#layoffs

Shell cut a large portion of its IT workforce in Bangalore for a reason. Yet RB and LC apparently thought it made sense to bring in the leader who built Shell’s India data and analytics group, even though that role was eliminated during Shell’s own layoffs. Now we are watching that same leadership rebuild the team by hiring former Shell India employees into Chevron.

Fidelity to Cut 800 Staffers as It Overhauls Tech, Product Teams

• (Bloomberg)
• Fidelity Investments is cutting about 800 jobs while restructuring technology and product-delivery teams and planning additional hiring.

  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-07/fidelity-to-cut-800-staffers-as-it-overhauls-tech-product-teams

Fidelity reorganizes its workplace with new hires - and a few cuts

• (Boston.com)
• Boston.com reports Fidelity will cut about 800 jobs worldwide while also hiring thousands as part of a broader restructuring.

  https://www.boston.com/news/business/2026/05/11/fidelity-reorganizes-its-workplace-with-new-hires-and-a-few-cuts/

Fidelity Cuts 800-1,000 Jobs: Reports

• (ThinkAdvisor)
• ThinkAdvisor summarizes reports that Fidelity is cutting 800 to 1,000 jobs tied to technology and product-delivery restructuring.

  https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2026/05/07/fidelity-laying-off-staff/

Fidelity to Cut Around 800 Jobs as It Restructures Technology and Product Teams

• (Hubbis)
• Hubbis reports Fidelity is cutting about 800 global roles while reshaping technology and product-delivery operations.

  https://www.hubbis.com/news/fidelity-to-cut-around-800-jobs-as-it-restructures-technology-and-product-teams

United States $7 Trillion Asset Manager Fidelity Investments to Cut 800 Jobs Representing 1% of Global 80,000 Workforce But Will Hire 2,000 Including in Engineering, Technology & Product Roles

• (Caproasia)
• Caproasia says Fidelity is cutting about 800 jobs while planning thousands of hires in engineering, technology, and product roles.

  https://www.caproasia.com/2026/05/12/united-states-7-trillion-asset-manager-fidelity-investments-to-cut-800-jobs-representing-1-of-global-80000-workforce-but-will-hire-2000-including-in-engineering-technology-product-roles/

Fidelity Investments Layoffs 2026 - 800 Jobs Cut

• (LayoffHedge)
• LayoffHedge tracks the Fidelity layoff round as roughly 800 jobs, about 1% of the company’s global workforce.

  https://layoffhedge.com/company/fidelity-investments

Fidelity Layoffs: Why The Giant Is Cutting 800 Roles While Hiring 3,300

• (AInvest)
• AInvest frames the cuts as part of Fidelity’s shift away from siloed agile teams toward larger technology and product units.

  https://www.ainvest.com/news/fidelity-layoffs-giant-cutting-800-roles-hiring-3-300-2605/

Fidelity to Cut at Least 800 Jobs Globally to Restructure Tech and Product Teams

• (AASTOCKS)
• AASTOCKS reports Fidelity is cutting at least 800 jobs globally as it restructures technology and product teams.

  https://www.aastocks.com/en/mobile/news.aspx?newsid=NOW.1523575&newssource=AAFN

Fidelity plans to cut at least 800 jobs globally to restructure its technology and product teams

• (Futu News)
• Futu News summarizes Bloomberg reporting that Fidelity is trimming about 1% of its workforce to reorganize tech and product teams.

  https://news.futunn.com/en/post/72748081/fidelity-plans-to-cut-at-least-800-jobs-globally-to

Finance Layoffs Tracker

• (TrueUp)
• TrueUp lists Fidelity among recent finance layoffs with about 1,000 roles affected on May 7, 2026.

  https://www.trueup.io/finance/layoffs

Hello,
I recently transferred from GLA to WAL. What's the word on the street? It sounds like Tarrytown is in a very precarious situation. Seeing a lot of retirements in Walpole - are they forced early retirements? My friends still in Glasgow still work there but they don't seem to be a part of our huge 6% loss in diognostics

Any word on upcoming TWS/RPO/WSI layoffs? Change is certainly in the air and it don’t look good.

