#toxicleadership

recently got a very toxic manager—an Indian guy. He has serious trust issues and creates a highly toxic work environment. I’ve had Exceeds Expectations ratings for the last five years. Should I continue here or start looking for opportunities outside?

An email was sent out last night that went to a lot of B2B

Managers are to target reps who “lean” on them to much. This is a grossly obvious tactic to weed out people who ask for help a lot.

We also find it odd that the manager that sent it out is never around. Some employees don’t even know who he is but yet he is their AD

Must be nice to have a job where you don’t have to talk to your reps but want them targeted for asking for help

it's all about fear now. no respect, no loyalty from mgmt.

and it's about to get even worse.

i'm unsure what to do. it looks like switching industries would probably make the most sense for me.

i'm not affected, but i'd hate to live in perpetual fear of the proverbial axe.

peace out.

DW is a problem and needless firings will always be on the table so long as she's the one making creative decisions.

You are just a drone that exists to serve the Corporate Elites. Will the last bot out please code an AI agent to fraudulently open some accounts.

When is the board of directors and everyone else going to wake up and realize that John Stank has provided no value to the company for a long time! He is no longer relevant and if he doesn’t like the truth he can retire or find another company willing to take on an aging dinosaur. The culture under John is toxic and has been for too long.

I want to know the opinion of the layoff board members here.

Execs frequently use political actions (incl. backstabbing) and complex organization systems.

Aggressive behavior and self-admiration also help these leaders.

I see that many executive leaders speak for long periods because they like their own voices.

This behavior is a part of self-admiration.

The toxicity of Humana is off the charts and they have sleazy lawyers protecting them from all their mismanagement of the business, putting greed before member care, and toxic treatment to employees.

Humana, being one of the largest companies in Louisville and the entire state if Kentucky, is an embarrassment to both.

If I was the Louisville Mayor or the Kentucky Governor, I would probably recognize this and put pressure on Humana to get their house in order and make some changes for the positive, to truly put members first, before shareholders, in regards to the actual business that is their mission. And to start treating their employees much more fairly and to tell Humana to have their Humana Resources department to actually take employee complaints seriously regarding their direct leader’s abuse and to stop protecting the company’s reputation at all costs, even when it flies in the face of all decency.

Is there a requirement for VP's to be sociopaths? They seem to be required to lack empathy or remorse and engage in manipulative behavior to achieve that level.

It is truly disturbing to watch them in action.

I think the annual RIFs are some kind of sick psychopathic game they love to play on us to keep people in line. It must give them pleasure to destroy people's lives year after year for no reason other than to advance their own career.

Crazy to consider things could have gotten worse. They have. High ego. High maintenance. Leads with fear and allows ELT to push that fear downward. Get even more done now! Open Enrollment better be perfect! Do even more with less! Get people back into the office! Why aren't we working on weekends? ELT is ramping up pressure across the board and the disconnects are even worse. Plus they pulled in McK and Del because, of course, we can't manage ourselves. This will be an unmitigated disaster in Q4. Disappointing to be sure, but if we were holding out hope for the new guy that did not work out. Clearly does not care for people at all. Plan and prepare accordingly.

I see the agony on this site. Many of you are uncertain about your future.

I just want to share with you. In a team call, CEO said a couple of years ago. “I love it. It’s like playing a video game, haha haha” It was in the context of managing
the business and reorganizing people. I know many of you probably we on the call. It’s really sad, but it’s the reality of the tech business. I never expected to hear from a CEO.
But, he really is transparent. Enjoys the RSUs. It all fun and video games.

