#worklifebalance

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Anyone going to in 14 days to meet over 60 percent?

13.8 days required this month, so you need to be in 14 days or get talked to.

I plan to just go in 12 days and let it be. It’s freaking 95 degrees where I am at and now the air quality is bad, way too dangerous to suffer in extreme heat and hazardous air just so I can sit by myself and talk to my co workers on team.

Anyone just going to say f it or are you doing 14?


I am Curious

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?


On leave and might not come back

I’m currently on maternity leave. My husband got a new job and I have the option to no longer work. Being a stay at home mom has been a dream of mine. If I don’t come back at the end of my leave do I need to pay back my leave? Is there a period I need to return to work to avoid that?


due to the wasted money on Virtual machines

Laptops are being rationed and recycled. Yes, recycled. So that laptop you just got might be 3 years old and won't handle the windows 11 upgrade. Team members are going through three four and five laptops before they find one that can handle Windows 11.

smh.

They want you to come into the office but they don't want to give you a computer.

Meanwhile we have all these groups pointlessly tokenmaxxing.

Technology has always been pretty bad at Wells Fargo. This is unacceptable. How are we going to sell products customers without compute.

We need to fire a lot more people. Unfortunately we seem to be firing the wrong ones


Rising Anti-American Sentiment

I've noticed a lot of USB colleagues noticing that Americans aren't being hired anymore & are upset about that. I see entire floors full of one ethnitity not previously known to our continent. I thought that's what diversity was & we were cool with that! I thought hiring cousins & castemates & taking kickbacks was what DIE (sp?) was all about? Why must people resist letting some others in the global community come-up, my American family has it all already why should yours who may not be as stable yet take-up a spot & income for our unfortunate friends an ocean away?

(Satire about the anti-Indian sentiment post. I swear to God the liberal mind rot sui-idal empathy will end this country.)


MBA Schedule ?

Fellow MBA’s what shifts do you normally work each week?

I now normally get stuck with 2 Closing Shifts , 3 opening shifts

I used to get 1 close and 4 opening shifts when I first moved out of being a CXM

Less closing Was supposed to be a perk of being
MBA vs CXM

And now having AYS , Jewelry and CXC’s added to my list of responsibilities is pushing my buttons


Flexibility - Gone!

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.


Will RTO leniency be given to those impacted by wildfire smoke?

My son had a minor asthma attack tonight. In Minneapolis, we've been advised to shut windows, turn off air conditioners so that we can breathe inside our own homes and avoid going outside. The heat index is expected to be in the upper 90's tomorrow. The current air quality index is 520 (hazardous). Downtown parking is limited and taking public transportation requires standing outside, waiting for the bus/lightrail and the walking several blocks to get to the office.

It's incredible to me that we have had to normalize and navigate new infectious pathogens, violent government occupations of our cities and global warming events such as this and yet the MC requires us to strictly adhere to 1990's style work requirements.

I've been following the rules. I dress business casual, take the bus downtown or pay $20 a day for parking, walk a few blocks and then I sit alone and interact with no one except the clerk at the nearby coffee shop for the entire time I'm there. I don't work with a single person at my hub. And I work in STEM, so there's no reason whatsoever for me to be there if none of my coworkers are there. The time, effort and money it costs me to go sit by myself, under florescent lights in a mostly empty office space feels at the very least absurd and at most, intentionally cruel.

I already know the MC won't address this or show that they care in any way. This might be the last straw for me. I can't take one more obstacle in the way of simply doing the job I was hired to do. I'm a single parent, the air outside is hazardous and I'm currently stressing about meeting my RTO metrics for July. This is beyond stupid. It's malicious.


Staying too long doesn't just cost you time. It costs you growth.

Most people quit too late.

