#performance

the ai is failing and the sales team is getting the blame. Can’t sell a sh-t product bottom line

During Chambers' time, there was a very clear strategy and vision: to be number one or two in every product line that Cisco sells, combined with a vision to change the way we live, learn, and play. Today, there is no vision or strategy at Cisco. What is important is to maintain profit margins only. Over the past decade, Cisco has lost significant market share in every product line it sells, and in some of them it has long since ceased to be number one or two.

The layoffs keep happening over and over again but somehow the same useless people always remain. You know the type. The ones who've been here two decades, add nothing, and have mastered the art of hiding. They need to go, ASAP. Cut them and bring in people with current skills and actual energy. Fresh talent, not the same old faces doing nothing.

How can there be this many slackers still taking advantage of wfh? I hope the next series of cuts is purely for those that are not following policy. If management is serious about RTO, they should use their data to cleanly broom the folks that are not doing their part at this point and send a message. These cuts are long overdue. All of you real estate agents, photographers, off the books carpenters, and slackers in general could go and Ford would not miss a beat.

Everybody knows the abusers in their area - I personally like the analyst in our area that lives in a multi-million dollar house on the lake and comes into the office 2 days a week - Hey, she has a successful photography business to run!

Qualcomm employs over 52k with little or nothing to show for all that. Why do you guys need so many people to collect license royalties? Companies like Broadcom generate massive revenue/market-cap per employee. You guys are in the same space right?

So what is the problem with Qualcomm being in forever in the toilet?

Will they put you on the list if you don't complete your self evaluation? I don't understand the point of doing one if they plan to cut 10k jobs.

If swampers cannot hold or make any significant contributions to this company, why are they still around?

Has anyone heard any numbers for Q1 yet? I’ve heard they weren’t great, but no details.

Also hearing of a RIF mid April. But I always take that with a grain of salt. Just curious if anyone here has heard any rumblings?

Last quarter we made the numbers due to last minute unexpected deals and currency tailwinds

Looks like currency is now a headwind, anyone know how the numbers are looking ?

We are measured on metrics that don’t fully capture the work being done. You can be doing meaningful work and still look like you’re underperforming on paper. There’s a clear disconnect between effort and evaluation. I've seen people who were among our best get on the list of "underperformers" when nothing could be further from the truth. It’s honestly pretty frustrating.

Watching promotions happen makes you wonder whether performance is really the deciding factor or if knowing the right person is the trump card.

I got bad rating of DNM expectations. Am I gonna get fired with no severance or PIP or silent fire.

I am with the bank for 5 years and do not want to lose severance
Any help will be helpful for looking for jobs elsewhere.

It seems BNY is preparing for its next round of layoffs by trying to make people leave voluntarily (shock horror). I’ve been a people manager here for several years now and was told last week I will no longer be a people manager because I’m not senior enough (need to be Sr Dr or above), my staff are in a different location and there aren’t enough people in the team. Every time I hired I wasn’t able to hire in my location because it was ‘too expensive’, whilst at the same time new MDs and Sr Dr’s were being hired at ease. The team I’m in has reduced from 32 to 18 FTE over the last 18 months and we’ve not been allowed to replace anyone. This is a clear tactic by the company to get people at my level to leave by making us all utterly miserable, and if that fails they’ll just use it as an excuse to give a lower performance rating. They do something like this every time a layoff round is coming to get people to leave voluntarily and save them paying out. Got to hand it to them though, they really have created the most toxic and intolerable workplace that ever existed, so they are meeting their metrics in that regard and we all know how important metrics are at BNY.

Came from Ansys. I thought Ansys TC was pretty sh---y but now I understand that Synopsys is even worse.

As a manager, I participated some compensation planning and was shocked. Tell you what. RSU is bad. Very bad. Many positions above L4 are expected to received half of what they got last year at Ansys. Not everyone can get RSU even for very senior positions at L5

By numbers, JD grew top-line revenue from $37.4B to $51.4B (+37% overall). EH is driving a revenue contraction from $51.4B to a projected ~$46B (-10% decline).

Numbers don’t lie or drop tears. Winning!

When Brian got on stage, I heard someone say ‘what kind of BS today?’

