#leadership

This call started off with the highest of BS, and CB does think like an owner and his wallet is bulging because of it. The first 100 days has been a Sh** Show!!

Can people go from AVP to SVP? Or stories that this has been done?

Every CEO needs a good story to tell Wall Street to justify a higher stock price. Hans & company claimed that they had an edge over the competition with mmWave 5-Yee. Dan & company claim AI gives them that edge. In any event, you can expect more layoffs in the future.

https://www.thestreet.com/employment/verizon-ceo-cuts-to-the-chase-new-layoffs-ai-future

Our leadership has never sat where we sit. They don't know what it takes to get things done. They don't understand why certain things take as long as they do. They're completely disconnected from the reality of the people who actually do the work.

Many people on my team in cyber are worried they’re next. Some well loved employees have already been let go and no one feels safe right now! One person told me they think leadership will replace her by moving her role to India. Has anyone heard anything?? They’ve made poor decisions already on who they decided to lay off.

Real leader! Fiesta time!

Over 25+ years building the superior fiber broadband residential network. Engineering A+. Yet in MDUs and SFUs Vz has less than 50% of broadband customers.

Based on observation... same tired marketing tactics being used today as when first rolled out. This is a direct failure of VPs and Directors in those MDU and SFU organizations.

Much talent has left and listening to remaining Marketing/Sales Directors in the MDU/SFU space its obvious waisted CapEx remains.

Time for Dan to inject new blood and support Engineering build.

That's what we can find solace in.

Any chance the last two CEO’s were planted by the investors? They both run this company like they want to bleed it out and then sell it to someone who may have pushed for them to get to the top.

As an owner, I know this is a good company with kind, and capable people who are victims. The teams are carrying a huge burden, and living in fear, but the real issue is leadership. The company has become top heavy with expensive SVPs, slow to act, disconnected from customers and value, and incapable of executing with clarity or urgency or even working together. And whenever we hire a new person to lead, strategy shifts and we start all over, or worse they come up with the exact same plan that the old team did, but that leadership were too blind or paralyzed to execute on. For the last 5-6 years, there has been almost no meaningful customer context at the executive level, and even now there is a visible disconnect between leadership’s new direction and what CDW actually does in the market to create value.

Proof? The Overall messaging is weak. The company struggles to articulate or sell new solutions with confidence. Marketing has become performative instead of effective. Internal politics, favoritism, and executive empire-building are rewarded while execution suffers. Consultants swarm the business looking for problems to solve while accountability disappears, and we are slowed down. Teams compete internally instead of aligning externally against the market. Fundamental operational discipline, blocking and tackling has largely vanished. Stock is a perfect reflection of reality. We were given the shot.

An equally concerning problem is that too many leaders are learning the business while running it. A top strategy executive from a bloated fire alarm company with stock performance almost as bad as CDW’s. A CMO from a car dealership with no meaningful B2B expertise. A former C level executive from a second rate department store. A sales leader from an HR leadership role. A Bain person running partners and acquisition integration, now c suite strategy. And it goes on, throughout the organization. Customers can feel it. Employees can feel it. The market can feel it. Partners scratch their heads and wonder when it’s going to implode. You people literally have no respect in our market. We apologize for you on every call. Now, we are losing credibility by even working here. Destination workplace? .

At some point, there have to be consequences and structural change at the top instead of another round of resets and reorganizations.

Here is what should happen, thinking like an owner:
• Name a new CEO immediately, even on an interim basis. Anyone would be better than a stock in freefall with no plan. Alternatively, appoint a President with full operational authority from a competitor, or internally, who knows how we create value, is respected and has run these businesses. The organization needs visible leadership and accountability now, not eventually.
• Any executive who cannot hold a credible customer conversation about the company’s core business and solutions should be visibly removed in a layoff. We are better off knowing you were fired, in order to regain respect for you leaders and ourselves. This is not an academic exercise. If leaders do not understand customers relative to our CDW value, they should not be leading any customer-touching organizations.
• Standardize technical and AI enablement across the company using actual vendor ecosystems, proven customer conversations and market platforms just like our peers, not internally manufactured abstractions disconnected from reality created by the burglar alarm team. Everyone should know the stacks, the tools, and the customer use cases. Everyone should be able to prove it.
• Align sales compensation to strategic outcomes, not just individual revenue extraction. The current model rewards personal economics over company transformation.
• Stop socializing executive compensation across broad leadership layers. Compensation should be tied directly to measurable departmental outcomes and execution quality. If I am doing well, don’t penalize me for a weak link i cannot control. Or I will leave, like many other effective leaders have.
• Expand equity participation broadly across employees instead of concentrating upside only at the top. The people doing the work should share in the value creation. They will be loyal and work harder, and be able to actually hold each other accountable as owners. And we will do better as a whole.
• Reduce consultant dependence dramatically, or to zero. If the business cannot operate without armies of external advisors, leadership has already failed.
• Re-establish operational fundamentals: accountability, execution speed, customer intimacy, and cross-functional alignment. Reduce red tape at all costs. AI isn’t enough. Mentality has to shift.

