#worklifebalance

I can't with people who say there were surprised by layoffs. How?? Layoffs have been a regular occurrence for years. Constant small cuts with several major rounds every few months. Where were you if you managed to miss this? I'm not saying it should be like this, but please, stop saying "layoffs happened out of nowhere."

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-layoffs-artificial-intelligence-return-to-office-tech-jobs-2026-4

I'm stuck in a miserable team and every day is a struggle. Bills keep me at SAS but I'm desperately looking. Been grinding on LinkedIn, company career pages, reworking my resume for hours on end. Still nothing but rejections. What platforms are actually working for people? I'm exhausted.

They sell us tones of BS.
AI. AI. AI. …..

For those who worked through the late 1990, what's one thing you're glad younger folks won't have to put up with?

I remember printing out hundreds of pages just to review a document and having to track changes by hand with a pen. The paper cuts alone were brutal. What other dinosaur era work habits are you happy died off?

Girl in 3WF has been openly playing Solitaire ALL morning.
The most IDGAF move I’ve ever seen.

I had to reactivate my account because recruiters kept asking for it, but the constant posts about nights out, people partying with coworkers, and random personal photos feel so unprofessional. Does anyone actually use this platform to help others find real work? It feels more like a social feed than a job tool most days.

What do you consider "red flags" in an interview? For me, it's the "we're like a family" line. Every time a manager says that in an interview, I know what's coming. It usually means they'll expect you to stay late, cover for others, and never complain about it. Call it what it is. A workplace with blurred boundaries and guilt trips. Hard pass.

Those of you who aren't in a production based role and aren't being tracked 24/7 do you keep yourself active on teams even when you have nothing to do?

Stankey’s bank account isn’t gonna grow itself. Be sure to work hard today so him and the rest of the C suite can line their pockets.

You’re probably working for some menial reason, like paying for your families healthcare, or being able to afford living.

Never forget, the only reason you exist is to make the rich richer. Once your job no longer makes them richer, you no longer have a purpose

I gave Waters everything. Late nights, weekends, all of it. Then they outsourced my job. Lesson learned. I'll never do that again.

It's getting harder.

I tune in, do the least I can, stop exactly on time. Some days I do nothing. And those days are getting more frequent.

I understand it's not easy to find a job, but if you invested half the energy into a job search that you do into hating this place, you'd be fully employed somewhere else by now. And you'd be a much, much happier individual. Do yourselves a favor, folks, and move on.

I don’t have the guts to quit, but if they did it for me, it would make the decision easy. That’s where I am right now.

A good life. I was so used to that place that I stayed way too long when I could have been working at a place that has better pay, is actually staffed well, and doesn't have managers who get off on yelling at the rest of us. Give it a try, folks. There are much better employers than Macy's.

I think I've been so stressed for so long that I've finally crossed a hill and now I simply don't give a damn anymore. If they're going to lay me off, fine. It's not as if anything I do will change that decision, so why worry over it? I just do my job and don't think about it anymore. Life's been much better since I adopted this attitude.

It would have saved quite a few jobs, I believe, for those who wanted to stay. I know for a fact I'm far from the only one who'd be happy to take severance and run. It's a win/win, so I really can't understand why it's never an option. I know plenty of other companies that offer VOB.

The bodies are there but the people aren't. Hundreds have already left in their heads. We do the minimum, watch the clock, and wait for the day we can physically leave too. Schwab did this to itself.

Hey,

If you worked at Verizon for 15 years in PA, moved to FL, then all the sudden VZ sells off to frontier, but then you quit after a few years on a Friday, start Verizon on a Monday, do you think Verizon will finally bridge the Verizon time again? Was told that since Frontier bought VZ, all VZ seniority ends, should you ever get rehired at VZ. Haven’t been able to bridge the time and have been denied, since in the language of the buyout, you can’t carry your time over, if he rehired. Been back at Verizon for about 7 years now in the same position as service tech, feeling robbed of time.

You're not doing yourself any favors for doing more at this place.

What do you guys think about it? Pros and Cons? Gotchas?
Sounds too good to be true.

Taking mental sick days is my new norm here. They fu-k with you to the point everything is not okay and I need time to calm my nerves. This is the first time I’ve felt like this in the 19 years I’ve been here.

So Elcio today said a minimum of 8 hours a day in office in order for it to count as being in office, no exceptions.

