

It’s us still working like it’s 2006 while most of corporate America is in 2026. Outdated systems, outdated processes, and no urgency to fix them. Ten year “transformations” that take one year at any competent company.

It’s the consultants who latch on and never leave. Endless decks, endless frameworks, no real accountability. Just more layers between the problem and anyone willing to actually solve it.

It’s a tech org that still acts surprised that global talent exists. It’s marketing that talks about the consumer like it only fits into narrow boxes instead of understanding how broad the audience actually is.

Too many people with “creative” in their title, not enough actual creative thinking. Safe ideas, recycled ideas, nothing that really pushes.

And all these posts about going back to some golden age miss the point. Those same problems existed back then. People just didn’t care as much because the company was winning and everyone had a job. The s-xism, the favoritism, all of it was there. It just got ignored. Then the company tried to correct course with DEI but a lot of that turned into people taking care of their own under a different label. Still no one said anything. Not really. Not until layoffs started hitting.

There is no course correcting this with the same people making the same decisions. It needs new leadership and a genuinely fresh perspective. That’s not impossible. Look at Abercrombie, Gap, Levi’s. Even Adidas managed to steady itself after the Kanye mess in a couple of years.

Culture starts at the top. Always has.

Toxic boss believes no one can look good besides the toxic boss.

So last July I was in SIU and got forced, with a two day notice, to move to Fire Claims. It took me 15 years to get to SIU, enjoyed my job and got good level 3 & 4 ratings. I do not have any fire claims experience. I absolutely loathe Fire claims and miserable every day. This place is a total sh-t hole! So our SM was in our huddle this week and basically said we are overstaffed in certain areas in Fire claims and we should expect some changes coming soon. Going to need less people...also there will be no new hiring in 2026! I've only been out of training now for 8 months and basically what they are trying to do is fire anyone and everyone due to overstaffing. This really is a complete and total evil clueless company! Stay away and go find something else to do!

Such a waste of time. The only measurable outcome is my rising blood pressure.

It’s convenient to blame engineers at every level, but management seems to operate in a different accountability universe—one where failure has no real consequences.
At the LL6, LL5 level and above, you see the same pattern of weak, indecisive leadership repeating the same mistakes quarter after quarter. There’s little ownership, no urgency to correct course, and no visible standard for performance. Yet the paychecks keep coming, funding comfortable lifestyles that appear completely detached from the results they deliver.
What’s worse is the revolving door. Ineffective managers get swapped out, only to be replaced by equally ineffective ones. Nothing improves because the system itself tolerates—and even rewards—mediocrity. It’s not just an individual failure; it’s structural.
At that point, calling it a product-driven organization feels dishonest. It looks far more like a closed circle protecting itself—an insular social club that talks strategy but consistently fails to execute anything of real substance.

How hard they are trying to find people to get rid of. Multiple ways of tracking the same work, how often you're moving the mouse, clicking, and typing. Whether your work can be replaced by a push-button workflow.

Capitalism is showing just how ruthless it truly is.

Remember, at the end of the day everyone is replaceable. Never think you aren't. Don't ever work harder than you think you should. Just get your work done, go home be with family , take care of your health before any damn job. Sometimes less is more.

I recently resigned because my lit job started to feel like I was at Allstate or Geico. Upper management micromanaging has reared their ugly head and begun making life miserable. I wonder how much worse it will get

If you sent a job to the Total Remuneration department to be graded and the job description included "data entry" the job would most certainly come back with a low non exempt pay grade. But that is what the refineries have engineers doing, data entry. When drawings and equipment databases need to be updated, the process if for the highest paid and highest skilled people to sit at a computer and do tedious data entry instead of handing this off to staff. This is just stupid. And to add insult to injury, there is no org wide initiative to entertain work process improvement opportunities. If we raise this as an opportunity, there is no mechanism to hear it or act upon it. This breeds mediocrity. Let the engineers do engineering work and project management, and hand off the lower level work to cheaper employees. What are we doing here? How about you go back in the wayback machine and read Tom Peters instead of worrying about the cost of coffee and copy paper.

Got flagged for occasional coffee badging. They must be monitoring the cameras. Any others?

RYAM held a company wide meeting on Wednesday April 15th titled “RYAM Uplift” with goal of uplifting employees hearts and minds. The meeting quickly jumped off the rails when it was clear that leadership had no plans on actually taking questions via the provided Slido app. Employees grew concerned over the poor leadership under former CEO DeLyle Bloomquist who was outwardly hostile to employees on numerous occasions. Questions around the third in a string of fires at RYAM largest facility in Jesup, GA was a hot topic as it impacted spending coming out of their annual outage. Overall sentiment among employees is that leadership is out of touch with employees at the plant levels.