It’s a good way to not have to say anything or face an audience unhappy with their raise when you hand out $9k in cash randomly. Is this normal?

To write a Charlie Scharf earnings call commentary, and co-pilot nailed it.

Replace Senior Management with ai, they're all just a bunch of group thinking robots anyway

T will term you for something and hide it under “performance” when they have no other reason to fire you. Also, people are being fired due to inaccurate office presence reports. Get yourself a lawyer. You may have a case.

FCRM/FCM remote OR employees were told by executive team, they would be displaced in October 2025, 4th quarter. That came around and they changed the date to the 1st quarter of 2026. Now into the 2nd quarter of 2026 with more empty promises and no displacement in sight. Prevent Ai not working as planned 😂 buggy program and they need to keep senior staff around to balance out the cascading CPH metrics. Also changed to IPH and lowered metrics because Fraud Agents are underperforming with a rushed Ai product.

Will there be warning if anything bad happens?

It is that time of year again when management suddenly becomes visible.

All year, there is little to no real contribution. No ownership. No meaningful involvement. As layoffs approach, the performance begins. More meetings. More noise. Sudden interest in high profile accounts. They attach themselves to work they did not do. They claim ownership of outcomes they did not drive. They speak about customers they do not understand.

This is not contribution. It is theater.

Everyone doing the real work can see it. The gap is obvious. The only reason it continues is because visibility is rewarded more than substance.

A textbook case of the Peter Principle. Competence is optional. Looking competent is enough to survive.

Every company lays off employees. But I see so much hatred for Waters regarding Layoff and toxic work culture? Why ?

How are layoffs decided ? Is it case by case based on performance ?
Or entire teams get laid off ?

Back to Reality.... Trump economy, War heading to " Over". Gas prices coming down. Stocks back in favor...Vz no execution.... honeymoon over, New External Execs sitting in group therapy saying how are we winning with DEI and no clue how to execute besides layoffs.

Record high revenue, destroyed budgeted expectations, kicking butt and taking names.

APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

Just think, it was trading near 170 five years ago. Today it’s trading at 45. Make your own conclusions.

Nike has disclosed that executive compensation includes ESG metrics, which explicitly include diversity outcomes. While the company doesn’t break out the exact weighting, market norms suggest ~10%–20% of annual bonuses are tied to these factors.

Using reasonable assumptions:
• ~385 VPs globally
• VP bonus: ~$100K–$500K
• ESG/diversity weighting: ~10%–20%

Implied diversity-linked bonus per VP:
• ~$10K (low)
• ~$30K–$50K (typical)
• Up to ~$100K

Estimated total annual payout:
• Low: ~$3.9M
• Most likely: ~$12M–$18M
• High: ~$38.5M

Midpoint:
$14M Annually

Why this matters:

At the midpoint, that’s roughly $14M (and could be much more) per year in incentives aligned to these outcomes at the VP level alone.

Bottom line:
A defensible estimate is that Nike directs ~$10M–$20M annually of VP incentive compensation toward diversity-linked metrics; raising legitimate questions about how heavily these targets are weighted relative to other performance priorities.

This post uses only publicly available information, and observational analysis derived from such. Further augmented by published industry trends.

🚨 Introducing Our New Senior Leader Management Guide 🚨
“If you can’t lead… just list.”

Why waste years developing leadership skills when you can simply do the Optum method, rules for thee and not me.

Step 1: Lead with Lists
Not sure what your team does? Perfect. You’re exactly who this guide is for.
Just make a list. Lists = leadership. It’s basically the same thing.

Step 2: Stop Meeting Your Team
Historically, leaders wasted countless hours talking to employees, understanding workflows, and building trust.
Thankfully, we’ve evolved and are 100x
As a leader, you already know what’s happening. Why verify?  That sounds like work.

Step 3: Need More Collaboration? Easy.
Create a list of people who don’t come into the office, don’t worry you don’t need to fly into town to check we can use AI to send you.
Bo-m—collaboration problem solved.

Step 4: Eliminate “Old Leadership” Habits
In the past, being effective required showing up, engaging, and making hard decisions.
Now? Just update the list, you never need to come to town, or if you are low level leader you can just stay in your fish-tank office, no need to actually meet the team.

