Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Frederick MD office closure notification - mistakenly sent to employees

Everyone in the office just got this email that explicitly states is for managers only. Is there anything this company doesn't sc--w up?

Important update about Frederick – Stagecoach Drive building
Information for Wells Fargo managers of employees assigned to Frederick – Stagecoach Drive building and leadership within lines of business/enterprise functions impacted

As part of our multiyear effort to build a stronger, more efficient Wells Fargo, we continually assess our real estate portfolio to ensure we are best meeting the needs of employees and customers, responding to consumer and economic trends, and managing our costs responsibly.

In some cases we have an opportunity to exit, rather than renew, expiring leases in specific buildings. With that being said, we have decided not to renew our lease of the Wells Fargo – Stagecoach Drive building located in Frederick, Maryland.

Key information regarding this update

· You are receiving this message because you are the manager of an employee whose office location is in Frederick — and in some cases you are also impacted. Also, we’re informing various levels of leadership within the lines of business and enterprise functions impacted.

· No action is required of employees at this time. Employees will continue working from home or transition to work from home until a long-term go forward work approach is identified by their line of business or enterprise function. (NOTE: At this time, there's a small subset of employees that will continue to remain in the office for various business reasons.)

· Normally, you would have had more advance notice before impacted employees were informed; however, due to the heightened sensitivity of this change, we are notifying all internal and external stakeholders throughout today.

· Impacted employees will be notified via email of this update at 11 a.m., ET today (employee message attached) and will be encouraged to direct any questions to their managers. Please consider reaching out to any of your employees currently on a leave of absence or on personal time off to notify them of this update.

· Below are talking points to help you with any conversations you have with your employees or others about this update. Review and reference the attached FAQs if needed as well.

· We will continue to provide timely updates about the plans for exiting our Frederick building to all key stakeholders.

Talking points

· Wells Fargo is during a multiyear effort to build a stronger, more efficient company for our customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. This includes assessing our real estate portfolio to ensure we are best meeting the needs of employees and customers, responding to consumer and economic trends, and managing our costs responsibly.

· In some cases, we have an opportunity to exit, rather than renew, expiring leases in specific buildings. With that being said, we have decided not to renew our lease of the Wells Fargo – Stagecoach Drive building located in Frederick, Maryland.

· There is no action required of you. Corporate Properties will work with a third-party moving company to pack any items that are currently in the building. Detailed information about the packing and move process will be emailed to you in the future.

· The timing of lease expirations and the low occupancy of the building before and during COVID-19 were key drivers in identifying this specific opportunity. And, now more than ever, there’s a greater sense of urgency to operate Wells Fargo as efficiently and effectively as we can.

· No jobs are impacted at this time by this building exit; however, the company is still thinking through its long-term, post return to office workforce and location strategy. In the meantime, employees will either continue working from home, transition from working in the office to working from home or — for a small number of employees, will continue working in the office.

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| 7207 views | | 31 replies (last April 20, 2025) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1dx5VE3g

31 replies (most recent on top)

Frederick Software Engineer. Still hanging on.

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Post ID: @5jy2+1dx5VE3g

Drove by Frederick location. Signage for Wells is gone and now it’s a Progressive Labs location with a big pharma manufacturing center attached to the third hub. Crazy!
Anyone from Frederick accounting or collections or credit risk out there?

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Post ID: @7odxu+1dx5VE3g

who got the axe in Frederick

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Post ID: @6rxeb+1dx5VE3g

Did it close?

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Post ID: @6ptwq+1dx5VE3g

What is the latest status on Frederick Maryland hub location? Is it closed? The sign was still up last time I drove by.

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Post ID: @6ogkl+1dx5VE3g

This snafu is what happens when Corp Comms lays off most of internal communications. BR told us we had “too many internal communicators” and she gutted the entire function. Her brilliant “self serve” model is going well.

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Post ID: @2zna+1dx5VE3g

@1wln+1dx5VE3g
Yes, that was me you were referring to. Those jobs may stay. If the employees aren't in a hub location, there's a %99 chance they will not be staying. The jobs would then just be moved to a hub location or be added to a contractor pool.

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Post ID: @1iiv+1dx5VE3g

RE:At no time did I say those jobs would continue to exist in Frederick. It's not a hub, and even if you're working remotely you are still required to live within a certain radius of a hub. If not - read the writing on the wall.

I was responding to the person who is under the belief that everyone is keeping their jobs remotely.

What you are saying makes more sense and is in-line with what we've heard from the current regime. Getting rid of everyone seems much more likely than keeping most.

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Post ID: @1wln+1dx5VE3g

@1zpv+1dx5VE3g
At no time did I say those jobs would continue to exist in Frederick. It's not a hub, and even if you're working remotely you are still required to live within a certain radius of a hub. If not - read the writing on the wall.

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Post ID: @1lji+1dx5VE3g

Hopefully that is the case, because I know a lot of people still in that building. While the job market in general is looking good, Frederick is no-mans land for similar jobs - have to travel to Northern Virginia/DC to find similar positions.