Conway management threatening employees with handling if the don't get ridiculous yard repair number. Being told to replace parts unnecessarily just to hit the numbers. Any other locations pushing this? AAR/FRA?

Nike stock up 40 cents today. Adidas stock up over 3 dollars today.
Every leader should be embarrassed as they take months to fumble another layoff execution.
Fing ridiculous…..
Tech is a joke.
3soles not cutting it….

Do you remember when we were sent a book by ibram x kendi and ask to read it. And we had DEI meetings discussing pronouns and such? What a bunch of garbage that was.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern: when full-time employees in my role leave, they’re almost always replaced with contractors rather than new permanent hires. That shift feels telling. It suggests that Truist may no longer see this position as a long-term investment, instead opting for the lower cost and reduced obligations that come with contract workers. No benefits, no paid time off, and a built-in exit after a fixed term.

This wasn’t always the case. Historically, Truist staffed this role with full-time employees, which reflected a different level of commitment. What makes the change even more striking is that a closely related job family within the same organization continues to be filled exclusively with permanent hires. The contrast highlights a clear shift in priorities: one job family appears to be viewed as strategically important for the long term, while the other, despite having the same pay grades, is treated as more temporary or expendable.

Could Elcio have been more of a condescending a-s? I am just so done with him, he doesn’t listen. He is completely tone deaf. Anyone else?

Our Q1 earnings call opened with its usual corporate shine: revenue up, efficiency up, and the stock price climbing like it had somewhere far better to be. But when the discussion turned to employee merit increases, the mood darkened faster than a server outage on payroll day.

Executives praised their “disciplined approach to compensation,” which employees on TheLayoff.com immediately translated as: “Your raise will be so small it can be expressed in decimal places.”

Associates reported merit bumps between 0.00% and 1.00%, the kind of increase that doesn’t meaningfully change anyone’s paycheck—or mood.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee’s compensation disclosures told a very different story—one written in double digit percentages. As one commenter put it: “Our single digit raises must be the secret engine powering the double-digit growth in the stock price… and the even bigger growth in the CEO’s bonus.”

Consider RV’s 2025 total annual compensation of $83.5 million USD is roughly equivalent to the annual earnings of about 17,000 average workers in Pune, India. Interestingly, according to company sources, BNY India operations currently employ 7,000+ people across Pune and Chennai.

The CFO’s package drew similar reactions: “My raise couldn’t cover a tank of gas. His could fund all the lost tolls for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

Employees joked that BNY had perfected a new economic model: Shrink employee raises + Inflate margins = Celebrate the ‘efficiency gains’ with ginormous executive compensation packages.

By the end of the call, the stock was soaring, the executives were glowing, and associates were refreshing TheLayoff.com to see who got “realigned” next in the daily crusade for cost-efficient chaos.

A flawless quarter. KPI’s say one thing while non-digital human associates say something very differently.

I thought we had great working relationships with some brilliant ex-colleagues, but I’ve been cut off after they left the company. It hurts more than I’d like to admit, and it’s happening more often. I genuinely value those people and would really like to work with them again. Why does it happen? I want to keep the relationship but they don’t.

Looking at the number of likes there is a high visit rates

Never seen an entire organization all check out at the same time in my career like this. Nobody has confidence in leadership and I would estimate over 80% of people are looking for new jobs. Even new hires are skeptical, turn over the leadership team before it’s too late.

I am paying nearly 30% more for my commute every week, and that’s in my econobox of a ten year old Toyota. I asked my boss if I could WFH one or two days a week. His response was su-k it up, “You don’t hear the people driving those 4WD trucks and SUVs complaining, do you?”

The position is being described as “an amazing opportunity” in a “winning company”

The reality is you will be working at a store in a dead mall from the 1970s.

A mall parking lot with creators in it that can swallow your car

A store full of mold and rodents

A skeleton crew of employees

The year Chevron made the most money and the employees made nothing more for their work. Chevron on track for another record year and another middle finger to the hard workers who decided to stay. 100+ people that I know are ready to walk. Take care of your people or you will find out we can fu-k you harder.

The situation at Verizon perfectly encapsulates a bitter reality of the corporate ecosystem: when leadership miscalculates, the workforce absorbs the shock.

The executives who championed the failed pricing strategies of the past are rarely the ones standing in the unemployment line. Instead, the everyday workers pay the price for those executive missteps so that the institutional investors can recoup their money.

​Schulman’s strategy may very well succeed in bouncing Verizon's stock price back to a respectable valuation. The math might start working again.

But what the brand truly stands for when its financial resurrection requires the systematic dismantling of its own culture and the displacement of the very people who trusted the company with their careers.

It is a financial victory achieved through a human loss.