Step 5: AI Adoption Strategy
Becoming an AI-first company is simple:

• Say “we are an AI company” in every meeting
• Tell your team you don’t computer but they will make us an AI company and AI is the future
• Add anyone who doesn’t “AI” to a list
• Do not define “AI”

And don’t worry if you can send an email or use AI to write a sentence you are the leaders we are looking for!  —
true leadership is about vision, not ability or knowledge .

Step 6: Performance Management
Forget nuanced feedback.
Just categorize people into:

• On the List
• About to be on the List
• Doesn’t know they’re on the List yet

Step 7: Communication Excellence
Why overcomplicate messaging?
Every announcement can be summarized as:
“Per my last list…”

Step 8: Strategic Planning
Q1 Goal: Make a list
Q2 Goal: Refine the list
Q3 Goal: Make a new list
Q4 Goal: Wonder why nothing improved (add self to list, just kidding leader don’t go on these lists)

Remember: leadership isn’t about people, context, or outcomes.
It’s about maintaining a clean, well-organized list.

Leaders stay safe in your offices or if we care about you remote.

SAP is under a lot of financial pressure and the only way to fix this is by mass layoffs. Basically, we are investing too much in stock buybacks, AI (data centers and development) and bonuses. The executive board wants to axe the last one and increased the first two. So the only solution is layoffs. Oracle fired 20000 people yesterday and SAP is supposed to follow suit to "remain at a competitive advantage". The new works council is already in negotiations regarding this. SAP wants 12000 layoffs worldwide of which 5000 will be in European hubs. But this is kept hush hush. I feel like speaking out because I am tired of these bull$hit games. The biggest problem here is middle management and executives who want more bonuses for themselves and want to use third party contractors instead of full-time employees. They are the ones pushing for the layoffs. So don't listen to your area executives when they say that times are rough. If SAP didn't insist on share buybacks or invest too much in AI that is not producing any results for customers, we would not have such a deficit. This narrative needs to be fixed. I am tired of our CEO, CFO, executives and middle management saying that employee salaries and bonuses are the third highest expense for SAP. That is a good thing and not a bad thing. Employees create and sell good software not AI. Some of the managers pushing for this already have salaries of more than €200000 per year and still want more. Say no to layoffs. Talk back to your manager if they want to give you a bad rating. If you have done the work, you should get good performance ratings. They want to use bad performance ratings to fire employees or pay them less.

If you had invested $1000 in nike stock back in 2015, you would have about $1000 now.

If you had bought $1000 of Nike back in 2015 and sold at the peak in 2021 you would have had roughly $3673.

If you invested $1000 in Apple stock in 2015, you would have $8,233 now.

If you invested $1000 in Amazon stock in 2015, you would have $12,000 now.

If you invested $1000 in Tesla stock in 2015, you would have $27,692 now.

If you invested $1000 in Nvidia in 2015, you would have $347,916 now.

So it's pretty clear with this big AI push theyll be measuring usage soon as part of performance, does anyone know what metrics they are using?

I mean, not really. Maybe on paper, to an extent. Paper is just the cover. It will be money based, without any long-term strategy, any concern for team cohesion and efficiency, and without any thought about talent retention. It’s the scrambling phase. Chickens coming home to roost for the string of bad decisions, driven by greed, grandiosity and mediocrity.

Any guesses on how much worse it is than you think?

Public employee discussions on forums like this reveal several recurring concerns that individuals cite when pursuing wrongful‑termination claims or requesting class‑action investigation into workforce‑management practices at BNY. While these accounts represent employee perspectives rather than verified legal findings, the themes appear consistently across posts.

1. Abrupt and Unexplained Performance Rating Declines
Employees report sudden drops in performance evaluations despite prior positive reviews or long‑term satisfactory performance. Many allege that these changes lacked documentation, coaching, or clear justification, leading them to believe the ratings were adjusted to support predetermined termination decisions.

2. Use of Forced‑Ranking or Stack‑Ranking Systems
Some individuals claim that ranking methodologies required a fixed percentage of employees to be categorized as low performers, regardless of actual contribution. They argue that this system created artificial grounds for termination and disproportionately affected certain groups.