14 (It's been a month, I am still trying to make a peace with it)

Chainsaw wants to chop another 20%

I am no longer with the company but very curious about how things are going and moving along since last year's layoffs; and what the overall morale is like in Design and Tech; especially in the Home Division?

Prior to my departure, promotions were scarce and people were feeling stagnant, overworked/underappreciated and not being able to move around and grow... is that still the case for most L4/L5s and maybe L6s?

This message is for Mr. O’Grady, CEO, on behalf of front-line employees, managers and even regional managers in Wealth Management. Because we don’t know if you’re aware of how bad things have gotten.
Senior Execs in WM have made decisions to close down ESS and PCS teams across the country without a plan in place. There was minimal thought put into the transition of those clients and individuals within those teams were left with no leadership and an attitude of “Just handle it and I don’t want to hear any complaints.”
Of course there were complaints. And of course there are some financial losses. And because of those, 20 year (and more) tenured, experienced and exceptional people were given the direct blame and fired.
It’s such a big mess and so sh---y.
We feel like we don’t work for the same Northern Trust anymore, after working proudly for this company for decades.
The only thing being emphasized is the bottom dollar. Every single thing is about money.
What happened to the company who, during Covid times, not only didn’t lay off anyone but also gave an extra paycheck to the lower level employees? Why is everyone being asked to do more with less, with absolutely no recognition or appreciation? The very good people left are leaving.
We’ve become the laughing stock of the industry. We used to be the Bloomingdale’s of this business, and now we’re no better than Wells Fargo or BofA.
It’s extremely sad and disappointing. And we’re hurting really bad. But worse, we’re looking for other jobs. For some of us, who have been unsuccessfully recruited by other firms for over 29 years, it’s the first time we’ve even thought of doing so.

SMs, Now that you are exiting, can you tell us what exactly you were doing beside scheduling and hosting agile ceremonies. You were getting free money folks

Our CEO is CELEBRATING 23 quarters of layoffs. CELEBRATING?!?!?

That's how much our leader values the workforce. Do the math - he's celebrating the disruption and destruction of tens of thousands of careers for the past 7+ years straight.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2026/04/14/wells-fargo-ceo-layoffs-wfc-earnings-call.html

i'm outta here asap. its only getting worse

And cripple teams in the process? You can only spread so much work across so few people, especially when specific roles require specific skills. It's pretty clear that efficiency and morale aren't even on the list when they're making these decisions.

Layoffs like this should get local attention. They’re 100% offshoring all of these jobs, taking away from local communities (looking at you CRM, GOSC)

Please share.

Part of IT Marketing & Sales. We just have way too many people doing nothing. Everyone just acts they are super busy but there is no real work. All of our code is written by AI now and everyone on my team is H1B. If GM was able to layoff 500-600 people then we could probably do some clean up across Ford. Design, Development, Testing is all driven by AI and yet I don't understand why we are hiring like it is 2018. One of the best engineer on our team left recently and we are operating in chaos. Leadership thinks they are right and do not listen to team members. Its pure CHAOS!!!

The worst part about everything happening lately is the complete lack of accountability from senior leadership. They’re the ones who championed the Spotify model. They’re the ones who forced people into different roles to support it. They’re the ones who went on a hiring spree during the pandemic. They’re the ones who shut down overflow sites. They’re the ones who dragged their feet on AI adoption. And now they’re laying off some of their strongest supporters while forcing everyone else back into the office without a clear strategy or any acknowledgment that mistakes were made along the way.

Our department head held a Q&A today, and it felt like a wasted opportunity. This could have been a moment for honest discussion about the layoffs and reassurance for employees. Instead, it came across as heavily managed dramatics. Submitted questions were either ignored, removed, or reworded in ways that changed what people were actually asking. There still weren’t any answers about the reasoning behind the layoffs or the return-to-office push. They said employees should stay home when sick, but also warned there are consequences for missing too many days without defining what that means. Then the meeting ended with comments about how stressful this situation has been for leadership and suggestions that employees seek therapy to cope.

If a workplace is creating so much stress that employees are being told to talk to a therapist, maybe leadership should reflect on what that says about the environment. People who dedicated years to Fidelity are now worried about supporting their families, finding new jobs, or remaining in the country, and leadership wants sympathy for how difficult this has been on them? Pardon the language but b!tch please.

