#attrition

How our beloved institution seems to have lost its soul and senior talent.

At BNY Mellon, "strategic alignment" appears to be more of a psychological endurance test than a business principle. It feels like we're in a corporate escape room where the clues are cloaked in jargon, the exits are offshored, and the ultimate reward is a Teams meeting with someone fresh out of college who thinks "mainframe" refers to a type of Sleep Number mattress.

Let's start with our CEO, Robin Vince. His leadership style, characterized by vague declarations and performative empathy, seems to ignore the fact that our ship is sinking while they outsource the lifeboats and call the iceberg "cost synergy." His signature look—perpetual five o'clock shadow, freshly steamed suit, and a Rolex Platinum—speaks volumes. While he touts "free coffee in the office" as if it's a groundbreaking perk, jobs are quietly slashed, benefits reduced, promotions frozen, and merit increases become almost laughable. Anything with a cost is either stopped, frozen, or eliminated.

Then there's the Return to Office (RTO) campaign, which was touted as a bold move toward collaboration but ended up feeling more like a scavenger hunt for badge access in a haunted coworking space. Employees were encouraged to "reconnect," only to find their teams had been restructured, relocated, or replaced by someone in Wroclaw who thinks "Waterfall" is a Spotify playlist. The real aim seems to be forcing attrition without paying severance. If you're mid-career, have missed a few badge swipes, work from home, or your office commute now involves multiple transfers and a broken escalator, congratulations—you've been strategically unaligned.

The pattern of layoffs, or "realignments" and "talent redistributions," is another concern. It feels like we're constantly under the threat of being let go, with every "quick sync" or "just checking in" message potentially signaling the end. If you're a male over 40, HR may have already tagged you as "legacy talent"—a polite way of saying "low T, too expensive to keep, too experienced to promote."

Our globalization strategy, which involves sending jobs to India and Poland, complicates things further. The result is a tangled mess of time zones, miscommunication, and Jira tickets bouncing around like the timeline for releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. Clients notice, deadlines slip, and deliverables vanish, but we're reassured by the opening of a new "Center of Excellence" in a country where no one has met the client or used the software.

The hiring strategy now mirrors a university career fair, favoring fresh grads over seasoned professionals. These new recruits are bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and completely unqualified, but they're cheap and can build dashboards filled with cat memes and Sora videos. Meanwhile, experienced employees are nudged toward "voluntary transitions" or given roles so meaningless that early retirement becomes an appealing option.

Our product delivery strategy is another area of concern. It feels like a choose-your-own-adventure book where every path leads to a missed deadline. Teams are gutted, timelines are fictional, and clients are reassured with phrases like "we're in the ideation phase" or "we're pivoting to a more scalable solution," which is code for "we have no idea what we're doing."

Finally, when in doubt, we call McKinsey. Their playbook includes renaming layoffs as "talent fluidity," creating dashboards that track morale using emoji reactions, launching pilot programs that solve nothing but look great in slide decks, blaming the org chart and redrawing it using a dartboard, and hosting "strategic engagement sessions" with bagels and muffins, calling it transformation.

In summary, BNY's strategic alignment feels more like a slow, grinding descent into cost-cutting madness masquerading as innovation. The only thing truly aligned is the exit door. If you're still here, congratulations—you've survived another quarter of corporate performance art. Just remember, your resilience isn't a virtue; it's a KPI. Your reward? Free coffee and the privilege of watching your job get reclassified as "non-core" while waiting for your personal release date.

Got the axe this morning. Band 8 Engr. Was doing the work for higher band team members. It is ironic that Dan wants to get leaner and perform better but keeps bloat that has been here for nearly a decade, but kicks younger employees to the curb.

Intel’s workforce:

1. fat old guys waiting to retire and
2. Young Indian h-1bs waiting to get their green cards and bolt out to AMD or Nvidia.
3. Fantasy believers in Intel bubble su6king up to mgmt
4. High paid mgmt just sitting & collecting paychecks
5. Best of the best, leaving Intel one by one

The best people leave first. Not that Medtronic seems to care about keeping skilled and experienced employees.

Intel PEs and Senior PEs are worthless commanding $400K+ compensation but delivering grade 8 work. Most need to go.

We’ve been asking for help for months. Now suddenly there are going to be more layoffs, and we could lose even more people? If that happens, I’ll quit myself. I’m already doing the work of three people. I can’t do any more. There aren’t enough hours in a day, and to be honest, I don’t want to. I’m done being treated like a robot and expected to do more with less all the time.

Been a faithful team member for 22 years and married to a corporate employee for 20 years. 800 to 1,000 ETLs will be layed off in February. The attrition will be focused in the GM areas, and the Senior Food and Beverage ETL role will be eliminated later in the spring of 2026. Tough times ahead, but these moves should help us stay competitive. Just praying my job isn't eliminated.