However that seems much unlike the Wells Fargo we all know. Why wouldn't they use this as a means to move on and transition these jobs to hubs? That's basically what they've been saying they were going to do for quite some time. Even without paying for the Frederick MD real estate, the Frederick MD salaries are large. Many of the employees there are very tenured, so beyond the salaries being larger due to area, there are a lot of people hovering at or above their midpoint.

Again, I hope the below poster knows something that others don't. Hopefully they are being a more forward thinking organization and are ready to move towards a more remote environment. It just doesn't align with anything we've seen from the current regime.

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Post ID: @1zpv+1dx5VE3g

@1yop+1dx5VE3g
Many of the jobs you just listed are going to continue to work from home -servicing, lending teams, customer service. They have a nice little arrangement with contractors (US Based for now) that keeps the churn high and costs low for the remote type jobs. It's basically a new branch employee type of job, but for the digital age. It's easier and cheaper to wipe out 50 contractors and have their contracting company reclaim their hardware on their own time.

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Post ID: @1gcj+1dx5VE3g

I'm not saying that all ORC's or BSC's will be allowed to continue working remotely either. They just are more likely to stick around vs. everyday operations jobs like Customer Service, the title and foreclosure teams, etc. that still have a footprint in the building. Those lines of business also have footprints elsewhere in actual hub locations. They aren't going to pay people from Frederick more money to work from home, while their counterparts have to come into the office for less money. You don't think their counterparts that are required to come into the office would bi--h and moan about that? It's easier to just cut ties and move the operations to hub locations.

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Post ID: @1yop+1dx5VE3g

@1rnb+1dx5VE3g
Buddy, I got news for you about those first two positions you list.

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Post ID: @1pln+1dx5VE3g

If you're not in a support role that regularly works remotely, ie: Business Support Consultant, Operational Risk Consultant, etc. - make no mistake about it, business line leaders are currently figuring out how they are going to transition your jobs elsewhere. Not a chance in the world they will maintain remote status for operational roles where your counterparts are in the office in other locations. Creates too much turmoil. Besides the fact that Frederick is a Tier 1 salary zone, they are always looking to move to Tier 2 or Tier 3 areas.

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Post ID: @1rnb+1dx5VE3g

@rvc+1dx5VE3g
They did for us too when our building closed. They told us we would have weekly meetings, then canceled every single one until it was after the move date.

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Post ID: @nmv+1dx5VE3g

The mistake was that the email meant for managers only was sent to all employees. In the employee email, there was a announcement that Corp Properties have a meeting every Thursday at 1 to answer questions about pack up. No one from Corp Properties showed up

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Post ID: @rvc+1dx5VE3g

@jba+1dx5VE3g, I love how one can post a verifiable, demonstrable fact and certain randos on here will downvote it.

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Post ID: @rel+1dx5VE3g

Let me guess, they're expanding their footprint in India at the same time they're doing this. Right?

My guess is that work-from-home is just a temporary stop on the way to Wells eliminating employees from this location altogether. This stuff is almost always about moving jobs into low cost areas.

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Post ID: @lwy+1dx5VE3g

I mean for anyone questioning if the 7 am email was a mistake this is from the FAQ attachment:

For verbal use by managers and other key stakeholders only if asked; do not distribute.

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Post ID: @jba+1dx5VE3g

No mistakes here. Managers notified earlier and employees at 11am est. the manager notification should have come out a few more days ahead though.

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Post ID: @cge+1dx5VE3g

@zjk - it's implied within the communication there there would be separate notifications of managers and employees.

There was indeed another communication sent at 11AM. Which was exactly the same as the first one, which was apparently mistakenly sent...

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Post ID: @wzr+1dx5VE3g

Who told OP that the email was mistakenly sent?

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Post ID: @zjk+1dx5VE3g

I remember being told about 15 years ago that WEC was being closed.

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Post ID: @urv+1dx5VE3g

All part of the plan. RTO, close buildings, lay people off "because the building closed/sold/lease expired/whatever". Rinse and repeat. The good news is that it can't last forever. CPG brags about how much they save from closing buildings, but at some point they'll slow down or it'll just make CPG themselves disposable.

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Post ID: @xdh+1dx5VE3g

When I was hired back before Y2K they were talking about how Cassie Hill was being shut down any day.

Over a decade later they finally had an exit plan and shut it down.

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Post ID: @lcp+1dx5VE3g

Come on. This is just THEM being more transparent. NOT

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Post ID: @pyu+1dx5VE3g

Thank you for sharing, OP. Your point is understood: WFC can not execute even the most simple task correctly.

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Post ID: @ula+1dx5VE3g

"Normally, you would have had more advance notice before impacted employees were informed; however, due to the heightened sensitivity of this change, we are notifying all internal and external stakeholders throughout today."

Why wasn't advance notice given? And why is there heightened sensitivity? Were they iffy on the closure up until the lease renewal deadline or something?

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Post ID: @wae+1dx5VE3g

No news here.

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Post ID: @rza+1dx5VE3g

@bds+1dx5VE3g
Longer, I would say. I remember an executive exclaiming ‘Frederick is still open??’ back in 2015.

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Post ID: @xlc+1dx5VE3g

This has been a known 'will close' site for at least 3 years.

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Post ID: @bds+1dx5VE3g

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