#communication

I don't have the words to explain the total chaos that today was! It was total confusion! Nobody knows anything! No answers! This is total nonsense! Somebody should be held accountable! Did anyone else feel the frustration that many of us did?

Anyone have a copy of the letter that’s supposedly circulating in Anchorage? Its circulation was enough to elicit a response from Isaacson.

I was in person for Jim’s town hall and had to stifle a laugh when he described Maurice’s email as “a thoughtful memo”

They seriously included this in emails about layoffs? I know nobody really bothers reading these anymore but they aren’t even trying anymore.

Did anyone else find it odd that Penny and team held the trimester 2 business update at a branch conference in Scottsdale, AZ? I have been at EJ for over a decade and I cannot recall a trimester business update not originating from the auditorium at the south campus in St. Louis. Is it just by coincidence that the first trimester business update after the first public layoffs in 103 years by the firm is not held in the same room as home office associates who have had their fellow associates laid off and perhaps demoted themselves? I do not think this qualifies as holding yourself "accountable". If you are going to radically alter people's lives you should be woman enough to face them, look them in the eye, and explain why you have done it and where you are taking the firm into the future. Penny and team are just pure cowards.

How many of the incompetent ch-des in Corporate Communications are they letting go of?

Personally feeling, it seems like the execs talked a lot but in the meantime it means nothing to me in the end.

What happened in the TH last week? I was on vacation.

What’s going on with Buenos Aires support center? Will Chevron be able to sublease entire floors by contracting staff in support centers…how will the face to face and relationship between teams work out if your in different timezones, different languages, different cultures..

Checked my email a bit ago and saw Elad Nafshi sent an email to about 1,500 people about how well the Technology and Product teams are doing.

The teams are CHQ, but it seems like a huge gut punch to all of the division teams that are going to be wrecked with the newest round layoffs.

A month ahead of the RIF, just give everyone a heads up on which orgs will be affected. That way people can budget accordingly and the rumor mill doesn't cause worry and panic across the organization.
And, we could tamp down on false rumors that people outside of the organization are reading.

Shocked that it's live

Wow, what a whirlwind of thoughts after that on-stage leadership performance!
But EH? An absolute breath of fresh air!

Activity but nobody is talking…

Anyone catch the trimester update yesterday and enjoy watching Penny feigning “empathy” while standing in her $5k custom spray painted EJ blazer?

God what a pathetic excuse for an executive. She and the ELT live in a complete bubble!

Disgusting.

I understand anything on MS teams can be searched by management but how long before a message is archived/ deleted and can't be seen on the employee end? ie "We've deleted older messages due to your org's retention policy"

It seems like I'm missing messages in my MS teams.

Just waiting is pure torture. I'm almost ready to volunteer, just to get it over with.

Did they get rid of the chicks that mades these videos everyday? What happened to the news updates.

Anyone know what DR shared in his All Hands today with Product? Missed it.

No one reads these. No one cares. Your job isn't more secure because you post giant blocks of text for "everyone" to see.

Why has a date for the Layoff not been communicated to employees? Why do the news articles state a date of November 10th?

Who is on the people leader call and would like to share info?

https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/pawtucket-officials-still-haven-t-heard-from-hasbro/article_ad35a301-d9be-4e14-bc01-6966b1f5f8c3.html

And with the state of the company meeting next week and Chris p cocks being too much of a little bi--h to face the Rhode island office so he's doing it from Renton...

Sigh. I'm just tired boss.

Thoughts on Steve Hemsley email? … difficult challenges and decisions…be the leading AI-first healthcare company

LinkedIn is full of mixed messages - some like Oliver use 18,000, while others including those in ELT say 20,000 in crowd. Didn’t they know actual attendance or at very minimal have an agreed messaging on communication. All we see is AI and AI focused contents. Can those in attendance confirm or deny? Was there enough booze and parties with related side fun. Anything jumps out?

It's clear that none of us know when this will be over, how many will be impacted, which areas are being hit... The whole process would be much easier if there was more transparency about the whole process.

