As Cummins Inc. scrambles to recover from a battered Q1, executive exits, and a vanishing 2025 financial forecast, one department appears to be operating at full capacity: the Performative Optics Division.
Last Friday, members of the Cummins Global Finance Team were photographed writing handwritten affirmations for school children as part of United Way of Bartholomew County’s “Day of Caring.” Bright notes. Big smiles. A dozen volunteers with neat handwriting and list-approved phrases like “You are amazing just the way you are” and “Kindness is your greatest superpower.”
Heart-warming. Until you remember who’s doing the writing.
This is the same Cummins that paid a $1.675 billion emissions fraud fine while denying wrongdoing. The same company whose internal HR emails contradicted formal submissions. The same leadership that’s overseen global pay disparity and used mental health disclosures as leverage against an employee.
In a week when share value bounced, even if temporarily, and they pulled their 2025 forecast, they gained column inches for stickers in backpacks. That’s called taking advantage of reduced output with increased optics. It’s called stunt work.
These acts of corporate performance aren’t new. They’re rehearsed. Polished. Carefully timed. When bad news hits the balance sheet, the Care Parade rolls out. Press releases flood in. Local media gets fed the fluff.. And in the absence of meaningful accountability, this becomes the currency of reputation management: cutbacks for workers, Post-it notes for the children.
Let’s be honest. No child was harmed by a scribbled phrase. But plenty of Cummins employees have been harmed by silence, denial, and the kind of culture that values appearances over accountability.
This wasn’t about kindness. It was about cover. And the kids were just the props.
Lee Thompson
Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project