#efficiency

On top of that, my workload has doubled because of the reductions. Everyone I've spoken to is drowning in work and leadership keeps droning on about efficiency. I'm doing work that previously had nothing to do with me. At this rate, I'll take a pay cut just to work somewhere else. I guess that's what they want.

analyst take on ROK:

One of the first companies to address industrial automation, Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) sells products that help customers extract more efficiency from their machinery.
Why Does ROK Worry Us?
Organic sales performance over the past two years indicates the company may need to make strategic adjustments or rely on M&A to catalyze faster growth
Earnings per share have contracted by 1.5% annually over the last two years, a headwind for returns as stock prices often echo long-term EPS performance
Diminishing returns on capital suggest its earlier profit pools are drying up

My take. Layoffs will continue in low amounts. Leadership and the board are cautious leaders who value their options over growth. If you are good. Leave now. If you are less than good. Hang on. Most will hang on.

Layoffs are impacting the tech sector and other industries. Companies are simultaneously increasing investments in artificial intelligence systems. This trend is redefining productivity and staffing requirements across various businesses. Dow announced global job cuts linked to efficiency initiatives and AI use. Acrisure also confirmed layoffs due to AI-enabled systems.

https://mitechnews.com/artificial-intelligence/laid-off-tech-workers-are-asking-did-ai-really-take-my-job-and-what-that-means-for-michigan/

Shouldn't we be operating at peak efficiency by now considering how many times we've had to go through optimizations and reorganizations, all accompanied by layoffs? Yet I never see any improvements after any of these, I only see things become progressively worse.

The constant restructuring has destroyed our operational efficiency. Processes are broken and no one knows who is responsible for what. It's incredibly frustrating trying to accomplish basic tasks that used to be simple.

Allstate keeps talking about efficiency, but the biggest inefficiency is the never-ending redundant management. Getting rid of some of those layers would help by cutting costs and reducing the bureaucratic nonsense we deal with daily. It's a win whichever way you look at it.

A lot of chatter of PayPal employee count compared to the rest of the industry. For those working there, or personally familiar, do you feel 24k+ people justified? Why so many more compared to, say, Block or especially RobinHood?

At the current scale, multiple layers of management are not required. For teams of approximately 50 employees, one manager is sufficient to ensure effective supervision and decision-making. Maintaining additional management layers leads to unnecessary overhead and increased costs without proportional value.

Did you know that any workflow sent to ENGINE has to be run in parallel/duplicated for 6 months to 1 year by the team offloading it? Meaning for most of 2026, any ENGINE success will likely be due to their USA counterparts. It’s a hilarious sad irony that any work sent there will be 100% redundant (so efficient!!!), and meanwhile we have to manage the same workload as a year ago with 30% fewer people. Everything you hear about ENGINE over the next year + will be utter propaganda.

It finally happened. Tons of solid, hard-working people gone.
Some cuts probably made sense. But let’s be honest — a lot of what’s left looks like the professional “yes” crowd whose core skill is ego management, not actual delivery. Feels like the unofficial qualification was: if you ever told the truth, challenged bad decisions, or answered HR questions honestly… congrats, you made the list.

Meanwhile some of the lowest-output, highest-time-su-kers, leadership-echo personalities are still here somehow.
Efficiency? right. Wild selection strategy.

IC Design just got hit with 7%. They threw in a few names from Hyderabad to make it seem like it's global but overwhelming majority is US-based. Officially, these random cuts aren't layoffs but "changing strategies and priorities". I heard similar cuts happened to other teams already in 2025.

Make no mistake, executives have been talking about opex and efficiency every townhall. I am guessing they decided quiet layoffs are better than another big round like late 2023. That's fine, we can counter quiet layoffs with quiet quitting.

This should be concerning to U.S. Bank’s CEO:

There is an ongoing concern regarding the excessive number of management positions within EFCC specifically CRT(Grade 14 and higher) within U.S. Bank. From an employee perspective, many of these roles appear to add little to no measurable value to daily operations, production goals, or team performance, yet they command very high salaries.