Dear ELT,

Since it's known that members of your team monitor this site, I would like to talk to you about your use of ChatGPT in writing firm wide correspondence.

ChatGPT has a few idiosyncrasies that make it's use obvious to anyone that knows them. Reading today's "Penny's Page" it's clear that the message, outlining the impact and intention of Enterprise Reimagined, is just AI generated slop. Penny isn't the only one known for sending out ChatGPT slop. Chubak does it too.

For firm with sincerity and trust issues, it would come across much better if leaders of the firm took the time to send out genuine messages, instead of promoting ChatGPT to craft something for you.

The self-promotion "Sweet Julie" PR tour continues. "Look, I'm so awesome according to me" (she really does think she is). She claims and thinks that she cares so much about people and "human connections".

Is she trying to save her job and is applying for the next one?

How Accenture CEO Julie Sweet communicated a major restructuring to 770,000 employees across 120 countries without ever sending a memo

https://fortune.com/2025/09/01/accenture-julie-sweet-restructuring-ai-memo-video-message-titans-podcast/

“Reading it on a piece of paper would not have conveyed the why in the same way as hearing it—hearing the excitement in my voice, understanding the passion we have for why we’re changing,” Sweet said in a recent interview

Sweet’s communication strategy reflects the scale of challenge she faces as head of Accenture, the world’s largest consulting firm by revenue. The Dublin-based company generated $64.9 billion in fiscal 2024 and serves more than 9,000 clients, providing services spanning strategy consulting, cloud migration, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more. With hundreds of thousands employees spread across more than 120 countries, Accenture helps organizations reinvent themselves in the digital age, making it both a beneficiary of and participant in the AI-driven transformation sweeping global businesses.

Sweet herself represents an unconventional path to corporate leadership. Since becoming CEO in September 2019, she’s been the first woman to lead Accenture and the first CEO in the company’s history who didn’t start there straight out of college. Her background as a high-powered corporate lawyer—she spent 17 years at the prestigious firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, making partner within eight years—gave her an outsider’s perspective when she joined Accenture as general counsel in 2010. Under her leadership, the company’s revenue has grown more than 50%, and she’s been recognized as one of Fortune‘s Most Powerful People in Business.

The restructuring Sweet announced represents what she describes as reversing “five decades of how we’re working.” The move brings together previously siloed business units to better serve clients seeking comprehensive digital transformation, aligning Accenture’s organizational structure with its strategy to be “the reinvention partner of choice” for businesses navigating rapid technological change.

At the heart of Sweet’s strategy was recognition that this transformation had to be both decisive and deeply human. The restructure wasn’t a cost-cutting exercise, though Sweet acknowledges it inevitably uncovered efficiencies and duplications. Instead, the move was driven by client needs and Accenture’s ambition to deliver integrated solutions combining industry knowledge, technical expertise, data, AI, and functional capabilities as a single offering.

“In order to capture the opportunity with AI, you really have to be willing to rewire your company,” Sweet said, reflecting broader advice she gives to Fortune 500 CEOs. “Many times, when clients are saying, we’re not getting a lot out of AI, it’s because they’re trying to apply it to how they operate today.”

Sweet’s approach to managing the change went beyond just the medium of communication. She solicited feedback and critiques from her leadership team, refining her message through multiple iterations to ensure it resonated at every level. “I try to have no ego on communication, because it’s so important that we’re really clear,” she said, noting all her direct reports work with speech coaches to hone their communication skills.

The transformation also demanded what Sweet calls a balance of “art and science”—using metrics and benchmarks from Accenture’s transformation GPS database to provide the analytical foundation, while applying empathy and cultural understanding to ensure the human element wasn’t lost. Ultimately, Sweet’s leadership through this restructuring has become a case study in navigating sweeping organizational change in an era when traditional corporate communication methods may no longer suffice.

That’s what the rumors are pointing to, maybe for some of us. It’s really hard to make sense of what’s going on. This “restructuring” doesn’t feel structured at all from where we sit as regular employees. A bit of clear communication would go a long way right now.