To My Former Colleagues,
After five years of dedicated service, I am writing to share some honest reflections upon my departure. I do so not out of bitterness, but out of genuine care for the members we serve, the colleagues I leave behind, and the organization Humana once represented to me. Please note that a formal complaint has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regarding the circumstances surrounding my termination.
Humana used to be a place to be proud to work for. I believe that can still be true, but it requires honest conversation about what is happening at the ground level — specifically within the SNP department.
On member-centered care:
Over the course of my time here, I have watched a gradual but consistent shift away from truly member-centered care. Clinical and medical professionals with advanced degrees and years of experience are being asked to operate as if care management is a checklist exercise rather than a clinical practice. Members have a right to drive their own care through self-determination, and that principle is being overshadowed by a metric-driven culture that prioritizes box-checking over meaningful outcomes.
On staff support and training:
The bar for performance is continuously raised while training, re-education, and support resources remain minimal. Staff are expected to retain and apply an ever-growing body of requirements with little structured reinforcement. Questions raised by staff regarding member complaints — including concerns about the frequency of contact calls and the repetition of surveys — go unaddressed. This is not sustainable, and it is the members who ultimately pay the price.
On clinical judgment:
Clinical judgment is one of the most valuable tools a trained social worker or care manager brings to their work. When that judgment is not valued, not supported, and not protected — the quality of care suffers. I experienced this firsthand, and I know I am not alone.
As social workers, we are trained and ethically obligated to drill down into a member's full picture before making clinical decisions — that is the foundation of our profession. However, staff have been explicitly directed to limit prework when pulling tasks, to move quickly to the next case, and to prioritize throughput because we are a high UTC department. This directive has been reinforced through process changes that functionally reduce the depth of member assessment prior to contact. You cannot simultaneously hold staff to a high clinical standard and instruct them to move through cases as quickly as possible without meaningful prework. These two expectations are in direct conflict, and it is the member who suffers the consequence of that contradiction.
On Policy and Leadership Accountability:
Upper management has demonstrated a pattern of applying policy subjectively and selectively. The very policy used to govern this department contains the following disclaimer clause:
“This (policy/standard) is subject to change or termination by Humana at any time. Humana has full and final discretionary authority for its interpretation and application. This (policy/standard) supersedes all other policies, standards, guidelines, procedures or information conflicting with it.”
To be clear about what this means: this is not a standalone policy — it is a disclaimer clause embedded within a policy, and it is routinely used by management to justify interpreting policy however it fits their narrative at any given time. It grants management full and final authority over how any policy is interpreted and applied, with no meaningful checks or balances. In practice, this means staff can be held to a standard today that did not exist yesterday, with no consistent or objective measure by which performance is truly evaluated. A policy governed by a clause that permits unlimited reinterpretation at will is not a standard — it is a moving target, and this is precisely the pattern that has defined SNP department management.
Different members of management and different auditors interpret the same information differently, with no clear or consistent direction provided to staff. Changes are made swiftly and without transparency, leaving front-line workers to navigate shifting expectations with minimal guidance. SNP management would have you believe there is a clear standard to follow — there honestly is not one.
What exists instead is a culture of gaslighting, masked by coffee chats, business acumen Zoom sessions, and feedback channels like “What’s on Your Mind” that consistently go unheard. Leadership actively discourages staff from being “negative” rather than genuinely listening to the real, documented concerns of their front-line workers. Feedback is collected and quietly shelved, while the same systemic issues persist.
The result of these tactics is a department marked by low morale and a profound lack of engagement. We work remotely, and while that comes with its own dynamic, silence across a Teams chat for hours on end is not normal — and it is not reflective of the environment that once existed within this organization. When I first joined Humana, my team and manager were warm, welcoming, and genuinely engaged. There was a sense of community and shared purpose that made remote work feel connected rather than isolating. That culture has eroded significantly, and the silence that now fills the team chat is not a coincidence — it is a symptom of a workforce that has been worn down and disengaged by the very leadership that should be inspiring them.
This department is being operated like a high-volume restaurant — turning over members quickly for the sake of business metrics and financial outcomes rather than placing the member at the center of care where they belong. The consequences of this culture are visible on both ends of the employment spectrum. New hires are leaving within weeks of finishing onboarding training. Those with long tenures within the company are either choosing to retire or being pushed out by upper management. That is not a coincidence — it is a reflection of an environment that is not sustainable for staff or for the members they are meant to serve.
I would strongly encourage those with the authority to do so to take a serious, unfiltered look at how the SNP department is truly being run.
Furthermore, the process surrounding my termination lacked consistency and legitimacy. It is my position that the standards applied to my performance were not enforced uniformly within the department. This concern, along with others outlined in this letter, is part of my formal EEOC complaint, which is currently being processed through the appropriate legal channels.
I would encourage leadership and HR to take a close, honest look at the pattern of departures within this department over the past year — specifically among experienced, long-tenured employees who have given years of dedicated service to this organization. I was an employee with no disciplinary action in five years, and I was pushed out within 90 days of being informed that a PIP was desired by upper management. These patterns are worth examining carefully, and they are now being examined through the appropriate legal channels.
Additionally, I want to note that during the process surrounding my termination, I was treated in a manner that I found to be disrespectful and unprofessional by an HR representative — being spoken over, interrupted, and not afforded the basic courtesy of being heard when asking legitimate questions. Every employee deserves to be treated with dignity, regardless of the circumstances.
On a Pattern That Extends Beyond My Experience:
It is important to note that the concerns I have raised are not unique to my experience. In March 2026, a nursing colleague with over 20 years of nursing experience and over four years at Humana submitted a formal resignation letter that was distributed to the broader SNP nursing staff. Rather than acknowledging the concerns raised or committing to any resolution, the letter was swiftly retracted from recipients’ email inboxes — an action that speaks for itself. The attempt to suppress this communication rather than address it is consistent with the same culture of silencing front-line voices described throughout this letter. That resignation letter is included below in full, as every concern it raises independently corroborates what I have documented above:
Subject: formal resignation – 3.16.26
To: Nina Owsley, HR4U
CC: Robert Mouser; All_CM_Associates; All Associates; Humana
HR & Nina, I am submitting this letter as a formal notice of my resignation from my position as telephonic care manager effective 3/30/26. As someone who has been a nurse for over 20 years and has been with Humana for over 4 years, this decision was not made lightly but ultimately, with today’s culture, it was not a hard decision either. I feel it both my right and my professional responsibility to document the conditions that have made continued employment untenable with Humana as discussed below.
Retaliation & Protected Leave – I have experienced what I believe to be retaliatory treatment following my use of protected leave and my part-time status, both of which are safeguarded under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and applicable state law. Specifically, I was subjected to disproportionate scrutiny, adverse scoring on my AIP, and a previously undisclosed eligibility restriction tied to part-time status. This pattern strongly suggests to me that protected characteristics influenced outcomes that were presented as purely PERFORMANCE-BASED but it now creates nondiscretionary expectations that is being treated as discretionary reward.
Favoritism and Inequitable Treatment – Consistent patterns of favoritism (over knowledge and skill) have been persistent & documented, including on many other platforms from past employees, and non-favored are under heightened scrutiny regardless of our performance including alleged discrimination (during CM leadership changes about 2 years ago my former team were all reassigned. Every person of color from our former team was either fired or quit within 6 months).
Inequitable Bonus Structure: Associates vs Upper Leadership – Humana’s AIP disproportionately restricts and reduces bonuses for frontline associates while upper leadership continues to receive compensation largely insulated from the same restrictions. This disparity is made starker by publicly available SEC proxy data (Execpay.org) CEO pay from 2020-2024 from $16M-$18M including their base pay, incentives, & bonuses. All of this yields a CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 195:1. Associating this executive enrichment with simultaneously restricting frontline associate bonuses reflects a value misalignment that cannot be reconciled and is what is the core route of most of today’s problems.
Leadership Failing to Uphold Humana’s Own Mission Statement and Ethics – Humana’s stated mission is to ‘help people achieve lifelong well-being.’ Its core values including care for associates, pioneering simplicity, and cultivating a culture of trust & ‘speaking up.’ The workplace culture I have experienced – including retaliation, micromanagement, undisclosed policy changes applied retroactively, and favoritism – stands in direct contradiction to these stated values. Let’s not forget Robert’s all CM meeting in Oct where he ‘was passionate’ because so many nurses were questioning MOP metrics and he compared us to his children & stated ‘I have never questioned a business need and that’s why I am where I am today.’ When reported by many employees, again no outcome or update. Leadership’s failure to model the values they publicly espouse is a structural failure, not an individual one. I challenge Humana to explain how this is a safe speak up culture if nurses are scolded for questioning & speaking up.
Micromanaging of RNs: Research-Backed Concerns – There is much research literature available on what happens when nursing professionals are subjected to excessive surveillance and control. Peer-reviewed studies published in journals including Nursing Open and BMC Nursing document that high workloads, poor leadership qualities, and lack of autonomy are among the strongest predictors of burnout & turnover intentions among RNs. Humana’s model for care managers involves monitoring every clinical interaction against rigid metrics, counting call outcomes outside of nurses’ control against their performance score, this is antithetical to evidence-based nursing practice and contributes directly to the burnout and moral distress that drives experienced nurses, like me, out of the profession. Humana touts its commitment to member health outcomes while simultaneously deploying management practices proven to degrade the clinical workforce.
Conclusion – I am leaving because in today’s world and political environment, the Humana environment has become professionally and personally unsustainable. I have raised concerns through appropriate channels. I filed a formal HR complaint last week. I have received no resolution. I am retaining my documentation related to my performance, AIP scoring, leader lead audits, & correspondence with management. I am aware of my rights under the FMLA, the NLRA, and applicable whistleblower protection statutes. I am providing this notice in good faith and ask that my final pay, accrued PTO, and any other owned compensation be processed in compliance with Missouri law. I am in a position that I can use my voice & hopefully it will be heard by Humana and positive changes may arise. I hope all the frontline associates receive the autonomy, respect, and equitable compensation they deserve.
This letter was sent in March 2026. It was retracted from inboxes rather than addressed. The same concerns it raised contributed to my termination three months later. That is not a coincidence — it is a pattern.
This occurred in the same period that SNP department leadership held a town hall in March 2026 directing social workers not to discuss workplace concerns with one another and to engage only in positive communication. Staff were explicitly told not to be negative. This directive — issued by the same leadership that publicly espouses a speak up culture — functionally silenced the very front-line voices that could have prompted meaningful change. You cannot claim to have a speak up culture while simultaneously instructing your workforce not to speak.
To my colleagues:
You are doing incredibly important work under increasingly difficult circumstances. Continue to advocate for your members, document everything, know your rights, and support one another. The work you do matters, even when it feels like the institution does not reflect that. If you have experienced similar treatment or witnessed patterns inconsistent with Humana’s stated values, know that there are formal channels available to you, including the EEOC.
I am proud of the care I provided to every member I worked with during my five years of service, and I leave with my integrity and my credentials intact.
Finally, I would like to return Humana’s equipment promptly. It is Humana’s responsibility to provide instructions on how to do so at no cost to me. Please send all relevant return information to my personal email address on file.

