Corporate decisions can sometimes feel cold and impersonal.

The following story involves an employee who received a leaked memo that revealed how management truly viewed their department.

What seemed like a normal restructuring message quickly turned unsettling with the wording used.

What’s worse it that nobody apologized about it.

Ouch! That would have hurt. Let’s take a closer look.

My company’s internal memo called us “cost units pending optimization”

I got forwarded a leaked memo yesterday. It was not even from my direct manager.

It was from someone three levels up who probably forgot how email chains work.

The whole thing was about “restructuring for efficiency.”

Which is fine, whatever. Corporate loves that phrase.

This employee discovered that management refers to his department as “cost units.”

But buried in paragraph four, it literally referred to our department as “cost units pending optimization.”

Not employees. Not team members. Not even headcount. “Cost units.”

I sat there reading it on my lunch break. I had half a sandwich in my hand.

I just kind of laughed. Like, what else do you do.

He has been automating workflows for years, but higher-ups don’t care about this.

I have been automating workflows for small teams for a couple of years now.

I know what these tools can and cannot do.

The gap between what AI actually handles well and what execs think it handles is massive.

But they do not care about that gap.

They care about the slide deck that says minus forty percent labor costs.

Nobody even apologized for it.

The worst part is nobody even pretended to be sorry about it.

There was no town hall. There was no acknowledgment.

Just a memo that accidentally told us exactly how they see us.

Guess we are all just line items now.

Yikes! That wording was brutal.

Imagine going to work every day and doing your best, only to find out that your bosses don’t even see you as a person, but just a part of the “cost unit.”

This shows how some companies have management who seem to be disconnected from their organization.

That is a tough thing to read during lunch. I guess laughing at it is a normal first reaction, but it shouldn’t end there.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.

Let’s check out the comments of other people on this story.

This one offers some quick advice.

Always have been, says this one.

Here’s an idea…

Another honest opinion.

Finally, this user makes a valid point.

Nothing like a leaked memo to remind you you’re just one of the spreadsheet rows.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.