Has anyone noticed that this business excellence BS is just another flavor of the month initiative that literally teaches us nothing new. Old concepts that have been around for an eternity such as DMAIC , 5whys, 6 sigma concepts wrapped with a different bow and labeled business excellence. What’s even more disturbing is the amount of directors , senior directors and vp level that have been hired to run this gimmick around the world . No wonder the company is falling apart .. no wonder our stock is tanking .. poor leadership, poor director, bad culture and lack of execution. When the entire c suite runs out it’s more than a red flag it’s a burning flag .. penny pinch the poor little guys and the manufacturing sites.. choke them to death with your kaizen nonsense and keep streamlining processes to death until quality is non existent and complaints begin to skyrocket and patients die with our products oh wait that already happened.. complaints started to climb up thanks to the cut cut cut cut cut to maximize gross profit. Tom get out and take all the incompetent leaders with you cause there are lots of them. Also take the business excellence “plants” with you they add no value and they’re costing u a lot. I suppose u had to give big titles to show Wall Street u mean business when it comes to maximizing gross profit and shareholder value? What a sad story.

In my time with the firm, there’s been a real shift in leadership in my organization.

The current group of MDs doesn’t have the same tenure or approach, and the environment shows it. The previous group wasn’t perfect, but there was a baseline level of professionalism and respect.

With this leadership team, a lot is visible about how they operate, and it’s not what you’d expect from people in those roles. It’s hard to take them seriously or have much respect for them, whether they realize it or care.

The current team of MDs has no accountability for unacceptable behavior, yet they decide everyone else’s future while not being held to the same standard.

Everyone sees it, but posts like this may be the only form of accountability for those at the top

They barely bothered finding a new name..

Qualcomm buys NUVIA, they get bored by how this company works, they create a new company that QC will have to buy in a few years to get competitive again. That says a lot…

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/legendary-qualcomm-apple-and-nuvia-alumni-form-new-cpu-startup-nuvacore-promises-to-rewrite-the-rules-of-silicon

In my opinion, VoA is a circus. If BD really wanted honest feedback, this platform has more than what needed for diagnosis of the issues. Do you expect anything to change with that survey or is it just to warm some “leader’s” pocket?

But at least we have ‘agentic‘ nonsense and a falling stock.

That call could have gone worse. No idea how.

TGS leaders sing songs about the need to to drive technology in support of the business but in reality all that they do is working in their individual interest and making sure they milk the company as much as they can. All of this is just empty words because the moment you try to push things forward it'll get squashed because change disrupts the status quo which was carefully built to work for the folks who built it. What a horrendous way to lead.

Any other teams having the same experience? This is nuts, I worked for a few large product orgs over last 2 decades and I've never seen it nuts like this. Oh well, maybe it's just my team, dont know.

So we were promised significant salary raise starting since 1st of April, I mean significant because mail mentioned "market rates" so I assume it should be 25-40%, but it is 16th of April and still no one heard anything? On Town hall they said thousands of people got it, WHO?
Yes I have Analyst in Workday so should be elliglible but neither me nor anyone who I know got anything.
What is going on? I got it they used to say "we will see, let's check again in few months" and similar stuff but this time they promised and gave specific date, yet nothing happened.
Does anyone know anything? Honestly, I feel betrayed. Not because I did not receive anything, but because they told us we will got it, and then nothing. Not "maybe", not "next time" - but "yes, from 1st April".
Unfortunately the labour code prevents me from "leaving" as many suggests, in Europe people have to work two, three months more after giving notice, and not many employers are willing to wait that long (apart from some very few specialized expert positions).

I am really disappointed.

And no one is talking about it. How can we warn potential new hires about these clowns?

Headline is accurate - our CEO is "celebrating" the demise of thousands of employees. Save us the lies of how "difficult" these layoffs are for leadership, and how "thoughtful" the company is in its approach. Why are we all still here working for this type of person?

Kind of eerie how slack has gone silent, meetings are canceling, parking lot is sparse and there is no work going on.
I would think it wasn’t a great idea for the new tech leaders to announce layoffs 2 months ago with no timeframe or updates since. That type of blunder alone that caused such low work output should put them on the chopping block.

Yes yes to those of you working 80 hours a week, you’re amazing. We see you. You matter.

All I ask is why? why are people still completing this and participating in this pompous management scheme? They don’t care about employees so why are you still participating in their bull cr-p? All it does is placing a target on your back to be RIF’d next.

Taking Million$ while delivering nothing. Best seller coming to a E- bookstore near you.

Except a few gems (20%), ISS is a majority DEI Swamp (80%) - that gets nothing done, as they have no clue except to CHECK Boxes. They just focus on superficial compliance rather than meaningful action, as part of process checks (same questions asked by many different ISS Stakeholders). A total waster of $ spend on ISS.

I really like the man but I do not think having our executives swearing in employee forums is classy. I actually find it offensive. On a construction site fine but I expect more from our executives.