There is a growing perception that a significant portion of upper management has minimal direct involvement in the actual work being done. Meanwhile, frontline employees and senior individual contributors are absorbing the workload, resolving issues, and driving results—often without corresponding compensation or authority.

The department feels increasingly top-heavy. Decision-making is slow, layers of approval are unnecessary, and resources are being spent on positions that do not directly contribute to productivity, customer experience, or revenue. This structure is not financially efficient and raises serious questions about accountability, role necessity, and return on investment.

At a time when cost control and operational efficiency are frequently emphasized, it is difficult to understand why so many high-level management roles are maintained despite their limited impact. A thorough review of these positions, including role consolidation or elimination where appropriate, could result in substantial cost savings and improved morale among the employees who are actually doing the work specifically the Senior Reviewers.

Let the unfettered McKinsey begin. Get that efficiency ration down now. Layoffs anyone,

https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/nike-expects-to-layoff-more-than-700-employees-in-tennessee-and-mississippi/522-c7e1188d-7fb6-4616-8e57-f60a678eb74a

Nike will lay off approximately 775 employees. These job reductions will occur in Tennessee and Mississippi. The company is streamlining its operations. This effort includes consolidating U.S. distribution centers. Nike aims to improve efficiency and achieve profitable growth.

The Recreation and Park Commission of East Baton Rouge (BREC) announced several operational changes on Friday, Jan. 16, including the immediate layoff of about 10% of its workforce. In a news release, BREC said the move is part of a broader effort to become a leaner and more efficient organization, calling it a comprehensive initiative aimed at making bold, strategic changes.

https://www.wafb.com/2026/01/16/brec-announces-immediate-layoffs-part-new-initiative-become-leaner-more-efficient-organization/

Verizon to Eliminate Up to 15,000 Roles by 2026

https://www.thehrdigest.com/verizon-layoffs-to-hit-15000-roles-in-2026-as-automation-takes-over/

Verizon plans significant job reductions in 2026 as part of a major restructuring. Between 13,000 and 15,000 roles could be affected. New CEO Dan Schulman aims for greater efficiency and cost savings. The company expects $3 billion to $4 billion in annual savings from these changes. Automation and a competitive market are driving these decisions.

I guess no awards this year. The bank needs to drop thousands of jobs to meet their efficiency target, I assume this is the start to get people to leave in their own.

I genuinely want to deliver a good service to our customer, but I’m constantly blocked from doing so. At this point, I’ve more or less given up trying.

The client wants something relatively simple, yet getting it done feels almost impossible. I don’t have the access, authority, or trust needed to make the required change.

Even with an agreed task, every individual step has to be re-approved by someone else — often with different interpretations or priorities. Eventually, someone may action it, but more often than not it’s done incorrectly. I then can’t see what’s actually been changed, so I’m unable to diagnose why it still doesn’t work.

The end result is that I often have to resubmit the same ask and hope that next time someone different both understands it and implements it correctly. It’s an incredibly inefficient way of working, and it makes delivering a quality outcome for the customer far harder than it needs to be.

What’s most frustrating is that management appear to see this as acceptable — even desirable — because we charge by the hour. The more friction there is, the more time is spent, and the more the client ultimately pays.

There has to be a better way, but I’m surrounded by people who insist there isn’t. We’re not keeping customers happy - we’re not keeping customers at all. They won’t be won over by a new logo or rebrand — they want the way we work to change. And while people continue to feel undervalued, it’s hard to see how that change will happen at DXC.

Are you, are you
Counting down the days?
Decks full of “efficiency,”
Smiles carefully in place.

Strange how “quick sync” hits your screen
Right before the sweep,
Never gave us any numbers,
Just the ones they plan to keep.

Meet me where the org charts fade,
Between “align” and “stream,”
May the odds be ever in your favor
In this well-rehearsed routine.

