#officepolitics

Just like so many other sites, they were given a feel good speech and feel all safe and sound. It’s all nice weather before the storm hits. The layoffs are a roving spot light. Sometimes it quickly passes over, sometimes it stops and stays for a while focusing on one area only. Right now the Belfast office feels safe but so does the docks before the ocean swells. Oh, there’s plans for Belfast alright, they’ve just not manifested yet.

So apparently, throwing darts are the new operating model. Town hall highlight of the year: Head of IT + CFO confidently announce that “No other companies have figured out AI governance… but we will.”

The silence afterward? You could hear a budget being cut in real time. This is coming from leadership that still treats basic project tracking like it’s emerging technology. But wait, it gets better.
Our fearless IT leader sends the brand-new “Head of Data” out of the country to “vet options” we aren’t even authorized to implement. Bold strategy.

Minor detail: this individual’s experience in data and technology appears to be limited to creatively rearranging LinkedIn buzzwords. If résumé fiction were a programming language, we’d finally have expertise. Because promoting someone with no clue in the space worked out so well last time… why not run it back? Now the plot twist: they’re stuck abroad due to regional conflicts and travel disruptions. You truly cannot script this level of tragic corporate comedy. We can’t align on reporting standards, but we’re about to solve global AI governance. Sure.

Next town hall prediction:
“We’ve decided to skip governance and move straight to vibes.”

Every time I walk around the office and see anyone with Eliza on their screen I just shake my head. Beside the fact that it’s not very good, I think it would be quite amazing to see the EC crash out if they saw a fat 0% use rate when they obsessively check the stats. I know our wonderful pals in Pune would never cooperate though

Who gets Blocked? Or should I say who gets Jacked?

EVERY DAY

We have to deal with extremely poor management, and you have to belong to their circle, or they turn your life into a living he-l! Don't get me started on so many gossips going on behind the close door. You're expected to know everything and do everything but if you want to be recognized for your work, tough luck. Horrible, horrible place.

How does one deal with managers pets who are super annoying????

Maybe I'm new to the corporate culture but this individual has been annoyingly pushing themselves into everything just to show off and have their "fingerprint" on everything.

And since I'm not in same location as my snake of a manager, all of my work is being showed by this annoying credit stealer.

You can at this point guess our BU.

No show at the sales kickoff, sorry commercial summit in Orlando. Nasser Khodri doing all the talking. Stephanie relegated to a 2 minute video measage at the end of the keynote session. Apparently she really wanted to be here but it wasn’t possible because she has to do the earnings call tomorrow. I guess the FIS private jet must be out of service, along with all motorised transport between here and Jacksonville…

Does anyone know what’s going on today? Executives are all onsite and leaders have hinted to fires going on

They are easy to identify. Don’t trust those who immediately jump to liking and commenting on a LinkedIn PR / propaganda post by a powerful someone. Keep your distance. They are the backstabbers, guaranteed.

I've heard of folks being let go for not staying the full day at the office and leaving early... supposedly HR is checking as of the past 6 months. Any truth to this? Has any managers heard of this?

How true is this? My manager reminded me to make sure I'm staying the whole day when I go to the office, supposedly he's heard of 40 people being fired due to just swiping their badge and leaving. Anyone hear something similar?

The PayPal crew is getty cocky, I hope any tenured VZ svp has ba--s to stand up to the new non talented telephony additions.

Show what you know!!!

Who's going to confess to being the joker who asked if we can have a MORE flexible 60/40 policy....

Or better still the one who asked if they should include their commute on their timesheet.

Anyone else notice how they avoided answering questions related to layoffs vs. C-suite compensation, offshoring, etc. in the latest TDO town hall? I’m disgusted but not surprised in the least that these cowards don’t have the ba--s to answer questions associates care about.

Nothing about how EJ is run makes sense anymore. It's all reactive panic moves and politics. If you're not buddies with someone in charge, good luck getting anywhere. Meanwhile the actual work gets ignored and benefits keep shrinking. It's exhausting.

Dell just held its field readiness submit (FRS). In principle, it’s a great idea. It’s essentially a sales kick off, with one distinct difference… no individual contributors (account executives and presales) are in attendance at all - only managers. The last time we checked, managers don’t sell.. what an absolute joke! Instead, individual contributors watch online / virtual contact. Wake up dell leadership!!!!

@SB
“What you've just said is one of the most insanely id--tic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now d-mber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

― Billy Madison (movie)

Okay I was never a fan of hans... But

What's up with all these tough guy avp and directors now just out and open sh-----g on hans ..

Big tough guys now, where were you a year ago tough guy...

I understand in the vz world bootlicking is part of the game. But JFC these jokers are so gd obvious.

Where the credo about owning problems and not passing the buck...

Do the needful and quit already. They are moving the RTO goal post again because they aren’t seeing as much attrition as they hoped with the 8 hour tracking.