With respect,

She is clueless, pathetic, POS…no leadership skills other than paid people posting on her LinkedIn for her. FIRE her

The current CISO a--hole brought his pals along from Etrade. He and his pals laid off almost every hardworking and talented person who saved his a-s from mega breaches and embarrasment. Its just a matter of time before he replaces the rest. What a corrupt dou--ebag!

My Wells Fargo group is made of seven people, in which five are women and two are men. Of the women, four of them are full-blown Karens and very unpleasant to work with. The remaining woman keeps to herself and has been looking for an internal transfer for months. Of the four Karens, and reason for the group toxicology, not sure if the Karens like each other or see it as to their advantage to act as a group as they like people to think they do.

Proud to be in Uncon. Working for the best, corrupt, useless leadership. All they care about is posting in LinkedIn how great they are. Seeing supervisors and managements treat their people like slaves day in / day out and wait for the ranking results … We all know a supervisor or manager; they really don’t do a sht daily. They look busy.

I've been here a few years now and I've lost count of how many times I've been thrown under the bus for stuff I didn't do. My manager just shrugs and tells me that's how it works, which is just infuriating at this point. Can't wait to leave T and never look back.

DXC has perfected the art of lying to absolutely everyone in the same breath — customers get told their transformation is “on track” while their systems are on fire, and staff get told their jobs are “safe” roughly 48 hours before a calendar invite from HR with no agenda and the energy of a firing squad. The whole operation runs like a con trick performed by people who’ve forgotten they’re conning anyone, powered entirely by offshore teams with no documentation, account managers who’ve promised the impossible, and a management layer so detached from reality they think “delivery” is something that happens to other companies. Customers pay millions. Nothing works. Nobody knows why. Leadership gets a bonus anyway.

