Thread regarding Charles Schwab Corp. layoffs

I'm one of those green side Sr. Managers that got while the going was good, because my experience was the exact opposite of @1qhy+1sLjyiyV. To paraphrase Chip Heath from "The Power of Moments", "To deliver a 1st class customer [-- they said patient since the use-case was health-care] experience you must first deliver a first class employee experience." During my 11 year exposure to TDA, I felt like they walked that talk. I didn't feel like Schwab even understood it. YMMV.

AST SAVE?

@2kxg+1sLjyiyV
This post deserves to be painted on every hallway wall. Identifies problem(s), offers viable solutions. Unfortunately, no one will see / hear and nothing will be done.
If it’s any solace, there are dozens of likeminded people around you; heck, even above you.
It’s sad that so many of us, up and down the organization, know the the reality and yet no one, NO ONE will ever speak up; as that wouldn’t be “Schwab nice”.

Who has authority to make A decision....ANY decision within STS? Even the smallest decisions with minimal impacts require multiple Directors and MD's to opine on, just to end up landing in the same spot we started with - unmade decisions. Nothing gets done when nobody has authority to decide on anything.

I'd like to get to a "fail fast" mindset and culture within STS, but all we can do is fail. "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!" seems to be the way things work here.

And no - more meetings, office hours, front door requests, emails from no-reply addresses, teams channels with 100 people in them, and pretty powerpoints isn't the answer to any of this. Nothing is fixed until ideas are approved (can't be approved due to lack of decision making authority by anyone) and then ideas are turned into action and implemented.

And no - completion of "MVP1" doesn't result in a solution. It results in a first iteration of a poorly implemented solution which turns into vaporware. You especially see this a few years down the road after everyone who put it in has left the company and there's some poor 54 left keeping it alive for a "critical" business process.

STS couldn't swat a fly without 50 people involved to debate fly swatting techniques, PMs to coordinate across the incomplete list of stakeholders, resulting in a single overworked and under-prioritized 54 or 56 left holding the swatter but not authorized to swing it.

Answer:

1. Truly empower your people at all levels. Authorize everyone to do their jobs.
2. Make decisions. Gather facts, weigh alternatives with the right people in the room, make the decision swift, then act on it. If we find new facts that justify altering course, then alter the course. Iterate to a better solution. This is the "agile" we are supposedly going after. And no - massive meetings for useless PI planning is not agility.
3. Favor relationships over Front Door Requests. Why do we treat internal partners and peers as if they are external customers? We're trying to get work done, not wait in line like we're at the DMV.
4. Ruthlessly prioritize. Admit the truth and eliminate work that you know will never result in an objective being met. Anything below priority #10 isn't going to get done. Just ki-l it and move on. Drop it in the backlog for next year. Stop pretending cycles are limitless and manpower is infinite. Especially when you refuse to approve hiring and promotions.
5. Be transparent. Stop sending emails from nameless, faceless, no-reply addresses. Tell the truth. Eliminate the corporate double speak. You're impressing nobody and only watering down the message under a facade of professionalism. Allow anonymous feedback and open text boxes on Glint surveys. You can't fix problems if you refuse to acknowledge they exist. You don't get better at only emphasizing what you do well and ignoring problems. Willful ignorance is shameful and speaks to leadership's unwillingness to do better.
6. Take real actions that have real impact. Everything else is noise. Meetings are noise unless the last item on the agenda is to document the actions to be taken based on the data.

This place is an HBR article on "what not to do" just waiting to be written. It's embarrassing. Worse yet - it's fixable but it seems everyone on top refuses to believe their sht doesn't stink. The EC and Board need to humble themselves and gain some introspection.

Remove td people that are now directors. They do not care about the employees, they do not have an understanding of the culture of caring about employees , but maybe they have learned that from you.

I hardly see any td directors left outside the Trader org.

My old SM, and I don’t work at CS anymore, used to make us submit questions to him/her, prior to town halls. Questions had to be written in a certain way so as not to make this SM look bad in front of Darling Director.

My Manager wants only Positive Feedback and no Constructive Feedback about other teams and code base. I have seen lack of design and lack of basic principles of programming in STS Teams and I did point out places where things were done wrong and was told to only talk about Positive things and Not bring up the Negative things. In terms of hiring people I have said "Do Not Hire" this person lacks basic knowledge of computer systems and programming principles yet they still hired them I don't know why. There are plenty of worthy people who we can hire and yet we have the worst at schwab at all levels at least in STS. Some Managers and Directors are doing nothing except passing on messages and adding little to no value in terms of problem solving. Internal tools upgrades and adding new tools in place and Application Modernization are 2 good examples. If you compare Schwab.com from today to 5 years ago for the money spent you will see little to no improvement in overall features available.

What in the actual h-ll is happening to this company. Just because we have a “ leadership” team, does not mean they know how to lead. It is time to vote as shareholders to get rid of Walt and EC.First, what the he-l has he done that deserves his massive salary? 2nd, did anyone ever tell him that just because we are the biggest, now (which his enormous ego thinks is a good thing) does not f….ing mean we are the best …anymore. We were once, we will be again, but first we need to drain the swamp of our leadership cronies. They all need to go. Stock price down 9 points in a week. Walt, get someone to help you lead. You do not know what you are doing. Stop the bleeding…pay ( from your bloated salary)someone to right this ship. Get off your a.. and turn this colossal f up around. We are stuck with cr-ppy td… make it make sense..lay yourself off. Retire.. just go or get someone to help you understand how to run a business. Walt, Remove td people that are now directors. They do not care about the employees, they do not have an understanding of the culture of caring about employees , but maybe they have learned that from you. Fix this mess!

fist pump? fist bump? fist fu--ing? I can see all three being true. OPs director sounds like the absent in place OptionsXpress chicago people or one of the awful tda directors from NJ that couldnt find work right after the announcement. do like the rest of us, try to find another job while still making money in this sinking ship or pray for the layoff lottery!

My manicure is $600 per month. Stop the fist pumping!

The director is essentially a middle person. Shouldn’t their job be to lighten the blow? Also their progression is judged on how many they promote vs attrition. If your director doesn’t promote any, they should be worried. What is that telling your department?

You touching my fist is not a pledge of respect. It lowers your class level 100%.

Why do the people that didn’t go to college find the need to fist pump?

I do not mean this in a mean way. Stop fist pumping!!!!

My director walks up to me and fist pumps while telling me to do my job. It’s both offensive and annoying.

They may not be. Promotions are pretty dead regardless of group.

But headcount will drop another 4-5000. And we are hiring low level staff meaning more cuts through attrition and frustration. And our execs and the industry are salivating at AI driven LE management. This would cut the paperwork manager and audit activities you’re being asked to do.

You may want to transition back to LE.

Directors are also micro managed

Op here— It never crossed my mind they are trying to phase me out. That would make sense. My team has been top performer every month for this year. My director always finds something wrong with promotion of them. It’s a very small job grade change.

Sorry.

No.

Unless your director is in his fifth retirement announcement and actually makes good on it, I’d be more concerned that this is focused on managing you out. They want to smooth levels and failure to listen to managers while turning them into admins is a time-tested approach here.

Good luck.