- Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. After years of flat stock performance, Wall Street placed a boot on Gail Boudreaux's neck, and she hit the self-destruct button. Mass RIFs (roughly 15,000-20,000 over the last year) followed. The exact number of firings is fuzzy; Boudreaux forced associates back into the office to trigger resignations, then strategically spaced out layoffs to mitigate fallout from the WARN Act.
- Boudreaux isn't done - AI and more offshoring is coming - so you're going to have the sword of Damocles hanging over your head every day. The company is running a skeleton crew across many departments, and workloads are about to spike.
- Salaries are below the industry norm and full-time WFH is over. Career growth is almost nonexistent, for reasons outlined above.
- Elevance has never been able to implement its corporate culture into its offshore sites, which are mostly located in India and the Philippines. The overseas workers are under-supervised, and incompetence is rampant, but the late claims penalties that result from their errors are offset by lower labor costs. Offshore mistakes are typically cleaned up by workers in the U.S., which adds another layer of stress on all levels.
- Minorities are routinely passed over for promotions and are stuck in low-level positions for years on end. This isn't dictated by upper management; it's simply a product of a paleolithic corporate culture. The board itself is diverse, but that's not indicative of the company as a whole.
- Corporate strategy is completely driven by short-term stock gains. This isn't unique to Elevance, but under Boudreaux, operational concerns have been almost completely discarded. The company's long-term outlook isn't great. It's borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.
- Elevance's success is largely due to a massive provider network that was built by previous regimes. Upper leadership was born on third base and think they hit a triple. The ecosystem at the executive level is arrogant and toxic. When mass layoffs are discussed at a higher level - and I've been on these calls - executives laugh about it. Gail included. To quote one former colleague: "I'd like to put them all out on the street."
- Aside from slashing labor costs and bringing workers into mostly empty offices (Elevance continues to set money on fire to maintain largely unused real estate), the executives have no new ideas. A few of the younger execs have nimble minds, but they're ignored by the old guard.
I'd recommend Elevance only to workers who are desperate to pay rent or need a resume filler. Long-term careers are no longer viable.