In the present leadership era, apparently it’s perfectly acceptable to drop a bo-b right before a holiday, and then make sure all VPs show out of office for the rest of the day so as not to be bothered by the peasants. Meanwhile, I’m sure they are using AI to figure out talking points on how everyone is valued, we’re still a family, blah blah blah…CDW culture, or what it once was, is DEAD.

People who take credit for things I did and then getting promoted based on it, managers who keep making false promises but never actually delivering on them, and cowardly managers who never bother to stand up for their people. I know for a fact this is not just my experience and the fact that it's happening to plenty others shows there's something deeply wrong with this place.

How do you navigate working for a leader who consistently deflects responsibility when things go wrong, portrays themselves as the person holding the organization together, and repeatedly singles out one or two employees for criticism until they eventually they leave or get fired as a cause of this set up. Abusive or demeaning language in private but present themselves as professional in public. How do I protect myself from this gaslighting? Very shameful.

If you have a chance to get away from Big Red, do it. If you can live without the severance pay, don't sign the agreement. That way you can speak your mind without looking behind your back everyday. Having gone through the last layoff was the best thing for me. There is a secret society of managers and leadership that are terrible towards the employees. Some of them managers are on short term assignments and don't care who they hurt. They are taught to be terrible and will stab you in the back on a Tuesday and smiling at you on Monday. They are not your friend. Doesn't matter what are you work in, all the managers are conditioned the same. One single HR person runs the whole thing and she is no better. She doesn't care about either and will lie to your face. I could say more but remember this run away if you can.

sick of this nasty working environment

I hope I’m a part of this layoff. When you have people like me who have been around for 14 years wishing that they will be Riffed it should paint a picture of how toxic this place is. Let this 12 year old VP enjoy her toxicity and all her a.. kissing useless sr directors.

Does anybody else feel like the only task their managers have is to make our lives miserable? Never helping us but always there to add an unnecessary comment and complicate simple things. I honestly believe T would be a better place without the lot of them.

The people in charge are a joke.

I've seen multiple people placed on PIPs in the last six months. It's making me nervous. Is this just how things work here? Or is it a strategy to document people out the door so they don't get severance? I'd really like to know if I'm being paranoid or if this is a legitimate concern.

This is the perfect moment to think about exiting. Leadership has shown their true colors. We know they don't value people, but only care about their own bank accounts. Our reputation is completely shot and new talent won't touch us. Time for us to start looking out for ourselves.

I don’t want to do any work, clearly why should we work when Sarah doesn’t give a damn about anyone but greedy self.
Sarah is a character she talks about the struggles of her mother and what she did for her on LinkedIn for Mother’s Day. Than she does this. Come on do better and stop being fake.

My old company used PIPs when it wanted to get rid of people without paying them severance. It's always possible to find something, anything to justify it. The way things have been going here, I'm starting to worry the same thing will happen. Am I wrong?

You have already branded yourself Verizon - sleazy, money grubbing sociopaths. This is regarding every person involved in firing people who did deserve it. Just following orders is NOT an excuse. Find another job instead of enabling grifters.

The management and executive leaders at Dell lie, cheat, steal, take credit for other's work, and basically walk on the backs of their employees. It's worse than I've ever seen it. Tell me I'm wrong.

https://www.thelayoff.com/post/@OP+1ktmsca1x
This thread highlights how toxic this company has become - both Optum and UHC. Highly recommend, share this in all social media and let it go viral.. this is much needed to drain the toxic nuclear swap that is UHC!

Do you have the impression that your current managers in this company are psycopath ?

I want to hear from people who've moved around in their career. Have you ever worked anywhere with a more toxic environment than this place? With leadership that cares less about its employees? I'm not being rhetorical. I really want to know. Is this just how all big companies are?

Just the bottom line. We're treated as items and the company as a carcass.

It’s sad to say, but we’re back to where we started when JD was here. The environment is toxic, the directors are promoted by their friends who are at the top. The vibe around campus is depressing and we have no new innovations. Marketing is just throwing celebrities in Ads - with slogans written by 12 year olds. What happened to ‘getting back to sport’? Step foot out of Oregon and you’ll see people don’t give an f about Nike.