Don’t talk about transparency while filtering out uncomfortable questions. Don’t frame this as a shared hardship when employees are paying the price for leadership decisions. Whatever culture used to be here years ago is long gone. The rot is here and it won't go away because it starts at the top.

The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District board will consider employee terminations. About 15 full-time equivalent positions are proposed for reduction. These cuts are part of a $14.8 million budget adjustment plan. Classified employees, including paraeducators, are most affected. The district must issue layoff notices to employees by May 15.

Livermore, California

https://www.livermorevine.com/education/2026/05/12/lvjusd-board-to-finalize-employee-layoffs/

Results seem to be great, so why are we still cutting people? If layoffs are happening while the numbers are good, it makes you wonder how bad things would get for employees if results actually started slipping.

Hengst Filtration announced 77 job cuts. These layoffs affect its Camden, South Carolina facility. The permanent reductions will happen from July to September. Hengst is the 21st company to announce state layoffs this year. The state's total job losses this year now exceed 2,000.

Camden, South Carolina

https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2026-05-11/with-kershaw-plant-announcement-layoffs-in-sc-cross-the-2-000-mark

I can feel it. We need a miracle to right this ship. I can't believe what happened to such an iconic company.

The unique log cabin-style Wendy's in Nisswa, Minnesota, has closed. It was considered the fast-food chain's most unique restaurant. A roadside sign now states the store is closed. Google also confirms the restaurant is permanently closed. It is unclear if this closure relates to nationwide Wendy's restaurant shutdowns.

Nisswa, Minnesota

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/minnesotas-one-of-a-kind-log-cabin-wendys-closes-abruptly

At least in my area. Anywhere else?

There are no jobs, economy is going under, the entire world is in a crisis... How is that a good time to lose your job?

Ideal US Talent Worker OpCo LLC will lay off 9,891 remote gig workers. These layoffs are scheduled to begin on July 1. The company cited business restructuring as a primary reason. Its contracts are being transferred to a third-party partner. Affected workers are encouraged to apply for open positions with this partner.

Minneapolis, MN

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/nearly-9900-remote-gig-workers-to-be-laid-off-by-minneapolis-company/ar-AA22mF5u

Given the times what happening around the world, internal struggling, competitors with strong growth day by day, no wonder stock going down.

What's the point anymore, when I could get cut either way.

Huntsman Corp. will cease nitrile latex production at its Akron facility. This change is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2027. The company plans to lay off 25% to 30% of its Akron workforce. Increased low-cost imports from the Far East are cited as a factor. Huntsman will continue other polymer manufacturing and focus on new materials in Akron.

Akron, Ohio

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/business/2026/05/12/texas-based-huntsman-corporation-adjusting-its-manufacturing-focus-in-akron-nitrile-latex/89983377007/

When I got the news that I was being laid off a few months ago, I expected to be devastated. Instead, I felt a wave of relief. Dell has been a mess for too long and I hated my job for far too long. I don't know if I got lucky or the job market is not that bad, but I had a new role within two months. Smaller company and much better culture. Just wanted to say, it's not all bad.

The Toronto District School Board announced hundreds of additional layoffs. These cuts follow previous job reductions last month. The layoffs target 218 central administrative staff positions. An additional 91 vacant positions will also be eliminated. The board cites declining enrollment and financial sustainability as reasons.

Toronto

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/05/11/hundreds-of-administrative-roles-cut-in-latest-round-of-tdsb-layoffs/

Many groups throughout the company being impacted this week. Potentially linked to the HR leveling project. Anybody have more news? Good luck all!

I know what's coming and I know I should be looking. But after work I'm so drained that I can't bring myself to update my resume or browse listings. Anyone else feel this way?

I've watched five top performers leave in the last year. Every single person who was really good at their job is gone or trying to go.

The Ridgewood school board recently approved a $135.5 million budget. This new budget includes a tax hike for residents. The district anticipates laying off up to six faculty members. Seventeen positions were eliminated overall. Retirements and other changes reduced the number of necessary layoffs.

