What would it be (profanity, sarcasm, humor, and haiku welcome)
For me it would be: Do you plan to take a pay cut and accept a 0% bonus and stock grant in solidarity with the 10% you terminated.
Frankly, any exec who uses the term ‘expense event’ should be publicly ridiculed.
@lhs+1phKJAJm Chuck went without salary for a whole year during the dot com bubble. It probably didn't impact his net worth that much but was still a noble gesture, and no doubt saved employees. What have these joksters done?
@lhs+1phKJAJm while I agree with most of your post (re: RTO), this "expense event" is unrelated to the integration. There have been many rounds of layoffs related to integration (ongoing since 2020). This is not one of them. They may be trying to spin this as an integration event now, but it is not.
@1xfm+1phKJAJm My friend, you are smart and you will know why your post has so many down arrows and the one you commented on has so many up arrows. It is a MIB Will Smith moment.
@lhs+1phKJAJm Respectfully disagree. Everyone understood there would be layoffs. That is not the issue (for the hundredth time so I wonder …) — the issue is they announced in July and claimed they had a "duty" to announce exactly at that time - they did not at that point IMHO. They claim "expense savings of $500M is material" well, not if it's a wash and the expense of executing those "expense savings" are even greater when you throw in RTO - but details were not known at that time. They pinpointed a $$ amount to save, but then over months had to back into that number. Then for the past 3 months: "we can't say anything due to regulatory and disclosure rules" — OK, pinpoint those for me - give me the cite, the case law (it's not there b/c it was what?? Discretionary). They had no plan when it was announced IMHO, but thought 1) stock might get a small bump (market ignored - and please look up the definition of "material" per the SEC); and 2) folks will leave and they'll save on severance. The latter smacks of employees not being valued and they would gladly see even high performing folks leave thinking they can just easily replace. What their plan did is push out layoffs until just before holidays when it is much more difficult to find a new job. "They did the best they can"??? Really?? You pay someone $24M+ per year and that's the standard?? I would expect near to flawless execution at that price (or the $11M that Worster gets). And really — the pandemic?? What financial firm did not allow staff to work from home, provide budget for at home electronics, etc.?? Trust me, I know of no huge layoffs during pandemic amongst the financial firms and they reaped a LOT of profit from the huge uptick in productivity — that's why Walt got a 68% raise and Worster and "lets F up the the company with an ignorant bond strategy" upwards of a 100% raise. Morgan Stanley acquired e-trade and had the same uptick in expenses that Schwab did — Rick and Peter's comparison against other firms made no sense because those firms did not have an acquisition. They massaged the message to be how much more Schwab's expenses were against all of these other firms and didn't point out the obvious. No, they did NOT IMHO do the best they could in terms of the employees. Fell way short. Now we live in this "fairytale land" at work where no one dare speak openly about the fact they may not be there next week. I'm on a call where I'm assigned work due mid-November - is that a "sign" that I'm here or just no one knows so ...Everyone planning like everyone will be here and the everything's the same through year end. No one strategizing on ensuring that work is put in a place that is not your personal drive so others have access, or sharing knowledge "in the event", etc. I just hear the "you'll be fine" — "it's all good". No. It's not. Monday and Tuesday will be a sh$tshow. I'm fairly certain someone from our team will be let go (small team) and none of us have a clue what everyone's been working on, no effort to remind folks to put work in Teams — it's surreal. So, sorry, Schwab did whatever other company did during the pandemic, but they botched RTO, botched layoffs while earning millions. I fail to understand how they did the "best they could." And I really fail to understand why that post got so many upvotes, though I will say this. I do not believe Schwab is a toxic workplace. I have a good manager and love my coworkers so my day to day is good — there are toxic people sure, but not everything is — hopefully, things will get better for employees going forward in terms of treatment by upper management, but not holding my breath as either they are failing to understand or refuse to understand the true impact on employees and morale over these last 3-4 months.
Most of you would say, "Thank you sir, may I have another"
First and foremost among our Guiding Principles is our belief that trust is everything—earned over time and lost in an instant.
You are correct.
And you lost it.
RTO is boring dude. Just let folks continue WFH.
Schwab's optimal course of action would have entailed acquiring Ameritrade and maintaining its operational autonomy for a substantial period, ideally three to five years, without imposing any restrictions or interference. Ameritrade, boasting a substantial record of profitability in its independent operations, posed no financial peril in this venture. Such a strategic approach would have afforded Schwab the invaluable opportunity to closely study and glean insights from a highly efficient enterprise.
The die is cast, and at this point, the aftermath of this inelegant collision is continuing to unfold. I would be genuinely surprised if Schwab retains its status as a significant player in the financial landscape five years from now.
