#management

“You saw our preliminary results… The first step is just to own it.” We already do. Every single one of us on the ground owns our number, every quarter, no matter how the goalposts moved that quarter. So let’s talk about ownership both ways: what exactly do you own here? Not the words “own it” in a Monday message : the actual outcome. What’s the consequence for you when the results miss? Who’s putting you on a PIP?
Nobody around you says this out loud, so I will: we had real leaders who could have told you this a year ago, and they didn’t leave for a better offer .... they got pushed out because they tried to correct you. You don’t get to say “no deflection, no excuses” while the people most likely to challenge the plan are the ones no longer in the building, because they challenged it.
Maybe IBM’s software problem isn’t the market, isn’t the customers, isn’t even the products. Maybe it’s you. Look at the CROs and software leaders actually winning out there right now. do you really think they run their orgs the way you run this one? Reshuffling structure every six months, pushing out anyone who isn’t aligned, surrounding yourself with people too scared to push back? That’s not how growth companies behave. That’s how companies behave right before they lose the people who could have saved them.
And look at how these decisions actually get made: under panic, not conviction. Every reorg lands like an emergency reaction to a bad quarter, not a plan anyone thought through. And somehow, in that panic, we’re the ones treated like zero, like we can’t understand a reorg, like we’re not agile enough, like we’re the ones resisting transformation. We are exactly those things. We adapt every single time you ask us to, on a shorter timeline than any of you have to answer for. What we’re fed up with is taking transformation advice from the worst-performing leadership in the room, delivered in a panic, and then being blamed when the panic doesn’t produce results.
And on that note: when you write “we are putting more attention on software consumption,” who exactly is “we”? You and McKinsey in a slide deck, or you and the people actually sitting in front of customers who could tell you months ago that this was coming? Because from where I sit, “we” hasn’t included us in a long time : it’s included consultants who get paid regardless of whether the plan works, and employees who inherit the plan with no say in it.
“Every Second Counts” is a good line for a kitchen sign. It’s a bad operating model for enterprise software. Nobody sells real value in one or two quarters. Value takes time to build because it’s built on trust, and trust takes longer to earn back than it takes to lose. Nobody deploys software in one or two quarters either, because deployment runs on the customer’s timeline and their business needs, not ours. If every second really counts, the first thing that should buy us is more discipline before changing structures, incentives, and coverage models mid-year : not less.
Here’s my Monday growth message back to you: a leader is accountable to the people below him, not just to the market above him. That means listening to employees and customers before restructuring around them, not after. It means being able to say “I was wrong” and “this is going to take longer than I promised,” out loud, without spinning it into a hype line for the next town hall. We show up accountable every day, on our numbers, on our customers, on our word. I’m asking you to show the same thing back .... not another recap of initiatives, but an honest account of what you got wrong and what you’re doing to fix it, including how it affects the people asked to execute it with less time and fewer resources than the plan pretends.
We’re not asking for perfection. We’re asking for the truth, and for someone to actually be willing to hear it.

This place is in shambles because the people running it don't know what they're doing. Most of them got to where they are through nepotism, and it's obvious.

I'm watching more and more people make their exit. One of my coworkers just left for a job that pays significantly less, and he says he's never been happier, and I believe him. Others are just hanging on, waiting for a layoff so they can get severance and then they're gone too. I think management thinks they're saving money, but losing all this talent is going to cost them far more in the long run.

When are we going to be rid of this terrible regime? Any light at all at the end of the tunnel?

Rumor has it that Kamal & Mange are out early August

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.

The people running this place don't know what they're doing. They just play games and waste time. It's obvious and it's hurting everything.

Whenever someone leaves the team, the first question is never "how do we replace this person?" It's "who can take over their responsibilities?" Before long, their entire workload gets spread across everyone else, and we're expected to keep everything running like nothing happened. The problem is that this keeps happening over and over, and the team is already exhausted. People are working longer hours just to keep up, but there doesn't seem to be any urgency from management to address the staffing issue. I honestly don't know what the breaking point is supposed to be before someone realizes we need more people if we're to keep going.

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.

I'm Anxious, Nervous , and basically dreading this meeting more than the others. Vegas in July is the 1st Red Flag. SO many new faces. New Managers, New Team members, etc... I'm just going to close my eyes and click my heels and hope to wake up in Kansas.

I will just Pray.

I really hope No RTMs work a minute over 40 hours. Don't let this company take advantage of you. Do you think any manager in this company works over 40? They don't even work 30 hours. Have you ever seen a DM or RMS come out and help when a merchandiser calls off on the weekend or any other time? I haven't so why should you now that you're an rtm?

As a manager, I could target an individual employee and make it very difficult for them to remain at the company. However, I couldn’t do that repeatedly without consequences because organizations monitor manager turnover rates, and a consistent pattern of employees leaving under one manager eventually raises concerns.