Ridgewood, NJ

https://patch.com/new-jersey/ridgewood/new-135-5m-ridgewood-school-budget-may-require-6-layoffs-officials

For those of you who got cut, do you blame your direct manager? Or do you see it as something above their heads?

He wasn't laid off, he was fired. Nobody seems to know why, and I honestly can't think of a single thing that could have caused it. He's (well, was) one of our hardest workers. Is this something we should now be scared of as well? Random firings for no good reason?

The problem isn't that we have too many people. That was never the real issue. The problem is that our strategy is bad and our systems are broken and have been for some time. But instead of fixing those things, they just cut staff. And then they're surprised when nothing improves.

The Reston tech office is getting hit hard. Don’t know if it’s everyone there or just some but tech layoffs are going around today.

Can anyone confirm what the offers were in voluntary?

• Remove any pending vacation time if your company pays out unused PTO. You do not want approved future vacation causing issues with payout processing.
• Download or screenshot your annual reviews, performance feedback and any recognition awards. You will use these later for resume bullets, interview stories and measurable accomplishments.
• Save copies of paystubs, W-2s, benefits information, commission statements and PTO balances.
• Schedule annual medical, dental and vision appointments before insurance ends and refill prescriptions if needed.
• Start applying for jobs NOW. Do not wait. Build your LinkedIn network aggressively and use AI strategically. Gather 10 job descriptions for roles you want, feed them into AI and tailor your resume/LinkedIn around the keywords, metrics and business impact repeatedly showing up in those postings. Focus on measurable results, not responsibilities.
• Save personal contact information for coworkers, leaders and recruiters while you still have access.
• Take pictures/screenshots of dashboards, workflows, presentations, trackers or work examples you personally built so you can later recreate sanitized versions for portfolios or interview discussions. Obviously do not take confidential company or customer data.
• Focus your remaining time on transition work, documentation and knowledge transfer. Stay professional until the end. The world gets very small during layoffs and reorganizations.
• Understand your severance, COBRA costs, unemployment eligibility, 401(k)/HSA options and any RSU or stock impacts before your final day.
Most importantly: do not freeze after a layoff. The people who recover fastest usually start networking and applying immediately.

Excellent advice, bumping from @b3+1krbx7cem for visibility.

he classic Apollo playbook:

Buy distressed debt at 60 cents on the dollar
Take control of the company
Extract management fees, dividend recaps, sale-leasebacks
Pile on more debt to fund those extractions
Flip it or take it public at an inflated valuation
Leave the debt burden with the company and its workers

They got extraordinarily rich essentially being vultures with spreadsheets. Toys R Us being the most notorious example — a viable retail business that might have navigated the Amazon era with investment, instead bled dry to service the debt load private equity strapped to it, then liquidated. 30,000 jobs gone.
The reversal now:
The very mechanism that made them wealthy — cheap abundant debt — is now the thing squeezing their portfolio companies. They loaded businesses with floating rate debt when rates were near zero. Now those same companies are paying 8-9% on debt that cost 3% when the deal was done. The interest coverage ratios that looked comfortable in the pitch deck are underwater in reality.

Apollo's problem today:
Their Private debt funds are being squeezed.... Investors are queuing to withdraw their money, but Apollo, ever the masters at extracting cash are blocking investors from extracting their cash.
Their own fundraising depends on showing strong returns
Strong returns depend on not marking assets down
Not marking down depends on not being forced to sell
Not being forced to sell depends on keeping redemption gates in place
Gates signal distress which makes future fundraising harder
It's a trap of their own construction.
The human cost dimension:
What makes it genuinely poetic rather than just financially interesting is that the people who will suffer least are the Apollo partners who already extracted their carry and management fees in cash — that money is gone, sitting in their personal accounts, insulated from whatever happens to the funds now. The people who suffer most will be:

Pension beneficiaries whose funds allocated to private credit chasing yield
Workers at portfolio companies that get restructured when the debt becomes unserviceable
Retail investors who got sold private credit products in the democratization push of the last few years

