#employeeengagement

I try to teach the newbies the ropes, but they're on their phones or walking off mid-explanation. Maybe I'm just old-school, but I thought you were supposed to actually learn the job once you join a company. Isn't that the minimum requirement? What's their game plan here?

The latest questionnaire was due end of Feb.
I was let go in April.
Did corporate ever roll out the results or was it too impossible to apply the lipstick?

Checking in to see where everyone is at on the mood elevator? Remember those days?

So, what do those Texans think of your OU and OSU degrees?

Keep spending money (It’s someone else’s laws).

Wonder if DO is bringing any more people that Frontier wanted to can. He brings over these people that sit there and say Hi to a team one time. Be like im going to be engaged once a month and then you never see them again. Oh look another meeting with leadership turnover. Guess someone exceeded their KPI on word salads. DO should focus more on the actual employees instead of not understanding sales and long winded speeches.

Sit up straight and take note: The key highlight from the Raytheon Global Town Hall is Raytheon is hiring and hiring bodies -including your kids, grand kids, neighborhood friends and family members, the local bartender, the bagger at the grocery store, kids at the carwash, telemarketers... there is no need to have any experience as one can make a career at Raytheon attending meetings or training without the expectation of performing any work. Even those with a tepid pulse whose only skill is to occupy a chair need apply as Raytheon is anxiously awaiting your arrival with open arms.

Whats new or different on your review and goals being stressed? Im assuming when mine comes it will be more hyperventilating about using AI and being pushed in thinking of new ways to use AI or commit to taking some type of AI training or certiications. Seems like this will all be used to eliminate anyone not 100% in on the AI cult mentality.

You should not feel disrespected. You should be grateful and eager to work hard with a song in your heart!

Whoever had the idea to bring on a dog as the Chief Pawsitivity Officer is a genius. She’s super cute and everyone loves her. She has a fan clubs. Great distraction to the fires burning all around the Association as they lay folks off and cut back on benefits, etc.

Why are we measuring workplace engagement with physical badge swipes? Is this how effective leaders measure employee engagement in 2026 when tech enables top talent to collaboration from anywhere? Policies like this make employees less engaged. What are we doing here? Who is signing off on these policies? Were there literally no better ideas?! We are going to become a case study: The Collapse of the Edward Jones Culture - How Not To Lead.

Whether a role can be performed effectively from home ultimately depends on the nature of the work itself.
In many cases, remote employees go above and beyond compared to their in-office counterparts. For example, when meetings are scheduled at 6:30 a.m., remote employees are generally expected to be online and fully engaged. This is particularly common for employees based on the West Coast who report to leadership teams on the East Coast. Remote employees also put more hours in work on an average.

Ironically, employees working from the office often benefit from greater visibility and more opportunities for informal interactions with leadership. Remote employees, on the other hand, frequently contend with the classic "out of sight, out of mind" challenge, which can impact recognition and career progression despite strong performance.

We certainly have skill issues, but attributing those issues to remote work misses the mark. The root causes lie elsewhere, and remote work is not the driving factor behind them.
If we're being objective, some of the weakest performers are sitting in Franklin Lakes, which makes it difficult to argue that location is the root cause of the problem.

Bumped from @fv+1kvtn2txr.

Lousy raises and no recognition for anyone, even the top performers. There's literally no reason to put in extra effort anymore.

Any teams shared engagement survey results and action plans yet? We just heard from upper management and nothing to individual teams. I am curious.

You can see it everywhere. People have completely stopped trying. Management doesn't care about us, so we don't care about our jobs anymore.

With all the gloom, I'm wondering if there's anyone who actually still enjoys working at this place. Not just tolerates it, but actually likes it.

The employees with years of knowledge are expected to solve every problem, train new people, and keep everything moving, yet they're constantly overlooked. Meanwhile, management seems to get rewarded regardless of whether they actually understand the work.

Treating people well isn't complicated. When you respect employees, they stay and contribute. Mistreat people and it brings everyone and everything down, including productivity. Why can't leadership figure this out?

Hey Jeff, can I make a t-shirt request? Can you make me a t-shirt that says:

"I worked at Dell for 20 years and all I got was this stuupid t-shirt."

Thanks

Heard some senior folks talk about our high performing teams in terms of sports teams. It made me think about genuinely high performing sports teams - the ones who are given time to develop and train, given the best equipment, given support, given trust and empowered to perform and then I thought about XOM, the team on the field is despised by their managers, trying to perform with worse equipment each year, no support and a performance system that pits teammates against each other. I realised the sports team analogy is a pile of bullsh-t.

when are the drones at Larry's sweatshop going to do the same?