Man, I am glad I left Schwab in 2021. The RPS division was a drag and always a toxic place to work. I blame management, and will never be back.
@lhs+1phKJAJm The best they can? The best they can would be to take a huge cut of their own pay to save as much of the employees as they can. Quit acting like they are making some huge sacrifice for us. You think if Walt or a member of the EC was given an option to take a 50k pay cut to save your job they would do it? Don't be so daft.
It's been constant miscommunication or lack of transparency from the get go.
RTO is the way of the future, the pandemic just sped things up!
LOL I never said that, it was never here to stay!
(These mo--ns have no idea we need to RTO due to corporate real estate but I'll just lie about everything)
Layoffs are coming to remove redundant roles! It'll be a reverse pyramid layoff structure.
(These mo--ns have no idea none of us at the EC will lose our job).
(Oh ya, let's hire BCQ to just remove people for cost savings. Who cares if we need to keep important people, we need to save money....but don't cut money from us at EC!"
Ya, they're doing "the best" they can...LMAO.
the only thing i have to say is....please lay me off! give me my severance and send me on my way!
@hxl+1phKJAJm Easy question. Some psychopathic frat boy from BCG said that it is the best way to save on severance.
Walt you are no Chuck. Chuck would have never handled this layoff the way you did. Chuck also took a paycut so employees would get a bigger bonus. Chuck actually seemed to care about the people versus you treating them like a number.
The culture needs a serious overhaul. I know you think it is great but that is because of the BS your directs are feeding you. The leadership of certain organizations is atrocious. Employee feedback is not welcome by most organizations and employees who do speak out are quickly weeded out for simply thinking differently from leadership. If you are not a yes man/woman then you will never advance in most groups.
2 questions regarding layoffs:
Why drag this on so long while providing zero additional transparency since the original announcement?
Are you accepting volunteers?
Id like to ask them 1 question. Go back in time a year ago - knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
The answer would be very telling on my decision to stay at this company. They preach transparency, so be transparent about your mistakes and learn from them. If instead their response is something like “We did the best we could, couldn’t do it any other way, etc”, that tells me everything I need to know.
The Schwab way is not always the best way, and we as a firm need to be more innovative and develop a truly empowered culture.
Walt you su-k at managing interest rate risk. Time to stop blaming the Fed and take a look in the mirror. Also no one wants Rick as your replacement
I posted @lhs+1phKJAJm
Just to add. I am frustrated about RTO too, as well as what feels like torture regarding my own livelihood. My whole point with the post is to throw another spin or view point on this. When you get down to it, Walt and the EC are not the pure evil Empire that so many here has vented about; when you honestly evaluate everything in context and its entirely.
You guys said it would be inverted pyramid. The ratio should therefore be:
5% lvl 56&below
10% Sr.Managers/Managers/lvl 57
18% Directors IC
20% Directors PL
30% VPs
50% EC
@lhs+1phKJAJm okay EC member, you are great and there nothing that you will change based on what occurred in the past 3 months.
If you don't acknowledge the problem you will never be able to correct it. You still don't get the frustration of the people after reading all these helpless posts then nothing will help.
The people who are frustrated and you may call "ranting" here are not doing it for fun. There are so many failures in communication that can be improved. Start will the "seeing thru client's eyes" you will get it.
I have a different take on the whole situation. Walt and the EC are doing the best they can, during difficult times. When you get to the bottom of this, Schwab acquired TDA. Historically, when that happens, there will ALWAYS be layoffs. This is regardless of market conditions, bets made on the bond market, and so forth. Once integration is complete, did anyone realistic believe Schwab would retain the same number of folks at the start of the merger? There will always be cuts for redundancy, closing of locations, down scaling locations, consolidation. That is just a fact of life. We should not be surprised. Regarding communications on the layoffs, I for one just look at it as chance for more paychecks before it hits. They have a good severance package, that covers both staff with lots of tenure, AND folks without tenure - the latter is quite generous IMHO. They are also looking to pay annual bonus to those impacted. This ain't that bad. Finally RTO. Yeah, we've been used to full-time telecommute for three years now, and it's not nice to have to RTO, no doubt. But look at the flip side. We were allowed to RTO for three years. We were provided employment all these years, when the pandemic hit, during a time when we didn't understand the disease, no vaccine, no treatment, and they on a dime, we were all converted to full-time telecommute. I am grateful for that. When pandemic was no longer a pandemic, we were given the option to continue to telecommute full-time. Sure, we expected this to be forever, but nothing is forever. I am grateful for the three years, having employment during the pandemic. I know most employees are raging, ranting, and so forth, so this view is not popular. But stop and take review of what has occurred. Overall we were, and are treated pretty well, if you are honest.
So, are you guys replacing me with a Roomba or outsourcing to the cloud?
Get out now!