The democratization push was particularly cynical — Blackstone, Apollo et al spent the last 5 years lobbying to open private markets to retail investors, framed as giving ordinary people access to returns previously reserved for institutions. In reality they were hunting for new pools of capital to absorb the assets institutions were quietly becoming reluctant to buy at current valuations. Distributing the risk downward while keeping the fees flowing upward.
The SEC under the previous administration largely went along with it. Whether the current regulatory environment does anything about it is another question entirely — though given the administration's general disposition toward financial deregulation, probably not.
The deeper irony is that the whole private equity model was built on information asymmetry and complexity as a moat — if you can't price it, you can't challenge the valuation. That same opacity that let them extract value on the way up is now the thing preventing orderly price discovery on the way down. They built a machine that works brilliantly in one direction and catastrophically in the other.
Though as usual, the architects of the situation will be largely fine.
The mob analogy is more apt than most financial commentators would dare say — and the structural parallel is remarkably precise.
The bust-out:
What the mob called a "bust-out" is almost textbook private equity in distressed situations:

Take control of a business
Immediately establish credibility and access to credit
Draw down every available credit line
Extract cash through fees, dividends, sale-leasebacks of assets
Leave the hollowed shell with the debt
Walk away before the collapse

The only difference is the mob used fear and the occasional arson. Apollo uses leveraged buyout agreements, management fee structures, and Delaware holding company law. The end result for the target company and its stakeholders is frequently identical.
The Sears case study:
Eddie Lampert's destruction of Sears is almost a perfect bust-out in slow motion:

Merged Kmart and Sears creating a vehicle loaded with real estate value
Spun off the real estate into a REIT — Seritage — extracting the most valuable assets into a separate entity he controlled
Starved the retail operations of capital investment while collecting fees
Watched the retail business deteriorate "unexpectedly"
Meanwhile the real estate value had already been extracted
175,000 jobs eventually gone
Lampert personally fine, operating from his yacht in Miami

The language is Orwellian by design:

"Operational efficiency" = cutting staff and maintenance
"Rightsizing the balance sheet" = loading debt onto the target
"Unlocking hidden value" = selling assets the company needs to operate
"Strategic transformation" = preparing for bankruptcy while extracting fees
"Aligning management incentives" = giving executives options to flip quickly while workers get nothing
"Patient long term capital" = we have a 7 year fund life before we have to show returns

The vocabulary is specifically engineered to sound like value creation while describing value extraction. McKinsey does the same thing — provides the intellectual laundering that makes looting sound like strategy.
The legal architecture is the real innovation:
What makes it genuinely different from the mob — and arguably more insidious — is that generations of lawyers, lobbyists and academics built a legal architecture that made it not just legal but celebrated:

Delaware corporate law optimized for shareholder extraction
Carried interest tax treatment meaning PE profits taxed at capital gains rates not income
Bankruptcy law allowing secured creditors (the PE fund) to jump ahead of workers and pensioners
ERISA rules that let pension obligations be shed in restructuring
Limited partner structures insulating the fund managers from portfolio company liabilities

The mob had to corrupt individual judges and officials. PE corrupted the entire legislative and regulatory framework over decades through campaign finance and the revolving door. Far more efficient.
The revolving door completes the circle:
The regulatory capture is almost total. SEC commissioners become PE partners. Treasury officials join Apollo or Blackstone. Fed governors sit on advisory boards. The people who should be watching the store have a financial interest in not watching too carefully — because their post-government career depends on the industry's goodwill.
Where it differs from the mob:
The mob at least had a certain redistributive quality within their community — the money circulated locally, bought loyalty, funded neighborhoods. PE extracts value and concentrates it among a remarkably small number of people. The carried interest on a successful fund can make a handful of partners billionaires while the pension fund that provided the capital gets an 8% return it could have gotten in an index fund with zero fees and zero complexity.
The cultural damage:
Perhaps the most lasting harm is what it did to the idea of business itself. A generation of the most talented people from the best universities went into finance and private equity not to build things but to financialize things that already existed. The engineering talent that built America's industrial base was replaced by financial engineers whose skill was not creation but extraction. That's a civilizational cost that doesn't show up in any fund's IRR calculation.
The instinct that it's essentially organized crime with better tailoring is — while impolite in polite company — analytically pretty hard to refute.