In this week's blog post we dive into the Around The Table's look at Optimism with Brendan Mooney, the CEO of Kainos
https://underthetable2026.blogspot.com/2026/07/episode-5-optimism.html

Upcoming role changes and AI agents (which seem promising so far), including mandatory check-ins, are all on the horizon. What's everyone's consensus on this? 🤔

How many people on this site are commenting with perspectives from Retail vs Corporate functions?

Call is going on now. Add your impressions of the call. 🍿

How we feeling? Comment below.

We worked perfectly fine remote during Covid. Then it’s back to the office but no assigned seating. Fine. Then it’s tracking days in office. Ok. Then it’s tracking hours in office. Alright making it work. Now they are taking away specialty locations. Annoying and decreases talent pool. But now they want to focus on making teams sit with each other and move offices so people are co-located. Are we children? Give back assigned seats or treat us like adults as long as we get the job done. Next they will be required 4 days and/or certain days. I prefer to find a nice quiet corner to get my work done.

Why is the Women Lead session being lead by a Man? He rewords what she says and does most of the talking. Can someone tell him to he is not a woman? Another example of Optum not getting it right. I just want him to shut up.

Can’t believe the CEO just announced Schrute bucks.
I’m like 80% confident he just read the article below and thought it was a magical way to improve morale.
https://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/2026/06/22/challenge-coins/

I put so much effort into my work and I know it's good. Other people notice and comment on it, but I never seem to get anywhere because I'm not part of the favored group. I don't know why I keep trying so hard.

I've seen so many formerly dedicated people just doing the bare minimum now. What was the breaking point?

I remember when Dell actually pushed us to learn and grow. That seems like ancient history now.

For those who previously worked at CDW, I’d appreciate hearing which VAR you’ve joined and how your experience compares to your time at CDW. Many of us are exploring opportunities within VAR organizations that place a stronger emphasis on coworker value and overall culture, and your insight would be extremely helpful.

To Humana upper management….
The recent communication encouraging employees to use our time more efficiently to better serve our members was discouraging to many of us. While I understand the intent may have been to improve efficiency, the message came across as though our efforts are not valued or that we are not doing enough to meet our members' needs.
Many employees are already working under significant pressure. We were required to work mandatory overtime to meet organizational demands, did not receive merit increases this year, are closely monitored in nearly every aspect of our work, and face disciplinary action if chart audit scores fall below 95%. These expectations create an environment where employees feel they are constantly being measured but rarely recognized for the work they are already doing.
Those of us on the front lines genuinely care about providing high-quality care to our members. We understand the importance of efficiency, but efficiency alone should not come at the expense of employee morale. Communications that acknowledge employees' hard work, recognize the challenges we face, and express appreciation alongside performance expectations would be far more motivating than messages that imply we should simply be doing more.
I hope leadership will consider how these communications are perceived by employees. Feeling valued and supported is essential to maintaining engagement, retaining experienced staff, and ultimately providing the best possible service to our members.

Figured I’d use AI to create this since AI is our future. Thanks copilot!

A chronological descent into corporate madness.

• 06:30 AM | The Commute of Champions
  Spend 55 minutes staring at brake lights because burning gas and inhaling highway fumes is the ultimate prelude to productivity.

• 07:25 AM | The Hunger Games: Parking Edition
  Waste 15 minutes circling the concrete labyrinth just to park half a mile away, then walk to the building like a corporate nomad.

• 07:40 AM | The Hoteling Ritual
  Spend 20 minutes hunting down an unassigned, sterile cubicle and plugging in cords like you're setting up a temporary command center in a disaster zone.

• 08:00 AM | The Mandatory Weekend Recap
  Endure 40 minutes of grueling small talk about Brenda's nephew's soccer tournament and Dave’s lawn aeration schedule. You cannot escape.

• 08:40 AM | The Stealth Hydration Mission
  Take 15 minutes to carefully plot a route to the restroom and coffee machine, attempting to dodge eye contact with anyone who might ask "how's it going?"

• 08:55 AM | Actual Work (The Rare In-Between)
  A shocking, uninterrupted 60-minute window where you actually perform the tasks you are paid to do. Cherish it.

• 09:55 AM | The Pre-Meeting Packing Migration
  Pack up your entire digital life 15 minutes early because God forbid you "squat" on a shared cube while you migrate to a different floor for a meeting.

• 10:10 AM | The Disappearing Desk Era
  Lose 90 minutes of your life to a 60-minute meeting because the first 15 were spent figuring out the conference room HDMI adapter and the last 15 were "organic banter."

• 11:40 AM | The Power Lunch Sprint
  Shove food down your throat in exactly 23 minutes so you aren't late for the next round of synergistic alignment.

• 12:03 PM | Sensory Decompression Walk
  Spend 15 minutes pacing the perimeter of the building just to regulate your nervous system after surviving the deafening roar of the company cafeteria.