Finally, leadership credibility and employee loyalty requires you make shared sacrifice right now, and it should also be very public. If performance, growth, execution, and customer confidence are all materially off-track, CEO and EVP compensation should reflect that reality. That’s CEO, CFO, COO, CHRO, CCO, CSSO. Accountability cannot only exist for the people lower in the organization. No pay until we are fixed. If you don't like it, please leave or don't expect any respect. Step up and lead.

So...Serafin's departure email just hit. Was in there for less than a year, and just moved to San Antonio. Clyde left a dingle berry of a mess from Op Model AND move to Guidewire. If you objected to the simultaneous switch, you were labeled as "not a team player". But when you watch senior officers leaving on their own, it is acceptable to not be a kool aid drinker. Here we go again with switching gears/strategy as new 'direction' is given. A years worth of work thrown away. Missed family events were for nothing.

I'd say he is, he's conditioned that way.

She hit the nail on the head with this one. It perfectly captures everything people hate about fake corporate morale culture. Emmy P somehow thought the best thing to send out was a soft and little lifestyle reflection about pillows, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, and “comforting scents,” while employees are overwhelmed, understaffed, underpaid, exhausted, and emotionally checked out. The email actually comes across as being completely detached from reality. It reads less like leadership communication and more like someone journaling after a relaxing retreat while the workforce is still drowning in stress and expected to smile through it.

What makes it worse is how pompous and performative it sounds. “Home is where the rhythms are familiar”. Meanwhile employees rhythms are familiar too by trying to survive impossible workloads, nonstop emails, useless meetings, constant policy changes, and management decisions made by people who haven’t touched frontline work in years or even grass for that matter. Nobody asked for a poetic reflection about your favorite coffee mug. People want staffing, functioning systems, competent leadership, fair pay, and transparency. Instead, they get this polished corporate BS pretending to be “morale boosting.” It feels insulting and leadership communication like this always assumes employees are emotionally soothed by positivity alone, as if a cheerful tone can replace actual support.

And then the dramatic ending about opening “that enormous pile of mail” is almost comical. Oh no, not the mail. As if leadership even understands how miserable people are. It’s the disconnect. It’s leadership speaking like everything is cozy and reflective while employees are mentally exhausted and begging to feel heard. We’re past the point that all the “we care about people” messaging starts sounding hollow when it’s constantly wrapped in corporate inspirational language instead of meaningful action.

Please leave the company and for the new joiners, just don’t.

Failing forward over and over and over! He knows nothing about Core - epic failure! And we decide to give him a segment that was making progress?!? Him and his band of losers he drags around will ki-l this segment too. High performers won’t stay under his watch. Nice job Fiserv!!! Oh and ask clients, major dislike across bank and credit union!!! No credibility! Get out if you’re a high performer

Just wanted to give the proper hello to rhe worst CEO and human being in Chevron History, MW. Also a hello to the worst CIO in Chevron history that is destroying his fellow American IT personnel to pad his pockets. What kind of people have so little loyalty to their country and community they happily sacrifice them for themselves? Terrible humans. They DO NOT HAVE to act this way. No law says they have to. For those defending these people, a few extra pennies of dividend in your retirement fund at thr cost of laying off people in your community is not Wirth it. Its absolutely wirthless! You dont have enough in your account to make a difference. Now to head out to take an MW!

What a bunch of douch bags on that broadcast. How about a few of them get the shaft and why was the girl on the end so shiny? She looked plastic.

Even though you're doing more work, more hours, more roles and the load of three others, you don't deserve a raise because Vz is so much more efficient and has better tools than ever before?

He actually said that with a straight face.

Bill’s talking about how RTO will help teammates further their careers, etc, but that’s 100% NOT TRUE if there are no advancement opportunities in your line of work in your geographic location. I was hired to work remotely and at that time my advancement opportunities were open (or at least more open than they are now) because Truist was OK with remote work. Now I have to go into an office that has nowhere for me to grow, OR I have to move to a more expensive city that will eat up any difference in salary I might get with a promotion. The lack of leadership’s acknowledgment of this impact is so disappointing.

Someone mentioned layoffs in Boston, but there has been no all clear from leadership. Does this mean more Surgical Robotics layoffs are coming in the next few days or weeks?

Was it: • HR? • A task force? • Darren Woods?
• A committee of frustrated supervisors who suddenly realized their 52–55-year-olds had stopped trembling in fear? I’m only asking because when the karmic boomerang eventually returns to sender, I’d like to make sure proper credit is assigned to the correct individual or department. Thanks in advance for helping identify the architect of this masterpiece.

Accountability matters.

Good riddance to that garbage KPI. Everybody was fudging their numbers anyways.

Source: Inside line on a leadership call

...or any information on how the requirements even work with VDIs. Does connecting to the VDI on a personal machine from USB wifi so we can use conference rooms count? Or only the thin-client through the Ethernet from the desk? Are we supposed to claim a desk when we're at the office even if we don't use it for tracking purposes? Who knows.

How is the world can we be held to these numbers when they won't even communicate to us how it works. This is basic leadership 101 stuff. Unprofessional and unethical.

What are you even "managing"? It's ridiculous.

