Seeing a lot of negative sentiments about working at Cigna. I left the organization in 2022, and it was a fine place to work back then. Not perfect but I wouldn’t say it was toxic.
What’s changed that’s made Cigna so toxic to work at?
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Once they couldn't execute on drive to 2025 and push the stock price up to $500 they began to lay people off non stop for years now.
There have been ongoing waves of layoffs for years at this point. I'm not sure whether they started in earnest in 2023 or 2024, but it's become the way Cigna does business.
@13n 100% My experience as a former senior leader is that Cigna's next level leadership is not interested in improvements or ideas to streamline. They take that as a threat, that you don't agree with their agenda. They don't like people who buck the system or challenge them in anyway, they simply want you to be quiet, put your head down, play nice in the sandbox, and do as your told, even though they lack strategy and vision or it takes them MONTHS to execute on it. I don't know how many planning sessions I would be in and then have to tell my team, ... "it's coming. We are working xyz.." Only for me to sound like a broken record to my team and that change never come!
Cigna lacks leaders plain and simple. Worked there and was impacted by the Feb layoff. I’ve been in this industry 30+ years and have never seen a company have more associates not working 40+ hours a week like Cigna. I begged for work and was told by executives/Sr Directors there are peaks/valleys, the work will pick up. WHAT? Cigna has way too many systems and zero quality & efficiency standards. When you try to bring up improvement opportunities, falls on deaf ears. Good luck Cigna you need it.
@dk I was part of the first round of VRP "offerings" in Sept 2025 after nearly two decades with the company. I made the right call because many of the people who turned it down wound up being laid off soon after. Since then I keep hearing about add'l VRPs and layoffs. The company is so shortsighted to let experience and expert knowledge walk out the door!
@et how did I forget Katya... it was just a mess after the trios.
Man, Mark Boxer was one of the greatest leaders I've ever seen in this company, but hey good leaders don't last. I believe he was also a threat for DC so he fired him possibly.
If you left in 2022, you know the old company, not the new. The new enterprise does not have the same mission, vision, or values. It's fueled by fear, humiliation, and ambiguity. The best talent is gone, leaving behind only those who don't know any better and won't ask questions. People are not treated as people any longer - whether it be employees, customers, or partners. It's all a numbers game now.
@dk Blackrock wins from this. Their goal is to steal all our data for bad foreign actors. We all know who.
Constant threat of layoffs hanging over us.
@dk I remember when Mark Boxer and Gina Papush were leaders. Excellent leaders.
Then we got Noelle Eder, DP Koka, and Katya Andressen the real DEI hires.
The company went down hill especially (for IT) after Noelle Eder who came from Hilton Hotels and became VP, the person before her Mark Boxer was a great leader who transformed the industry and made Cigna a tech lead in healthcare. She finally resigned and left it for DP who also came with her from Hilton. During this time they worked behind to offshore all the IT roles to India and mimic a failed strategy by Anthem BCBC by creating a tech hub center in Hyderabad, India. They created HIH ( Hyderabad Innovation Center) (they're trying to rename it now because of it's negative association) - From this point onwards, it was all celebration by the exec team, which ended up with their resignation and thousands of layoffs after layoff's, forced VRP of high-value long-term employees. If you're the one left over, how do you feel after seeing all this? Who really benefits from HIH? what is their goal?
It used to be a culture of caring for the employees. Now it is a culture of caring for the shareholders at the employees expense.
@OP I would say it went especially downhill after the election in 2024 and reached peak toxicity the last half of 2025 and up to the layoffs.
They laid off 2,000 people in February and no longer value their employees
Cigna is rumored to have another large wave of terminations this year if the share price isn’t higher
Cigna is going all in for offshoring as many US positions as possible to India
Cigna only cares about its stock price and is willing to terminate loyal employees to temp prop up the share price for a band aid approach to bad leadership decisions
Cigna thinks AI is going to save them money while terminating people who are qualified to perform the role
Wait for the cost of AI investments to not RIO and then Cigna will have no one left to save the ETL it’s not what it used to be