• 12:18 PM | The Hallway Ambush
  Attempt to return to a desk but get cornered by a manager for 20 minutes of unsolicited "brainstorming."

• 12:38 PM | The Cult of Collaboration
  Sprint to the next room because arriving late to a 90-minute slide-deck reading is a sin against the company culture.

• 02:08 PM | The 443-Minute Meltdown
  Look at the clock. Exactly 443 minutes of your waking life have passed since you arrived at the office, mostly spent pretending to care about things that don't matter.

• 02:11 PM | The Personal Hogwash Trap
  Try to use the restroom again. Get trapped for 20 minutes hearing about someone's upcoming kitchen remodel.

• 02:31 PM | The Final Stand
  Sit down and frantically work for 51 minutes, typing at 120 words per minute with pure, adrenaline-fueled rage.

• 03:22 PM | The Great Escape
  Spend 15 minutes shutting down, packing your backpack, and walking toward freedom.

• 03:37 PM | The Doorstop Conversation
  Get stopped for 5 minutes right at the exit by someone who "just wanted to catch you real quick."

• 03:42 PM | The Commute Home (Part II)
  Spend 55 minutes crawling back home in gridlock, contemplating every life choice that led to this moment.

The Hard Truth Math
Total Time Invested: 10 Hours (600 Minutes)

Actual Time Spent Working: 111 Minutes
>
Total Time Wasted on "Culture": 8.1 Hours

If this day happened at home, we all would have finished actual work before lunch, attended the meetings while comfortably and wouldn't need a stiff drink just to survive the evening once you got home.

But hey, at least management got to see your face in a cubicle. Culture!

The office is already dead/empty. Curious if they'll sublet one or more of BR's 7 buildings in order to make it feel less like a ghost town? "Don't miss your friends and colleagues, you've got all these new ENERGIZED people to sit and discuss AI with!"

Be truthful.

HR was actually too nervous to post the numbers for those regions. Honestly, I don't want to waste my time on it. Plus, if I did take it, my responses would just look like an outlier anyway.

The morning began quietly, with a cool breeze drifting through the open windows and carrying the scent of fresh rain across the neighborhood. Birds gathered on telephone wires, taking turns singing while the streets slowly came to life. A delivery truck rolled past, cyclists waved to one another, and the first customers entered a small café where the smell of coffee and warm bread filled the air. People hurried to work, students gathered outside schools, and gardeners watered flowers that had begun to bloom after several sunny days.

Across town, a public library welcomed visitors looking for a quiet place to read or study. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, holding books on history, science, art, engineering, literature, and countless other subjects. Some readers searched for novels to enjoy over the weekend, while others researched topics for school or personal projects. In a nearby room, children listened carefully as a storyteller described distant mountains, mysterious forests, and adventurous explorers who traveled across oceans in search of knowledge and discovery.

As the afternoon arrived, parks became busier with families, joggers, photographers, and people simply enjoying the weather. A group of musicians practiced together beneath a large oak tree, filling the air with melodies that drifted across the walking paths. Nearby, artists sketched landscapes while children built elaborate sand structures in a playground. Conversations shifted from everyday routines to dreams of future vacations, new hobbies, favorite meals, and memorable experiences shared with friends.

Meanwhile, technology continued to connect people around the world. Engineers collaborated on complex projects from different continents, teachers held virtual classrooms for students thousands of miles away, and researchers exchanged scientific discoveries in real time. Farmers monitored weather forecasts before planting crops, doctors reviewed medical images with specialists in other cities, and volunteers organized community events through online platforms. Small innovations combined to make daily life more efficient while creating opportunities for creativity and collaboration.

As evening approached, the sky gradually transformed into shades of orange, pink, and deep blue. Lights appeared in homes and businesses, restaurants welcomed dinner guests, and families gathered around tables to share stories about their day. Some people relaxed with books, others watched movies, practiced musical instruments, solved puzzles, exercised, or planned future goals. Before the night ended, many stepped outside for a moment to admire the stars overhead, appreciating the quiet stillness that contrasted with the busy hours that had come before.

Although every day follows a familiar rhythm, no two days are ever exactly the same. Small conversations, unexpected opportunities, changing weather, new ideas, and simple acts of kindness all contribute to experiences that shape our memories over time. Curiosity encourages people to continue learning, exploring unfamiliar places, meeting different individuals, and discovering perspectives they had never considered before. Through patience, persistence, and a willingness to adapt, ordinary moments often become meaningful stories that are remembered for years to come.

If there was one thing you could change in the next year with Truist Investments, what would it be and why?

I'm sure a few folks have gone through the new mid-year check-in. What is involved ... was a meeting necessary or could an email take care of it?