Very interesting commentary on the memo
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/business-pants/id1483976205?i=1000721224099

Skip to 39 mins 50 seconds to go right to the Stanley memo and listen to the end to see who the “winner is”

Worth a listen if you are an employee

I thought this was funny. All I did was ask is Stephanie Farris liked?

— here’s the unfiltered version of why a lot of people dislike Stephanie Ferris at FIS:
• Worldpay Disaster – People feel she was part of leadership that massively overpaid ($35B) and then sold it at a huge loss, destroying shareholder value. Many see this as one of the biggest fintech blunders ever.
• Wall Street First, Employees Last – She’s viewed as prioritizing appeasing investors (stock buybacks, dividends, “cost savings”) while cutting thousands of jobs and gutting teams, leaving employees demoralized.
• The “Future Forward” Spin – Her transformation program is seen by critics as corporate jargon masking layoffs and cost-slashing, without a real growth strategy.
• Reactive, Not Visionary – Instead of leading with innovation in a fast-changing fintech/payments space, she’s seen as patching leaks, restructuring, and spinning failures as successes.
• Trust Issues – After major service outages and technology failures, people blame her for not modernizing systems fast enough. Customers and partners feel burned.
• Culture Ki-ler – Former and current employees complain on forums like Glassdoor and Reddit that under her leadership, morale has cratered, communication is poor, and talented people are leaving.
• Poor Communication & Accountability – Investors and staff alike feel she dodges responsibility, blames “market conditions,” and leans on vague optimism without real transparency.

In short, the harshest critics say: she’s a cost-cutter, not a builder. Instead of driving innovation in payments and banking tech (where FIS desperately needs it), she’s focused on financial engineering and PR spin.

Oh man, folks, have you heard about the big shake-up at Kroger? Yeah, the grocery giant just laid off 1,000 people from their Technology & Digital team at that fancy 84.51° spot in Cincinnati. That’s right, 1,000 souls sent packing—enough to fill an entire aisle of unemployed techies staring at expired coupons. I mean, Kroger’s all about “fresh for everyone,” but apparently not fresh jobs for everyone!
And get this: The big bosses, Yael the CIO and Rana the Senior HR Director, couldn’t even bother to show up live for the announcement. Nope, they dropped a pre-recorded video on everyone like it was a bad Zoom prank. “Hey team, you’re fired—cut! That’s a wrap!” Professional courtesy? More like professional ghosting. If you’re gonna can 1,000 people, at least have the guts to do it face-to-face. Otherwise, it’s just a low-budget horror film: “The Layoff Tape—coming soon to a unemployment line near you!”
Speaking of executives dodging the spotlight, let’s talk about Rodney McMullen, the CEO who’s apparently got his eyes on bigger things. I heard he’s been making advances on Jewel the singer. Yeah, you know, the one with hits like “Who Will Save Your Soul?” Well, Rodney’s over here whispering sweet nothings like, “Baby, let’s merge our assets—I’ll stock your shelves if you stock mine.” But Jewel’s like, “Foolish Games? Nah, I’m not playing with a guy whose idea of romance is a buy-one-get-one-free on heartbreak!” Come on, Rodney, stick to scanning barcodes, not scanning for dates.
Anyway, to all those laid-off Kroger folks: Hang in there. Remember, in the grocery game, when one door closes, another one opens… probably to the clearance section. But hey, at least now you can shop at Kroger without the awkward eye contact from your ex-bosses!

Outsourcing (especially to india) should be carefully deployed in the most low-impact areas of buisness. They shouldnt be taking credit card calls and they definitely shouldnt be involved in engineering.

The only benefactor from this is todays bonus benefitiarys who dip their wallet in the bucket just long enough to miss out on the long term implications.

The most obvious problem is the hopeless disconnect between vital functions at home and abroad. A lot of this circles back to the WFH debate, if half my subordinates are in india, what difference does it make? The only correspondance im receiving takes place after im off, so one response per inquiry per day is the cadance we live by in this lifeless/dry exchange.