They don’t like that we use 1/2 days pto to avoid the office.

mgmt will decide who to lay off based on complex factors such as personal disputes, retaliation, preserving dominance and status, rivalries, and internal power struggles, often arising from cycles of poor judgment, limited opportunity, trauma, and loyalty, with layoffs frequently intensifying through social contagion and misidentification within social networks.

#rant #gold #layoffs #layoffselectioncriteria #oracle

Anything I can do about this? I was told by the new manager that she wanted to hire me and was going to speak with my current manager to talk about transition plan while they find someone to backfill my role. Now I'm being told that I can no longer transfer since what I support is critical and they wouldn't be able to hire someone fast enough.

Now I feel stuck- any recourse or am I SOL and just need to apply externally at this point? From what I've read here seems like current manager can't block/stop you from applying /accepting other roles but seems like it depends on your situation/which team you would be leaving, I guess if it's critical and you have no backup it's not possible.

Naming the new Webex devices after himself, G2, is next level trolling. Congrats

A notable portion of self-proclaimed "leaders" are, in fact, insecure and intellectually limited, and they actively suppress genuine talent due to feeling threatened. These managers frequently enforce strict hierarchical adherence and exhibit extreme anxiety when their direct reports communicate with individuals outside their BUs or with higher-ranking personnel.

Is it true that director and higher level executives get paid on demand but front line and managers get paid by shipped?

How can someone like Tracy K sc--ws up big time and stay? Doesn’t make any sense.

Nothing enrages me more than those mo-rons wearing the Eliza jacket.
You’d have to be a new level of 1diot

My AD manages 2 people and owns one product . No working level duties .. No delivery pressure or resolving ground level problems

Keep making decks and spreadsheets. Attending meetings where they are not even required.. Taking status from us passing it to leaders as if she is making great progress

Has anyone at 1515 noticed the VergeSense occupancy sensors? They are on the floor in corners and look unassuming like a Wi-Fi router but are indeed monitors. Completely ludicrous (in the dictionary definition of the word). Hope the job market picks up soon.

https://www.vergesense.com/

Does anyone know what these people actually do? They ask the people underneath them what they’re doing every week and they report it up the chain – but I have no idea what their actual job is other than passing information like a bad game of telephone. And they all backstab and talk about each other. We are talking about 50 to 60-year-old men and women who do nothing but spread gossip and back step. It’s the weirdest situation in any corporation I’ve ever been in.

You won’t believe the tea DV was always spilling! He kept going on and on about how everyone who came over from USAA got that sweet LTIP I mean, literally down to the assistants who transferred in. Like, he made it sound like the ultimate selling point, the big perk that sealed the deal.
And don’t get me started on KS /DV she was all about bringing in her people to push out the NM crew, basically stirring up all this fear to clear house. It’s been two whole years of them making up their own rules and just lining their pockets. I heard only one is left now… what a total joke!

Anyone else notice a certain class of long-tenured, well-connected engineers getting real quiet lately?

You know the ones. Own half the repos “by history.” Camp in approvals and support channels. Block merge requests from new or non-influential engineers for reasons:
• “I don’t like this pattern.”
• “We usually don’t do it this way.”
• “This feels risky.”

They’d always offer “alternatives,” but mostly superficial ones — renames, style rewrites, or busywork that adds no value and exists mainly to assert dominance.

Then AI entered code review.

Now:
• Reviews focus on correctness, not preferences.
• Style nitpicks don’t block shipping.
• Social connections don’t matter.
• Tests and results do.

Suddenly, the gatekeepers can’t bully through approvals or code owner lists, and new engineers actually get to ship if they do good work.

Watching support-channel emperors lose authority to an LLM that doesn’t care about tenure is oddly satisfying.

Turns out removing politics from code reviews gives everyone a fair shot.

Is this a ploy to encourage people to quit? Where are we supposed to sit when we badge in a building but not at our center of gravity?

Been a madhouse in the building I'm in since yesterday with these cube claims.

Did those fu--ing dorks actually come out wearing medals?

Dow managers will decide who to lay off based on complex factors like personal disputes, retaliation, maintaining dominance and status, rivalries, and internal power struggles, often stemming from cycles of stupidity , lack of opportunity, trauma, and loyalty, with layoffs often escalating through social contagion and misidentification in social networks.

I just want to do my job. Is that really that much to ask for? No wonder the company is failing so spectacularly when everything but the work is a priority.

So we are mercenaries if we prefer to work from home? He didn't even answer the question that was asked and then said we are an in-person company. No we aren't. Haven't been for awhile but gotta get those mercenaries into the office so we don't waste money on all our corporate real estate. No issue with coming into the office a few days a week but to call us mercenaries is a ludicrous thing to say. Do better Rick.

Mickey has the ba--s to restructure for the 5th time in 3 years and then cries on her all hands call…..give me a break