In practice, the process often favors whoever documents their concerns first. If I report that an employee is underperforming before they raise complaints about me, my version of events is already part of the official record.

When the employee later goes to HR claiming they’re being treated unfairly or that I simply dislike them, it can be difficult for their complaint to stand out because HR hears similar explanations from many employees whose performance issues are legitimate. As a result, even when someone’s concerns are genuine, they may sound similar to many previous cases, making it harder for them to be believed. That dynamic can create a system where the manager’s position initially carries more weight.

Everyone is burned out. Not just from the work, but from the endless layoff anxiety. Management doesn't care. They'd love it if we all just left.

My manager is suddenly avoiding me. I don't know if I did something wrong or if he knows something I don't. I tried to talk to him but he keeps finding excuses. How bad is this? Should I start applying?

I can't help but wonder what most of the people in management positions actually do. They check in, they attend meetings, they send emails... What else? What do they actually produce? What value do they add? We have so many unnecessary layers that just slow things down and create more work for everyone else. It seems like we'd be so much more efficient with fewer managers.

There are discussions about possible management-related layoffs next month. Has the company provided any official update on whether this is accurate, and if so, which organizations or leadership teams would be impacted? Transparent communication through official channels would help reduce uncertaint

I’m reading managers and directors. Is there any more info on which managers and which directors? What channel

What’s the name of the latest layoff initiative?
How healthy for mental health is it to run an initiative to crop 12 staff every 4 years?

Yet the management is barely affected or penalized! The only balanced thing is that their children will face a darker and harder future…

Others seeing this already... Managers running scared schmuck. There time has finally come to learn technology or retire.

Drain the swamp and focus on revenue. Hans had no plan!

As a 40 year Vz employee who was fortunate to enjoy a friendship making career at Verizon I can't help but think HBS is writing a business case for MBA students to examine.

I believe the foundational thesis will be "When meitocracy and execution failure"

To think Ivan achieved CEO status as a formet IBEW Tech and grew up in the most competitive New York Telcom Market in the World, the standard was set.. results are rewarded and winners get rewarded based on results.

Then we transition to a different CEO.. Lowell.. Ivy education, obviously bright in academics but history shows could never build a cohesive strategy and Executive Team and badly mismanaged aquistions, integration (gotta have AOL, Gotta have VODAPhone 40% at extraordinary price), stop funding fiber expansion at significantly lower CapEx that now Vz is playing catch up. You get the point.

Tben tbe huge miss... recommends Hans to become CEO... this is 49% on Lowell and 51% on Board. To hire a Foreign CEO who was removed at Erickson as a failed CFO with zero experience on execution and zero USA market experience is a signicant reason for Vz free fail in stock and market performance. As a resukt Hans biught in an all European C level team to create Marketing programs, Finance, Operational metrics and a huge fail.

Verizon then transitions to a new CEO Dan who is on a running clock with sole focus to eliminate costs vs Customer value in marketplace. Employees are eliminated without regards to performance and skills. Rather on Salary in 90 day increments. Culture is crushed.

What remains is tbe keast experiences C Suite Team in the history of Ma Bell.

Finally, while quarterly results can fluctuate, the one tbing that Verizon has lost and accerated under Hans and Dan is the strategic advantage Verizon had over 100 years... Customer And Employee Integrated culture.

This entire Summary will be the HBS business case for future generations to learn from.

The most amusing part of the article is the premise itself that IBM can re-achieve any sort of relevance after this decimation.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/ibm-stock-price-fall-sell-87657335

The blue chip’s biggest wipeout on record will force the company to reinvent itself—again.

By Mackenzie Tatananni |
Updated July 17, 2026, 4:27 pm EDT / Original July 17, 2026, 1:00 am EDT

IBM has been forced to reinvent itself many times in the past. After its biggest wipeout on record this past week, it will have to do so again.

Big Blue had been riding high. Yes, there were problems in consulting, as signaled by Accenture’s woes, and in software, tipped off by weakness in ServiceNow and its sector peers. But the stock was trading at an all-time high as recently as June 2 as investors looked at the company’s near-monopoly in mainframe computing, its quantum computing effort, and its prospects as an artificial-intelligence winner.

They were wrong. IBM stock tumbled 25% this past Tuesday, its worst single-day drop on record, following a rare pre-announcement of its quarterly results. Such a move is highly unusual for the company, which is traditionally disciplined when it comes to financial reporting. The last time IBM pre-announced earnings was in October 2008, in an effort to reassure investors it was on track to meet targets during the global financial crisis.