Quite a bit of useless guys in that internal IT team with their review boards etc. What a waste of time. Did they fix it?

The majority of companies performing the most complex tasks on earth do not support PowerPoint presentations. That’s SpaceX, Anduril, Palantir…
Why are Shell employees enamored with PowerPoint slide decks?
Is this the best story telling? Medium…

Is anyone else already fed up with a SAP? I love that the company is installing a new program that makes every aspect of the company less efficient in a time that we need to be the most efficient to make a decent profit.

• Angi, the company formerly known as Angie's List, is cutting 350 jobs, it said on Wednesday.
• Angi cited AI efficiency among its reasons for the layoffs.
• Economists and tech experts have predicted that more companies will replace humans with AI in 2026.

https://www.businessinsider.com/angi-layoffs-angies-list-cuts-350-jobs-ai-efficiency-gains-2026-1

Somebody legitimately wrote this paragraph and thought, "Yeah this makes total sense" and clicked send to the entire company. I get from this that mass layoffs will be coming before the 1/14 meeting (in particular the last line), but who knows.

"To grow boldly, we are launching our 2026 theme: “Transform as ONE.” I have chosen
this because true, sustainable transformation is not an individual pursuit; it is a shared
journey that requires us to be aligned in purpose, unified in action, and strengthened by collective ambition. Under this theme, we will pursue our directions of Exceed and Excel, Agility and Action, and Discover and Do through “One for All” Communication and
Collaboration. We must operate with the understanding that finding efficiencies is not
about doing more with less, but rather about doing better with purpose."

VMware didn’t need all of those employees and Broadcom runs VMware with more efficiency and profitability than most of you thought was possible.

2026 is my year.

After years of tireless devotion, my boss has graciously informed me that all my sacrifices may finally be recognized. You know, the late nights, the early mornings, the thrilling experience of being perpetually on call regardless of day, time, or basic human decency. The way I consistently put Truist first, always ahead of my family, my health, and any lingering sense of self-worth.

I never once let something as trivial as time off interfere with productivity. Not even when my mother died this year. Thankfully, modern technology allowed me to stream the service online, so there was really no excuse to disrupt deliverables. Efficiency matters.

And now, at long last, the payoff is in sight. I’ve been told I should be an AVP by the end of Q1!

What does the centralized robotics team do? So far I have only seen them slap Chevron stickers on off the shelf products and produce fancy videos for the home page… but zero reduction in operating costs in the plant, in fact we have more operators now than we did 5 years ago…. ENGINE fuel?

• Wells Fargo announced it will lay off an additional 25 workers from its Jordan Creek Campus.
• The company has cut 1,393 Des Moines metro jobs since April 2022, with more reductions expected in 2026.
• CEO Charlie Scharf cited a push for efficiency and the future impact of artificial intelligence as reasons for workforce changes.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2025/12/12/wells-fargo-layoffs-west-des-moines-jordan-creek/87733975007/

Wells Fargo will lay off an additional 25 employees from its Jordan Creek campus. These latest reductions are effective February 6, 2026. This brings Wells Fargo's announced layoffs in the Des Moines metro to 152 since September, and 1,393 since April 2022. The company stated the changes reflect a push for efficiency and alignment with market conditions. CEO Charlie Scharf also indicated that artificial intelligence is expected to impact future workforce adjustments.

There’s no real plan. Just cutting into oblivion won’t magically make the company better, more efficient, or more profitable. And no, AI can’t replace people, unless someone is aiming for an epic fail.

How would you feel if you multiplied your output in the same amount of time by removing all that’s extraneous?

Early in my career, I learned that if you don’t treat your time as a valuable, finite commodity, others won’t either. When meeting with Allstate employees this past October, I wanted to take this learning a step further by focusing on making the most of the time we have. So, instead of thinking more time is needed to get things done, focus is on efficiency. Think shorter meetings, less distractions, concentrated time blocks, clarity in conversation and feedback.