3. Pressure to Resign in Lieu of Formal Layoffs
Multiple accounts describe employees being encouraged to resign voluntarily rather than being formally laid off. Posters assert that this practice was used to avoid severance obligations or to reduce the appearance of workforce reductions.

4. Inconsistent or Withheld Severance Packages
Employees report discrepancies in severance eligibility, including reductions, denials, or last‑minute changes. These inconsistencies are cited as contributing factors in claims of unfair or unequal treatment.

5. Replacement of U.S. Roles With Lower‑Cost Offshore Positions
Some individuals allege that their roles were eliminated and subsequently transitioned to offshore teams. They argue that these decisions may reflect discriminatory or retaliatory motives, forming part of the basis for legal complaints.

6. Retaliation Following Protected Activity or Internal Complaints
A number of posters claim they were terminated shortly after raising workplace concerns, questioning new policies, or reporting issues to management. These accounts assert that the timing suggests retaliatory intent.

7. Patterns Suggesting Systemic Workforce Practices
Because many employees describe similar experiences, some argue that the issues may reflect broader organizational patterns rather than isolated incidents. This perceived consistency is a primary driver behind calls for class‑action investigation.

I was reading the WSJ about Elon Musk and found this interesting:

“For Musk, that (his management philosophy) means latching on to one or two existential issues and riding them week after week.

“I used to sit in those meetings, saying I’m pretty dang sure that our competitors’ CEOs are not sitting in these weekly engineering reviews and not driving their companies as fast,” McNeill said. “Therefore we’re compounding an advantage against them.”

This is one of our issues: the most senior leaders at PSX show little to no interest in the existential issues that result in our underperformance. And they certainly are not willing to sit through meetings to help ensure that the issues are being worked. In fact, they struggle to stay awake during 30 and 60 minute meetings on issues of performance and ensuring priorities are being worked. Instead, they spend time having dinner with investors and the board.

Selective long term low performers are being terminated.

All you need is charisma to lead when things are good. Things are not good and need to be led with tough decisions and swiftly.
For tech he needs to cut at least 2/3 of employees and give the remaining a 5% raise to get folks out of slump. Cut all the new or recently promoted leaders as well. They are not smart and useless. Run it on bare bones until things turn around.
I’m in tech so can’t speak for other areas.
Will be a big mistake with the stock so low if we come out of layoffs with only 500-1k gone.

There are legitimate, known concerns about how the company is being run—especially with investors focused on squeezing profitability. That part is real, and employees feel it every day.

I’ve been at Belk a long time. I’ve seen it at its best—and now I’m seeing it at its worst.

I want the company to survive, but I’m not going to pretend the current decisions aren’t damaging its reputation.

But turning every conversation into “the sky is falling” doesn’t make it more true. It just makes it harder to have a real, useful conversation. You can even see it in the voting—neutral or positive comments get buried, while the most negative ones get pushed to the top.

And let’s be honest—there’s a good chance people on the corporate side, and even investors, read sites like this to get a sense of what’s happening at store level. Some comments probably get attention and spark real conversations. Others get ignored because they read like venting instead of something worth acting on.

At a certain point, it becomes predictable. You can walk into a store and spot that same negativity within minutes—the groups standing around, the constant complaining, the lack of focus. And it wouldn’t be surprising if that same tone carries over into conversations with customers.

At the same time, Belk is putting millions into revamping the Rewards+ program. That alone should tell you this isn’t some “Belk is about to close any day now” situation.

Where it falls apart is everything happening alongside that—cutting hours during peak times, pushing associates to chase perfect NPS scores, things like that. It makes it a lot harder for any of these investments to actually work.

The bigger issue is who’s really in control. When investors are driving everything, the focus turns into short-term results at all costs. And right now, it’s hard to see how that shifts enough to stop it from hurting the business long term.

I'm considering a leadership position (band 9) at Lenovo in the LATC org.

Variable bonus target is 14% for this position, but I'm told the org performed well in the past and the bonus has been more like 20% for employees that meet expectations in the past few years. Given LATC was formed only a year ago, I'm guessing this stat is referring to the bigger org (perhaps the CTO org which LATC is under)

Can anyone at Lenovo confirm this stat? Can anyone confirm they got ~20% bonus for meeting or slightly exceeding expectations?