Investors faced a different reality this time around, as IBM posted second-quarter earnings and revenue that missed Wall Street forecasts. While there were plenty of problems—slowing software and consulting sales, a massive reallocation of technology spending by its customers to chips, servers, and other AI needs—the biggest drag on the company’s performance was its infrastructure business. That includes its legacy mainframes—the massive computers enterprises like banks and credit-card networks rely on to process billions of calculations and transactions in real time.

Big Blue is undoubtedly the dominant force in this space. A 2022 study by Celent, commissioned by IBM, found its Z Mainframe Servers line processed more than half of the world’s transactions by value. But that didn’t help the division’s performance during the second quarter. Infrastructure revenue fell, as expected, but the 7% decline was significantly faster and harder than IBM had anticipated. Not only did fewer companies buy the actual mainframe hardware, they also bought less of the high-margin software required for tasks like banking and credit-card payments.

CEO Arvind Krishna attributed the results to poor execution. “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall,” he wrote in a letter to shareholders.

The 25% drop was massive—and partly justified, even as it erased nearly $70 billion in market capitalization. “The stock had become a crowded AI infrastructure winner and was trading near all-time highs, so any sign of execution issues was going to get punished,” says Dan O’Regan, managing director of equity trading at Mizuho Securities. “That said, a move of this magnitude suggests the market is now pricing in a much more prolonged slowdown than what management has implied.”

It didn’t help that analysts had set high expectations heading into the print. Morgan Stanley, for one, had predicted upside in infrastructure and software that was already priced into the stock. Oppenheimer, which downgraded the stock on Wednesday, had anticipated “no surprises in business trajectory,” making the sudden pre-announcement a true blindside.

Analysts were quick to move to the sidelines following IBM’s earnings miss, asserting that Big Blue would have to lean on major acquisitions or close deals that slipped past the quarter’s deadline to recover lost ground. Now Oppenheimer is questioning the company’s ability to achieve double-digit software revenue growth through 2027. The 5% growth in the latest quarter was sharply below the firm’s 12% estimate.

The bigger issue might be whether IBM’s infrastructure business itself is being disrupted. Even before Tuesday’s plunge, IBM stock had been lagging behind the broader market after stumbling earlier in the year as fears of AI disruption began to take hold. One of the most significant drops occurred in February, when AI start-up Anthropic unveiled a COBOL modernization playbook for its Claude Code tool, claiming it could dramatically streamline updates to the outdated programming language that runs on IBM mainframes. Historically, the immense complexity and cost of migrating off these systems protected IBM’s highly profitable mainframe business—a protective moat AI now threatens to dissolve.

IBM stock closed on Wednesday at 16.54 times 12-month forward earnings, its lowest price/earnings ratio since June 2024. But that says less about where IBM is now than where it was before. As recently as June 2, the stock was trading for more than 25 times, above the S&P 500’s 21.52—a premium valuation that might not have been deserved.

“Lower prices make an asset more attractive,” BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski says. “I just caution investors that, out of all the companies I cover, IBM probably has the lowest organic growth currently and the lowest organic growth outlook. That needs to be reflected in the valuation.”

Shares plunged 26% by Friday’s close, capping off their worst week in history. As tempting as it may be to scoop them up after such a tumble, IBM still has a lot of work to do.

In the worst-case scenario, investors fear that IBM’s enterprise clients—massive businesses with sprawling IT setups—are redirecting their budgets toward AI instead of Big Blue’s traditional offerings. At best, the company was simply caught off guard by a sudden capital expenditure shift, as Krishna asserted, and can reclaim that lost ground in coming quarters.

Slowinski is one of the most bearish voices on the Street, rating the stock at Underperform. “IBM’s strategy is to use its cash flow to acquire higher-growth software assets in order to improve its growth profile,” he says. “But it has a business in consulting, in software, in mainframe, where all of them are low-single-digit organic growers. And the prospects of that improving organically is very slim.”

As Mizuho’s O’Regan sees it, the setup from here depends less on the AI narrative and more on management proving it can consistently execute.

“The market wants proof that this is an execution stumble, not the beginning of a structural slowdown in demand,” O’Regan explains. “As a stock, the days of getting the benefit of the doubt are probably over for now.”

At least until the next metamorphosis begins to take shape.

If you work for belk don’t drink the kool-aid served by upper management and executive leadership, people of a certain age will understand this reference.

Pat Gelsinger says the chipmaker went off the rails ‘when it started to be run by business people’. (See: https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/former-intel-ceo-says-chipmaker-185823655.html)

Same rule applies to EDA? A software maker derails the moment it is led by a CAE.

Q. Why did the Japanese car companies beat the American car companies ?

The answer may surprise you but this is why T is dying as a whole due to layoffs.

The Japanese car companies had eight people rowing the boat and one person steering .
The American car companies had eight people steering, and one person rowing.