Look out for these 12 signs:

  1. Dread Every Morning
    ↳This isn't a bad week, it's a pattern that won't shift
    ↳Ex: Your stomach drops every Sunday night before Monday

  2. Growth Has Stopped
    ↳You've learned everything this role can teach you
    ↳Ex: You could do your job in your sleep and haven't been challenged in months

  3. Values Don't Match
    ↳The company rewards things you don't believe in
    ↳Ex: Leadership praises long hours over real results

  4. No Real Feedback
    ↳Your manager never talks about your future, only your tasks
    ↳Ex: Your last three reviews said "keep doing what you're doing"

  5. Constant Small Lies
    ↳You're asked to bend the truth in ways that add up
    ↳Ex: You're told to tell clients a project is "on track" when it's not

  6. Health Keeps Slipping
    ↳Your body is sending signals your calendar ignores
    ↳Ex: You've had three headaches this week you didn't have last year

  7. Talent Keeps Leaving
    ↳Good people quitting is a signal, not a coincidence
    ↳Ex: Three teammates left in six months and no one asked why

  8. Raises Feel Impossible
    ↳You've asked clearly and gotten vague answers twice
    ↳Ex: "Let's revisit this next quarter" - for the second year in a row

  9. Passion Feels Gone
    ↳You used to care, now you just show up
    ↳Ex: You stopped raising ideas in meetings months ago

  10. Trust Is Broken
    ↳Something happened that changed how you see leadership
    ↳Ex: A promise about your role or pay was quietly broken

  11. Skills Are Stale
    ↳The market is moving and your role isn't keeping up
    ↳Ex: You haven't learned a new tool or skill in over a year

  12. Gut Says Go
    ↳You already know, you're just waiting for permission
    ↳Ex: You catch yourself checking job boards every day at lunch

Staying too long doesn't just cost you time.
It costs you growth.

https://www.leadershipgs.com/newsletter


The best way?

Many years ago when I heard some of my friends had landed jobs at Cisco I thought "wow Cisco is smart to hire them". I even considered buying the stock.

All of them got laid off.

So when Cisco bought the company I worked for I already knew what was coming. The day the deal was announced I should have updated my resume and left. But I stayed anyway. I lasted longer than I expected but those years were mostly wasted.

I watched good friends and talented people get cut. After about a year I made a decision. I was done working extra hours or giving my soul to the company. If someone asked where I worked I would say Cisco but I always added that it was not the company it used to be back in the 90s. These days I even wonder if it was ever really that great.

In the end I gave them way less than my best effort. Sometimes I felt guilty about it. Then I would see someone busting their a** working weekends and late nights only to get laid off anyway. That made the message pretty clear.

Now it is my turn to be let go and I am still not sure which path was better. Should you work hard on principle even when the system does not care? Or do you push back against a machine that punishes loyalty?

I used every bit of that unlimited PTO. I never worked extra hours. Part of me is glad I fought the system in my own small way.

The other part wonders if it would have been better to go down still believing in the mission like Old Major in Animal Farm.


Be careful what you wish for

I was trying really hard to get laid off as my EU severance was considerable. I managed finally to get my hard earned money. I do not know what to do with it, just sitting now in bank and ETF fonds. And I have new job with 50% more salary and 20 times more work. Instead of doing minimum/nothing and have 2 hours of meetings per week, one with indian team I lead and other with American manager (who was also laid off recently), now I have to do 40 hours/week and quite often I do few more hours in evenings and weekends. No time to practice guitar anymore, while I worked at dxc I spent my working hours playing... I wish I could again have such a nice work like I had in DXC. If they are hiring, please let me know..


Yall need help

I’m in my late 20s so I assume I’m younger than a lot of you here and I’m also assuming a lot of y'all are probably my parents’ age or even older. Reading some of your hateful words on here Im honestly embarrassed for your kids. I can’t imagine if I saw or heard my mom or dad talk the way you do about human beings and all for what ? DEI? What’s the obsession like give it a rest. Why are you so threatened by who somebody beds down with? How does that affect you in any way? Worried they’ll take your job? Maybe stop being such dinosaurs. Stop coasting just because you think you’ve made it in life because you made it to a JG 3 or above. No wonder a lot of yall are being wiped out of your careers and companies don’t want to hire you and pay you for what you think you’re worth. So entitled. If you hate shells DEI policies so much then leave oh wait you can’t because you banked your whole career on ONE company. The new generations laugh at yall and trust me yes we are taking your jobs and yes we are also making more than you are. Nothing but disgusting sad old people you should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m disgusted to know I walk the halls with you. Grow some ba--s you want to act tough why post anonymously say it with your chest let us know your alias ID, post it on teams, LinkedIn etc or even better I’ll set up a gtky and we can have a f2f chat about how you really feel. We can even grab lunch and you can cry about how you’re all being wiped out by hispanics blacks Asians females g-ys and whoever else you wanna blame for your dead careers.