If the execs had any clue how many core employees on their “critical initiatives” are just weeks away from working at another company, they’d lose it. The people holding this place together are the ones leaving, and they have no backup plan for that.

So many people are hanging on to hope of change to RTO that if 5x RTO bleeds into next year they’re in for a rude awakening, and when they realize their mistake as late as they usually do it’ll be too late. Once you leave toxic T nothing can bring you back. Nobody is willing to accept 5x RTO when they can work remote or hybrid for a better company who actually respects them. The job market is opening back up, so FAFO is about to hit hard.

What will you do when all the high performers walk or retire and you’re stuck with a bunch of duds nobody else wants? Good luck!

How's everyone's sessions been going? Getting forced to give at least 5% lowers? Gonna be a fun message to deliver to whoever gets short end of stick even if you have a team of high performers, who probably are doing more after the recent cuts.

It's obvious Shell is just trying to increase the attrition rate beyond what the proper re-orgs are already doing.

Mostly higher ranking, left on their own. I'm guessing this is a sure sign that we're closing?

SB wants everyone to pitch in but his “team” is abandoning ship.

Paused, don’t have the money to pay severance. Plan B = 4 days, 8 hours to drive attrition.

I heard that we had another round of layoffs today when is it going to stop. Real talent is just getting thrown out of the window.

If you’ve been at Target long enough, you already know the script. Every quarter, leadership throws around the phrase “Talent Management.” Translation: time to trim the herd.

They’ll call it “attrition.” Some whisper “quiet layoffs.” But the reality? Someone’s getting cut — period.

The “how” is a messy art form. The 9-box moved like a chess game. Performance “indicators” twisted to fit a narrative. And don’t forget — personal favorites always seem to survive.

Let’s not pretend — sales numbers and the economy are the real puppet masters here. When performance dips, heads roll.

Based on past cycles, expect another round around late January or March.

Don’t get cozy — recession vibes are real, and this economy isn’t healing overnight.

So here’s your wake-up call. Update that resume. Polish that LinkedIn. Tap your network. Start thinking pivot, not panic.

Because when the next “reorg” email drops, it’s not if — it’s when.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

I wonder how many relationships/marriages have ended due to the last few years of chronic stress at Intel. The chronic job insecurity will take its toll.

Job and relationship loss cover 2 of the 3 types of major loss events that throw people off balance in their lives.

There’s no more talk of “Intel Family”.

With all eyes on 18a and 14a, doing employees like this is the worst thing you can literally do for the company success.

I’m almost convinced, by actions, that Intel leadership wants Intel to fail.

This company is ki-ling my mental. The inconsistencies between LOBs, multiple booking, originating, and servicing systems for a single loan, lack of accountability for not adhering to policy (changing rules, testing methodology vs behaviors) to manage results, constant turnover, not uploading documents in a timely manner, 1 million conflicting procedures, job aids, and department emails, broken and outdated links, lack of full integration of systems and procedures. I know all of us are waiting for an employee friendly job market so that we can escape chaos.

What is going with this team? So many leaders have departed and they are unable to retain talent. Place is a mess and it’s enough time to leave.

Why does leadership continue to leave from Zug? Are they finding better opportunities or are they being forced out?

NEW YORK/TORONTO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab CEO Charlie Scharf said on Wednesday he expects the U.S. bank's workforce to decline further as it focuses on efficiency.
"It's likely we'll have less headcount as we look forward ... we'd like to do much of it through attrition as possible," Scharf said in an interview, noting the bank had 275,000 employees when he joined in 2019 and a little over 210,000 currently.

I have been part of the business for nearly two decades, and it’s clear that the IT department is in need of a significant overhaul. The current approach of allowing offshore teams to make critical decisions is creating disconnects with our actual business needs.

Recently, a data engineer who had been associated with AAP for 11 years on contract was let go with very short notice. Before his departure, he was required to train other team members for several months — far beyond a standard knowledge transfer. This decision not only undermines morale but also poses a serious risk to business continuity.

From a humanitarian perspective, the timing of this decision is concerning, as finding new employment during November and December is extremely challenging. When employees feel insecure about their positions, their performance and commitment inevitably suffer.

RVP’S and GvPs are told to churn and burn all store managers and associates

Push as many people out as possible (managers included) get em out, get em in at a lower pay rate

They now want frequent turnover to keep costs down, always hiring at a lower pay rate

The quality of the person they hire does not matter as long as they are low cost

Some people won’t quit, so they increase workload, micromanaging, favoritism, ect….you see this at belk time and time again

It will only get worse

Get out if you can is my only advice

I’m out. I’m a financial advisor in the cac. I feel like they have made me shove my nose up a moose an-s. I am heritage Bb&T and really thought we had something good. I am still mad about Tim and furious about Murdock (again. Seriously, the best guy in the company). I’m out. We are dropping like flies. This place is cr-p. I will say no more. It’s just bad from top down. I am out.