With this mindset we give ourselves the gift of recovery time. Time to breathe, time to recharge, time to ideate.

Let’s spend our time and energy on achieving greater outcomes. Exponentially multiply the outcomes, not the hours—a concept I’m calling output squared or O2. This is about more than working smarter. It’s about making room for excellence, not exhaustion!

How fuc_ing stupid is a company that knowingly wastes 20% of its employees time do to having to log in to disparate systems many many times a day.

Fire these incompetant people and get real engineers that know how to make this all seamless!

Anyone else on a team that has a leadership change every few months and given very little direction? Seems like people are constantly disappearing and we’re all expected to work in a “matrix” environment which basically means the manager has no clue what you work on and is not expected to provide you direction on projects so there’s no one to provide support…and these are all being framed as efficiency changes which I have seen no efficiency at all

Many directors and senior managers are not really doing anything meaningful. The Cisco Jasper management is the worse in whole Cisco.

The transformation of Verizon under CEO Dan Schulman, driven by AI, to mirror the goals of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—to achieve a radical reduction in operating friction and an aggressive overhaul of the cost structure—but focused on customers and internal processes rather than stove piped, bureaucracy.

Schulman has explicitly stated his plan is to "aggressively transform our culture, our cost structure and the financial profile" to make the company "simpler, leaner, and scrappier," using AI as the central engine for this change.

AI-driven transformation, analogous to a DOGE-style overhaul at Verizon:

AI as the "DOGE" for Verizon: Two Core Pillars
The transformation centers on AI simultaneously improving the customer experience (to drive retention) and automating operations (to slash costs).

1. Eliminating Customer "Bureaucracy" (The CX Overhaul)
   The goal is to use AI to dismantle the complexity and friction that causes customers to leave (churn).

Hyper-Personalized Offerings:

The Change: Instead of navigating complex plans and bundles, Generative AI analyzes each customer's real-time usage (data, call, streaming), device ecosystem, and loyalty history to instantly suggest the single best, most cost-effective plan for them. This simplifies the shopping process and eliminates the customer suspicion of being overcharged.

The DOGE Parallel: This eliminates "wasteful" time and frustration for the customer, much like streamlining a government form.

Proactive and Instant Customer Service:

The Change: AI-powered churn prediction models identify customers who are highly likely to have an issue or switch carriers before they even call. AI then triggers a proactive intervention, such as adjusting network capacity in their area, automatically applying a loyalty discount, or sending a personalized text to check in.

The DOGE Parallel: This is a shift from reactive management (only fixing problems after a complaint/crisis) to proactive, preventative problem-solving, eliminating the need for expensive, high-touch support calls.

Intelligent Agent Routing and Support:

The Change: When a customer does call, AI uses a "Fast Pass" or similar system to instantly categorize the caller's need (e.g., "international billing issue," "Fios speed problem") and route them to the exact human expert trained in that niche, cutting down transfer times and repeat explanations.

The DOGE Parallel: Maximizing the productivity of the human workforce by ensuring they only handle the most complex cases, eliminating time wasted on simple tasks.

1. Aggressively Restructuring the Expense Base (The Cost Transformation)
   AI will be deployed internally to achieve the "simpler, leaner" operations Schulman has promised, translating directly into major job role changes and cost cuts.

Automation of Back-Office Functions:

The Change: Intelligent automation takes over large-scale, repetitive tasks in billing, supply chain, and contract management. This results in significant staff reductions (layoffs) in administrative and support roles, a key part of the "scrappier" business model.

The DOGE Parallel: This is the direct application of "cutting wasteful expenditures" and "downsizing the federal workforce" by replacing manual labor with efficient software.

Network Optimization and Predictive Maintenance:

The Change: Machine Learning (ML) models continuously analyze network performance data to predict equipment failures, automatically adjust power consumption across cell sites, and optimize technician dispatch routes. The network essentially becomes self-healing and energy-efficient.