The Anatomy of an Efficient Office Day

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 Silent Treatment

I worked for other large companies in the West and the Midwest prior to joining GN&T in the Northeast. My Western and Midwestern bosses were friendly and would greet me, ask me how things were going, make small talk etc…

My Verizon GN&T were the complete opposite. Hardly ever greeted me, didn’t make conversation about work or anything else. One ED wouldn’t even answer if you said good morning if you happened to be riding in the same elevator on the way to the office. This silent treatment makes for a pretty unpleasant working environment.

I’m curious what other people’s experiences are like. Is this a Northeast thing? A Verizon thing? Or what? I’m an introvert and I’m not seeking to start long conversations but greeting someone back is basic courtesy.


They don't get it

Management thinks they're being smart by continuing to replace older workers with younger, cheaper ones. But they're overlooking that young people have boundaries when it comes to work. They won't work nights and weekends or answer your emails 24/7. Productivity is going to take a hit, and I'm here for it.


It's really not worth it

Sleeping well these days? Doubt it. Who could when you're always looking over your shoulder for the next layoff?

Thought I couldn't make it without my Humana salary for most of my two decades at the company. Finally mustered the courage to shed them and can't believe how happy and stress-free my life is now.

How much is enjoying life worth to you? Truly enjoying it, not just putting on a happy face while dread and uncertainty haunt your thoughts. Haven't seen anyone posting "Wish I'd stayed at Humana" here have you? That's because they're finally free and happy like me.


What I Wish Someone Told Me Before Joining EM

I’ve learned more about ExxonMobil’s policies and the unwritten, dirtier rules outside the office than inside it. I’m sharing what I’ve picked up so far. If this helps even one person who walks blind. Feel free to add to it and keep it a live threat:

  1. Be friendly, but don’t trust anyone. EM is not the place to build deep friendships. Surface level professionalism is safer.
  2. Keep your academic network alive. You never know when you might need an adjunct role, consulting, or a fallback path.
  3. Don’t share your goals. People we-ponize information here. Your ambitions become someone else’s leverage.
  4. Don’t share anything personal. Many people cannot tolerate seeing someone else happy or progressing. Protect your privacy.
  5. If you’re underutilized, speak up formally. Do your best, document it, and clearly inform management you need a project. Silence gets interpreted as complacency.
  6. If you’re paired with a senior person in your area of the same skill, set boundaries immediately. Define your tasks, your ownership, and how credit will be split. Otherwise, your work becomes “their contribution.”
  7. In team meetings, don’t rush to speak first. Read the room, understand the tone, then contribute. But don’t stay silent. You don’t want to leave labeled as “the one who didn’t participate.”
  8. Document every idea in writing. Don’t let anyone “zoom call” your idea away and then repackage it as theirs. Put things in email, timestamp them, and confirm ownership clearly.
  9. Don’t over acknowledge or admire people. The moment you over praise someone, they start acting like you owe them something. You don’t. Keep compliments minimal and neutral.
  10. Never let them think you’re desperate for the job — even if you are. Desperation is blood in the water. If they sense it, you become the easiest person to throw under the bus.

HR Statistics

IMO. These days, the company pays no importance to retention. The majority of XOM employees in the US will likely have a maximum of 5 years at the company before they finally realize that they are better off somewhere else. 10 years maximum if they are a glutten for punishment and think they are going to make it to retirement eligibility. Considering RE being 55 with 15 years of experience. Who in HR has the statistics of the last 5 years of attrition with the why they were separated, for Campus hires and Experienced hires? What are the breakdowns of left on own will versus MLRP?
My prediction for the future employment longevity in the US for MPT for someone based upon when hired is the following:
Age of hire: 22 - 25, probability of lasting 30+ PA cycles 3-5%.
Age of hire: 25 - 30, probablity of lasting 25 - 30 PA cycles 5-7%.
Age of hire: 30 - 35, probability of lasting 20 - 25 PA cycles 2%
Age of hire: 35 - 40, probability of lasting 15 - 20 PA cycles 0.5%
Age of hire: 40+, probability of lasting 15+ PA cycles 0%

HR does not care about retention. People are a commodity to them and they have sources of cheap labor outside of the US that are going to run the company.