When the American car company lost the race, they fire the person rowing the boat.

That is the thinking behind how management and HR and how people are picked .

So I completely understand the need to serve members, the huge queues, the need to work work work. But we are losing the human touch that case management is supposed to represent. Based on the current direction it is - treat them like cattle - find small things and peace out at 90 days. Something comes up, member has real needs welp too bad we don’t care cause other people waiting too. A case needs to stay open longer - bring it to rounds so they can tell you to keep up the good work. Plus we will ask for you input about what is working, what is not but no one cares at all in reality. Just sit there, shut up and get it done…. How we don’t care…. Mental health yeah we don’t care….
As someone who loved this job and this workplace when she started, the cracks in the wall are showing and frankly there isn’t enough stucco in the world. The rot in this place start with mismanagement and lack of direction at the top and goes down to mid and lower tier management for the most part. There are exceptions and I am grateful for having experienced the other side. Honestly if you think you can hold this place together with duct tape, baling wire and AI go for it. Just approve the VSP and let us go now. So we have the same luxury to leave you with sorry bout your luck get it done.
All I know is between anxiety and extra meeting’s to micromanage further servicing the members I am here for gets harder by the day. I can only assume this tactic is to attempt to not pay severance because it’s definitely not helping morale!
Oh but Thank freaking goodness it’s Friday!

What exactly do supervisors and managers and above do everyday? My supervisor is either in a meeting or on a call almost everyday, and seems like every 3-4 hours they have to go to a meeting or hop on a call. So my question is, for sups or whoever is familiar, what the heck exactly do these sups do everyday? No way you will have so much to say if you go on a meeting almost everyday for 4-5 hours a day?

I find it highly oxymoronic (with the emphasis on mo--nic) that we have these departments that take their work so seriously, use unbelievable amounts of academic rigor to try and solve problems and come from the highest caliber business schools and academic institutions while we see stock prices in free fall and continuous service area exits and RIFs. Maybe things need to be simplified, not iterated with more rigor and wonderfully polished vocabulary in presentations. This place is full of contradictions.

So assuming the Union Eisp will be announced soon .The summer manager riff Is over .So hopefully it’s an enhanced buyout to everyone who wants out .This is possible it could be after September riff scheduled.I just don’t understand how the management continues to operate as if the whole company is not just smoke & mirrors !!!As if the CEO actually cares about the direct reports doing the dirty work like a band of executioners!!Pretty sure the associates that are mostly union have been taking more abuse from the same managers who fear for their Jobs for years .Lets face it from gps tracking to time questioning .When most associates actually have done nothing wrong along with have given no abuse to the management.Pretty sure if I was management I would just track on thru my day as if I saw nothing .Crazy how some managers still go after associates inside and outside for no reason as if the corporation cares about them till the next riff.

An earlier thread had a long discussion about “CXO bloodbath”. Said almost all the SDs got laid off and only a few remaining. I still have a lot of friends in CXO, although a ton of them already left in previous rounds. I could reach out directly, but I honestly don’t feel it’s respectful to pry when many of them might have been laid off today. Anyone in the know willing to share details?

The more I interact with top management the less impressed I am. Conflicting guidance constantly is given. They even conflict their own stated written strategies and policies. They want everything and refuse to make decisions on trade offs instead just yelling about how they want to be top quintile in every metric even ones that are obviously in direct conflict with each other. How is it leadership to make no decisions in tradeoffs and constantly just yell about wanting it all?

All this talk about improving culture and recognition and then after three years in a group when I transfer out my supervisor can’t even be bothered to circulate a thank you card. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out is our culture. Oh but you know the chosen ones had nice good mate lunches with management thanking them and gushing over them with a nice going away present.

I heard that this time around the direct managers had an input on who leaves and who stays. Does anyone know if this is true? My understanding was that the execs are the ones who make those decisions. Does anyone know the criteria?

Leahy couldn't be more full of s!*t it she was drowning in a sewage plant

For nothing management gets the axe again. Brownosing for nothing lol bet your wishing you joined a union NOW!!!! Lol and tell me can you hear me NOW keep your service with us too DS needs a new Ferrrari vroooooooooooom.

Any idea when we are going to get these back from management? I was told yesterday quite some time ago, but that day came and went...

What about Fios managers? Are they safe and is Autullii safe?

Interested in hearing if your performance eval rating/manager comments were as expected or a surprise?
For the first time in over 18 years, I received a “less than expected” rating even though I achieved my stated goals, met deadlines.

Anyone in CM ever been put on coaching for "failing" a SOFT audit? I truly think mgmt is trying to get us to quit or fire us for "not meeting expectations" before VSP takes effect. Centene has truly turned out to be a grimy place. I will spend the rest of my days encouraging people to avoid working here & avoid signing up for their plans.