Passive culture promoting burnout disguised under Swedish strategy
Pros
World class radios and R&D
Cons
• Excessively long and disingenuous interview processes: Seven months of interviews only to later be laid off despite years of top performance. Strong performers with higher compensation are quietly viewed as expendable • Performative talent development programs: Programs marketed to younger talent lack real sponsorship, mobility, or outcomes. Most participants leave within a few years due to stalled careers • Severely limited internal mobility: Advancement typically requires being “tapped on the shoulder,” aligning with the right personalities, or being a consistent yes-person — merit alone is insufficient • Seasoned employees quietly pushed out: Experienced staff are nudged toward retirement or exited under the guise of restructuring, eroding institutional knowledge • Leadership instability: Senior executives have been repeatedly removed or reshuffled, resulting in constant musical chairs and a lack of long-term strategy or accountability • DEI commitments abandoned when inconvenient: A clear 2022–2023 OKR to increase women in leadership disappeared during layoffs, disproportionately impacting those same groups • Burnout normalized: Teams are stretched thin and expected to absorb the cyclical volatility of the telecom business with little concern for sustainability • Passive corporate culture: Employees are expected to be endlessly polite and professional, while difficult conversations are avoided and real issues go unaddressed • Heavy reliance on outsourcing: Growing dependence on external resources undermines quality, continuity, and morale • Erosion of core values: The Swedish cultural principles that once differentiated Ericsson are largely absent in U.S. offices • Hypocrisy around return-to-office mandates: U.S. employees are pushed toward consolidation (e.g., Plano), while many leaders themselves work remotely from non-hub locations