The DOGE Parallel: Modernizing technology and software to "maximize governmental efficiency and productivity," saving billions in maintenance and energy costs.

Precision Capital Allocation:

The Change: Data science and AI are used to determine precisely where capital should be invested (e.g., which specific neighborhoods need a 5G Ultra Wideband upgrade versus which areas can rely on existing infrastructure) to maximize subscriber growth and revenue return, rather than blanket spending.

The DOGE Parallel: Ensuring that every dollar is spent wisely and effectively to achieve strategic goals, much like a government audit of taxpayer funds.

The overall goal is a tectonic shift in Verizon's identity: from a company primarily defined by its physical network build-out to a digital-first, data-driven organization where AI dictates every interaction, promotion, and operational expense.

Topgolf Callaway Brands President and CEO Chip Brewer revealed that his company eliminated “about 300 positions” in response to the impact of incremental tariffs. “We intend to mitigate as much of this impact as possible via efficiency improvements, pricing and vendor negotiations,” Brewer said on the company’s Q3 earnings call on Thursday.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/11/07/topgolf-callaway-reveals-layoffs-raises-full-year-financial-guidance/

Y'all given a mask and voila! the racism is revealed.
Listen, if you wonderful Americans were smart and effective, there is no need for the management to go around looking for "PoOr InDiAnS". They know Indians are smart, efficient, and get the job done for a decent paycheck. and oh my GOD how SLOW do you guys WORK? (Not all, of course, I've met multiple smart Americans but then there are the disgusting slackers) Your brains don't work coz you've been in the company for 25+ years and you all do such MIND NUMBING WORK, with no passion nor energy. But guess what? you get paid 4x for that. That's a waste of money, nah mate? Instead Indians here do the SAME Work, HALF the TIME, HALF the COST. Maybe if you dimwits pulled up your socks, stopped poking your nose in other people's business ("WhY iS He WoRkiNG fRoM HoMe" Sir, its 2025. We use TECHNOLOGY to get jobs done faster and smarter. Go back to 1925 if you want to work the way you want) you can maybe, one day, prevent jobs from getting outsourced. But nah, you all on here, ranting coz you know your job is on the line - warming seats in office for a hefty paycheck ain't helping you keep your job. Next time you wanna be a racist, ask yourself, "Am I qualified to be one?" coz chances are, you aren't. Pray for yourself, your family, and IF you have it within yourself, for others. Coz at the end of the day we are all corporate slaves.

The management team documented headcount reductions at Investor Day and the materials are on investor.bankofamerica.com - read it for yourself.

https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_921b404bf18d5836995d3afa5c212c04/bankofamerica/db/968/10447/file_upload/BofAInvestorDay_FullPresentation_Final.pdf

Page 61 (stamped 39) shows a clear and significant push reduction in headcount. The slide is titled “Continue to Drive Growth and EFFICIENCY thru strategic investments…”. Watch any interview with Brian (Maria Bartoromo for example) and he avoids the question on headcount reductions from our investments in AI. The presentation signals to investors headcount cuts are coming and of course just how wonderful the management team is doing. We lag peers on EVERY meaningful metric so investors said same tired BS and dumped the stock on a market up day. Investors laugh at “responsible growth” so now we have to rename it “Try to catch up to every peer we lag growth”.

Search for the word “efficiency” in the deck and it comes up 51 times with the last one on page 298 (stamped 22). Management is targeting an efficiency ratio of 55-59% and publishing that to investors. Management cannot control revenue. Management can only control expense. These targets only require a 10-20% headcount cut and it’s so super easy to do. The question is does Brian want reductions in the Q4 earnings release or Q1 2026.

NEW YORK/TORONTO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab CEO Charlie Scharf said on Wednesday he expects the U.S. bank's workforce to decline further as it focuses on efficiency.
"It's likely we'll have less headcount as we look forward ... we'd like to do much of it through attrition as possible," Scharf said in an interview, noting the bank had 275,000 employees when he joined in 2019 and a little over 210,000 currently.