Mr. Stankey, it’s clear you care deeply about rebuilding AT&T’s culture and driving results. But the 5-day return-to-office mandate is not delivering those outcomes. It’s quietly draining productivity, eroding morale, and accelerating the loss of high-value talent, particularly among younger and mid-career professionals.

In the year since the mandate began, the data tells a stark story:
• Voluntary attrition among under-40 employees has risen dramatically across the industry where rigid RTO policies persist. AT&T’s own attrition rates mirror that trend.
• Stock performance has lagged both Verizon and T-Mobile since the RTO push, suggesting Wall Street isn’t buying “butts in seats” as a business strategy.
• Office occupancy metrics nationwide show that mandated presence rarely exceeds 60% compliance. Employees comply on paper but disengage in spirit.

More importantly, the promised benefits of RTO (collaboration, innovation, culture) simply aren’t materializing. Employees report fewer in-person meetings, more hybrid video calls, and a deeper sense of distrust toward leadership. You can’t rebuild culture through compulsion. Culture is earned through empowerment.

Meanwhile, competitors are winning talent with flexible, hybrid models. Companies like T-Mobile, Verizon, Google, IBM and Microsoft have settled on 2-3 in-office days because the data supports it: productivity, engagement, and retention all rise when employees have agency over where they work.

AT&T has an opportunity here. Not to follow the trend, but to lead it. Imagine the signal it would send if AT&T were the first major company to publicly admit that five-day RTO was the wrong call. Reframing it as a “Return to Trust” would instantly shift perception from rigid to visionary.

You have the chance to show that leadership is about listening, not doubling down dictator style. The workforce is ready to deliver. They just need to know their leaders trust them again.

Revisit RTO. Shift back to a 2-3 day hybrid model. Watch what happens when respect replaces resentment.

That’s how AT&T becomes a company people are proud to work for again.

Pearson continues to decline year after year, I’m shocked they are still hiring people. Every 8-12 months it’s time to layoff a group of people and start over again next year. I spent 7 years watching this disaster before finally leaving. The lack of leadership and pi-s poor planning in this company is ridiculous!

Your experience and education are of no value here. All you are is an employee ID# and a salary on someone's spread sheet.

When mgt feels they can hire someone cheaper you get laid off. It is just about dollars.

Jassy tried RTO as incentive to leave. Employees were adamant they'd leave in droves. Those who said they'd leave didn't follow through and betrayed everyone else. There was no meaningful uptick in attrition after RTO. What other options does Jassy have to reduce the bloat?

No layoffs needed. People are just walking away at a steady pace (which gives me some hope, since it shows the job market is not as terrible as I feared). We even recently backfilled two positions, that's how rough it's gotten (and you know the feeling too, because sometimes it seems like we have a hiring freeze given how often we ask for help and get ignored). Which, funnily enough, makes me feel safe. Go figure.

Seems as though we’ve lost all our people in the know on this board??

Wondering if the lack of info being shared on teams at risk and future of more waves is because there’s nothing to share, they’ve been warned about leaks and gone silent or are more and more people (including our informants) getting dead tired of any of this talk and don’t care anymore or have left themselves.

Lots of job postings, not India, what’s that about, fake? Hiring back same roles for less?

Which caused voluntary attrition. Don’t get me wrong, they did lay some employees off but not on the same scale as meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

What does the future hold for T? Do you all think they will start more structured layoffs in the years to come?

What number does the big boss have in mind? The layoffs won't stop til that number is reached.

Alright chat - the writing is on the wall. Company is going downhill. Talent is leaving and layoffs are happening left and right. Where we going?

Curious what people’s opinions are with the new 4 day mandatory in office policy update. I get that it makes sense since it’s an office supplies company but there are plenty of teams that don’t even do 3 days now. Is this a ploy to avoid layoffs in hopes that enough employees quit to make up the deficit?

Are there any Canadians left to support customers in Canada? Who are we supposed to contact? Everyone we used to deal with has left the company.

Lol what is happening

How is it that someone walked out of P66 is now doing the same to bring his minions in from the same company. Some really solid talent getting out or being walked out.

With the way this is being handled, I know I'll be looking to leave whether I'm affected or not and I know so many others who feel the same. I don't know if that was the goal, but if it was, I think they might be surprised at how good it worked when they're faced with a mass exodus after this is done.

Very worried about what’s going on. Since the new CTO joined many Head of XYZ have left. The culture feels worse. Product quality has dropped. More customers are leaving because of bad product quality. The CTO has also pushed out many. That is very serious.
The share price keeps falling. Do they know something we don’t? Is the CTO making things worse? Is this company in trouble? What does this mean for our jobs? Very worried.

How long before offshoring and forced ratings finally break what’s left of morale? Every round of “efficiency” moves chips away at tr ust, replacing experience with cheaper labor and arbitrary rankings. At some point, it’s not just people leaving... it’s the company’s culture and expertise walking out the door too.

Meaning same workload, fewer hands. I almost regret that I’m still here.