The TOP companies are getting the message yet this dinosaur is not excelling but just managing.

It costs $2.2B–$4.0 Billion a year for this.

• people managers
• program managers
• product managers
• project managers
• engineering managers
• sales managers

So 7,000–13,000 people managers

And another 4,000–9,000 program/product/project managers

.......do you REALLY need >20,000 managers managing to manage?

Are these 20 thousand even technical?

If not, what do they even do?

I am not an employee, just lurk these forums from time to time. The #1 reason why your stock is down starts with Mike Lyons. Since taking Office, he hasn't appeared on a single news network or any of the business news network. Wall Street doesn't know who Mike is, I know you guys hate Frank, but he was a Wall Street darling, people knew him personally. He was constantly on every business news network talking about Fiserv. As an outsider/investor, I have zero idea about what Mike's vision or strategy is. Unfortunately press release doesn't work anymore. Wall Street doesn't care about actual products or services, it is the potential to make quick short-term profits. Frank understood that but ML doesn't want to be bothered. He is hoping luck and time will payoff. Sorry folks, Expect more layoffs.

Yes I know layoffs can still happen with a good quarter but.... LP made it seem like we finally turned a corner and that layoffs may not even be necessary. Well he was just fattening the pig before sla-ghter.

Our leadership only cares about costs and stock prices right now. Long term? That's someone else's problem. We're all just numbers to them.

We know cuts are coming, but we don’t know when or any real details beyond that. So now we get to sit around stressing and worrying for who knows how long. I’m sure that’s going to do wonders for everyone’s mental and physical health. I really hate what this place has become and the joke we have for leadership.

Pre-WFH, I've had two managers who obsessed over start times and break lengths. Neither of them actually knew how to lead. They just watched the clock because it was easier than doing their real jobs. It never improved productivity, but it worked for them. Those are the kind of people who want us back in the office. To hide their own failings.

Do they seriously expect us to swallow the propaganda that these new policies serve our interests? Their "collaboration" narrative is as transparent as their eco-friendly initiative that conveniently eliminated all trash cans—forcing us to hunt for basic amenities like desperate nomads.

The "modern" open office design is nothing but a calculated insult—making us scramble for desks like it's some innovative breakthrough. And those sardine-can workspaces? They're not fostering collaboration; they're manufacturing misery. The hypocrisy is breathtaking when MW dismisses remote work with that condescending "blue-collar people don't get to work from home" remark—as if dragging everyone down to the lowest common denominator is some noble principle rather than a transparent power play.

Let's be brutally honest about where those "cost-cutting" savings are actually flowing: straight into their private jets, personal security details (if you're such a good person, why do you live in constant fear of your own employees?), and those obscenely overpriced box suites at sporting events. They're bleeding us dry to fund their elite lifestyle while preaching sacrifice.

This isn't corporate evolution—it's psychological warfare disguised as progress. They're betting we'll either quit from exhaustion or lay ourselves off through "performance issues"—or perhaps take that phrase even more literally if the pressure becomes unbearable. All while they prepare to offshore our positions or eliminate them entirely. It's not about collaboration or sustainability; it's about creating a cult of misery where your suffering directly funds their luxury.

1000+ roles might not seem much but majority of these were VP, SVP level roles.

When these leadership roles are filled, the teams are consolidated and there WILL BE natural redundancy introduced that will further fuel reduction in future.

The leaders and HR have been lying all this time.

The 800+ leadership roles elimination have left 25k associates fate again in limbo.

The new leaders who take up these roles will again evaluate team structure, introducing further stress, anxiety and uncertainty which will last till fall.

And next Q1 will further see more reductions.

BP has seen a suitcase parade of clown CEOs enter and leave the company. How will Meg be different and what actions and results will she be remembered for? Legacy starts now…

How ya’ll doin’ on this fine Sunday?

Me? I’m feeling’ a little ‘spicy.’

On this Mother’s Day, I was just thinking how much better the world would be if Mickey’s mummy had just taken a pill. Could have spared us all the disgrace that this POS truly is.

I used to believe that if I worked hard and stayed loyal, my manager would protect me. Then I got put on a PIP after my manager promised me I was safe. They don't have your back. They have their own back. Never forget that.

I've learned to expect the opposite of whatever leadership says in town halls. That's usually closer to the truth.

So now EH is doing paid-for press to try to save this message? Please. Let's get a panel from the 1400 from the recent layoff and the thousands from all the previous layoffs on the Today show.

Pathetic. He's pathetic.

I've been here long enough to remember when teams actually worked together. When you could ask someone for help and they'd give it. When leadership encouraged collaboration instead of competition. That's completely gone now. I don't know what this place has become but it's not what I joined.

Do they really thing they are reassuring anyone when they say: "Over for now" & "Nothing planned"... Anyone who has an option should consider this as a clear sign about what to do. This fuzziness, double speak and silence from executives creates nothing but rumor loops and anxiety. What a way to lead...

It seems oxymoronic, doesn't it? When asking for updates or other changes, the answer is no, every single time. Even when requesting changes to efficiency or just plain common sense. No, that is not desired. Just. Plain. No.