But also today, the guy in charge of Operations, we over 2000 people on a call said it is understandable if you have to work 6 hours in office and make up the other 2 hours at home, we understand people have life priority and can’t expect everyone to stand and watch the count to be in at exactly 8 hours a day to count as in office when you have an emergency or have to pick up kids or elderly parents.

So many mixed messages.

I asked my manager is it 4 hours a day, 6 hours, or 8 hours minimum in office and he said he doesn’t know what counts, he has never been told. And he said he doesn’t care as long as I do my work since I sit by myself and the rest of the team is in OH, AZ, and MN.

So what is minimum?

Attitude, Resilience, Persistence, Demeanor, Flexibility, Volunteer, Practice your stories, Follow-up, Send thank you notes and much more. I got let go, it took me 10 months to get a new job. Take advantage of LLH career resources, take as many classes as you can. Different career counselors provide their point of view and take things with a grain of salt. Do not let age stop you from moving ahead.

Physical exercise has taught me:
• Discipline when motivation fades
• Resilience when the miles get tough
• Balance when life pulls in many directions

A few years ago, this career became just a job.

My only motivation is pay day, and putting food on the table.

No climbing the corporate ladder
No MVP photo op.
No spreadsheets.
No daily reports.
No metrics.

I do my job to best of my ability and go home. MY job. Not everyone else's.

I think this is how most of us see the job these days, @ct+1kpc62cbh. It's sad that it came to this. But seeing it as anything more is foolish.

Remember, at the end of the day everyone is replaceable. Never think you aren't. Don't ever work harder than you think you should. Just get your work done, go home be with family , take care of your health before any damn job. Sometimes less is more.

I thought we had great working relationships with some brilliant ex-colleagues, but I’ve been cut off after they left the company. It hurts more than I’d like to admit, and it’s happening more often. I genuinely value those people and would really like to work with them again. Why does it happen? I want to keep the relationship but they don’t.

I am paying nearly 30% more for my commute every week, and that’s in my econobox of a ten year old Toyota. I asked my boss if I could WFH one or two days a week. His response was su-k it up, “You don’t hear the people driving those 4WD trucks and SUVs complaining, do you?”

Too many people think complaining online means they have done something to fix a problem. It don’t. It will make you feel better for a little while, but not make change. Remember, rich people and shareholders don’t care about you. You’re a tool to be used until you are worn out and then thrown away. If you die, they don’t care. In fact, dying quickly is the wanted ending. So, how to protect yourself and other workers? Start forming a union. Google the communication worker unions. Google how to start a union. Google success and failure stories. Make contact with union reps. No rich person will pay you your value or respect you and the only way to get those things is to act as a large group. Remember, 5 day workweek, vacation, 8 hours a day are unions. And stop electing people who get paid by rich people to sc--w you.

Start discussing salary with other workers. Management hates it, but can’t stop it. You’ll find out how sc--wed you really are. Don’t get mad at people making more, get mad at management.

Do something. I am.

After seeing so may posts on here about for people getting fired for coffee badging now I’m confused. I understand people who would only swipe their badge and turnaround immediately, but si don’t get why people who stay here for 6 hours would be considered coffee badging. I try to stay at least 6 hours at the office when I go in, but sometimes I like to spend only the mornings there and come back during lunch. If I do this wouldn’t get fired?

The position is being described as “an amazing opportunity” in a “winning company”

The reality is you will be working at a store in a dead mall from the 1970s.

A mall parking lot with creators in it that can swallow your car

A store full of mold and rodents

A skeleton crew of employees

I need this job, I have a family and a mortgage.

By all means: what can I do to maximize my survival probability at this company? Any hints?

I am sure a lot of people need this information today!

This 4 days a week sitting in a cubicle is literally soul crushing. I worked remotely or mostly remotely for years before CVX and only came here under the guise of flexible work and I would give up an annual bonus and $30k a year to wfh. If the hiring market weren’t so dismal I’d already be out.

I read post on this site often about what a manager can and cannot do when it comes to hiring, firing, RIF, salary, bonus and remote work. Here is my direct experience in no particular order of importance. I retired over a year ago and am receiving my pension, so can freely write this. I know some things have changed in the past couple years, since my retirement but most of this was true in the early 2000's when I started at hBBT and is will be true forever at Truist.

1- Managers have the final say on who is hired. However, I never hired any FTE that the people that I manage did not approve of first. i.e. The candidate had to pass the team's interviews and I would have the go-ahead from my team before any offer was made.