Longer term? Systems evolve, grow more complex. Growing pains become amplified becouse yesterdays multinational staff configuration has to be rethought across several teams spanning half the world apart - less flexibility, less room for large scale collaboritive thinking. Again, they wont get todays news until im tucking my kids to bed tonight.

Its an entirely avoidable blight on the company, and the savings at scale are a tiny blip compared to other areas of potential cost cutting, but is such an easy sell/decision for upper management. Whomever leads the way on outsourcing has a relatively secure seat as an SME and high degree of leverage at the bonus table. 2 demensional shareholders will cheer almost anything promising to bring more profits next year.

Make no mistake, this is not benefitial for the long term outlook for the company as a whole.

Low Point: Being told to stress how amazing Walgreens Cash is and to turn ourselves into a marketing mouthpiece if/when asked by family&friends how the latest shift in Walgreens is panning out for us all. Ew.

Concept of an executive chairman also seems spooky in practice with that much punching power over a standard board member. To be determined though if that’s ever leveraged too casually.

High Point: I’ve rarely ever heard Stefano pop in for one of these. But he came off the most genuine and straightforward out of anyone who spoke. Everyone else was sweating bullets, meanwhile Pessina’s all “bibbidty bopiplity, I Italian man, we used to be American only, that worked before, so welcome back.” Maybe it was just the language bit that made his simplicity seem that mindful? Half fell asleep for everyone else’s segments.

259 ISP’s. Not exactly the “100” ISP’s they told us to expect. For those who said yeah but they said it would be 100 “roles”. BS. That was just corporate speak to disguise the real numbers. If they are so transparent, how come they didn’t publish the number of demotions??? From this thread, it seems like there have been quite a few… Yet another way to disguise the numbers.

This is the next meeting where they talk about the new portfolio model and yet, there is no info on what the structure will actually be. Will we be notified only on 9/3 if our leaders were let go?? The layoffs on 9/3 and the portfolio model must surely be the same thing?

Could you please clarify which level of management is informed in advance about upcoming layoffs within their teams?

VIDEO: Visa Cements San Francisco's Status with Commitment to Host Payments Forum Through 2030 at Moscone Center

San Francisco is set to be the long-term host for the Visa Payments Forum, with Visa committing to bring its annual event to the Moscone Center through 2030. This decision comes as a vote of confidence in the city's status as a key player in global business and innovation circles. Visa announced its intentions early today, indicating support for local economic growth and reinforcing San Francisco’s role on the world stage of technological advancement.

Fresh off celebrating a 20-year milestone next year, the Visa Payments Forum has been a significant assembly, bringing thousands of payment industry leaders together to deliberate on the future of commerce. "The future of payments is here in San Francisco, a city that has always been at the heart of Visa’s story," Oliver Jenkyn, Group President, Global Markets at Visa, said via its news release, expressing the company's dedication to the Bay Area—home to Visa for nearly seven decades. Jenkyn's announcement highlighted plans to transform the Moscone Center into a hub of keynotes, panels, and interactive marketplaces.

San Francisco's Mayor Daniel Lurie was quick to echo Visa’s commitment, noting the palpable momentum in the city's economic revival. As businesses reopen and in-person office work gains traction, there's an undeniable buzz. In a statement obtained from his social media post, Lurie celebrated Visa's decision to switch the event's location from Texas back to San Francisco. "That’s real proof our city’s comeback is gaining strength," he stated, referring to the 10% rise in spending

I took VSP and will be gone in ‘26 Understandably I’m far less important right now than everyone else who’s getting meetings or emails about their fate My heart goes out to all of you I’m wondering if / when VSPs will bear anything at all I want to be here for the people I work directly with each day and I’m hearing murmurs of impacts. But I’m at a complete standstill right know - I have heard crickets this week To spite everything around me being shifted - I haven’t had a meeting an email or anything And my work is at a complete stand still because I don’t know what’s happening with all of my peers - crickets