2- If you don't get all the salary you can get upon initial hire, chances are you will never get to a salary of a newer hire. i.e. 99% of all new hires are paid more salary than experienced FTE, given the same pay grade. see next item...

3- It is nearly impossible to get more than a 10% salary increase and stay within the same paygrade. To get a real salary increase you have to get paygrade promotion and then the salary increase is capped at 20% increase (promotion) unless we managers can get a Level 3 (L3) (this was CTO level approval in my mgmt chain) to approve...which is almost impossible. If the original salary is so low that the paygrade promotion forces the new salary to be more than 20% then L3 has no say so; they have to approve. Prior to my retirement I got overy half of my FTEs a paygrade promotion and/or up to a 30% salary increase with the smallest salary increase 12%. I had 2 of the FTEs get a two paygrade promotion...from 109 to 111. Hence, it can be done, but most managers are spineless and will not even put for the effort to do so. It took me over 12 months of asking, begging, paperwork, more paperwork, arm twisting, etc.

4- AIP, yearly bonus, are somewhat decided by direct managers. We were given a bucket of money and would allocate a certain percentage or amount to each FTE that was AIP elegible. The higher the paygrade to more amount of bonus was allowed. The higher the performance rating the more bonus amount was allowed.

5- AIP allocation could be and was overwritten by the CTO at his whim. You may have heard stories from a couple years ago of the current CTO stating "It's my money and I will do with it what I want". Yep! it is true. I was there when he said it. i.e the CTO would go in at the last minute and take money from our buckets and give to his teacher's pet people with no regard for we manager. We had NO say so as direct managers. I fought that battle with a previous CTO (not the current CTO), anyone remember Eduardo J?, and HR and lost.

6- HR is not your friend. They tow the company line and will, virtually, stab you in the back while giving you a reach around. Never trust anyone from HR with anything. SERIOUSLY!

7- RIFs are 90% pre-determined. Someone/some group above a line manager is making the decision on who gets RIFed. It doesn't matter your performance, your time in service, or your salary...if someone wants you gone, you will be gone and there is little a line manager can do about it. You are nothing more than a line on a spreadsheet when it comes to RIFs. More on the next item.

8- Line managers do have some say on RIFs...if they put up a fight. In a round of RIFs in 2024, I was given a list that ~45% of my FTEs RIFed, roughly 11 of 25 people. I fought that tooth and nail and got the number whittled down to 5 that were RIFed. I was told by HR, "Your group will have some RIFs. You are not exempt". I picked those 5 names because I knew they could get a better job elsewhere and quickly. It was still a VERY hard decision for me to make. Of those 5, three ended up on a contract doing the same job for more salary, 1 was rehired 6 months later, and the last one moved on to a new company.

9- Take your vacation...every day of it each year. There is nothing that you are doing that can't get done by someone else. You are not the glue holding Truist together. Take your sick days also. Use it or lose it. They are your sick days and there isn't a darn thing your manager or HR can do to keep you from taking your given sick days. If you have a real good manger, be honest with him/her on sick days. Tell them that you need a couple days of sick time as a break from Truist. Good managers will understand. POS mangers will hold it against you and question you and demand a doctor note for every 5 minutes you are away.

10- Lastly, If you have a good manager, you know it. They will do what is right for you...not for them. They will fight for you and your livelyhood at Truist. Most managers are self-serving douch bags that only care about CYA and using you as a stepping stone.

P.S...DO NOT let Truist run your life. It is only a job. Your family, your physical and mental health, your life are more important.

This post is nothing new in regards to WF monitoring employees keyboard/mouse/Teams activity. We have been aware of that since last year. Not sure if all computers at WF are running Skan. If yours has it in the system tray be careful. They are using metrics from Skan to displace people without severance. I know this for a fact so just be sure you aren’t one that takes long breaks or inactive for long periods over days or weeks. Not meant to scare anyone just beware of it.

Does anyone who has an ear to the C-suite or close to it know if another VRP offer will be coming in 2026? I am eligible for it based on age and trying to weigh my options as to whether to wait and see if I get an offer, or just retire from this dumpster fire. This work environment is so toxic and it's not worth it anymore - it hasn't been for a long time actually. Appreciate any insight anyone may have.

Just rest and vest

Don't ever forget it. You're more likely to get laid off if you're skilled, experienced, and outperform than if you're an average slacker who's just good at office politics. The better you are, the higher the chance you're deemed too expensive for a company that cares neither about the quality of its people nor the quality of what it delivers.