Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

I would like some advice or tips ect please. I work for WFA and like others went out on medical leave for mental health and it was approved thankfully and I got an email from my boss right after my FMLA had ended and I had used it all up saying that if I could not return to work asap that he could not hold my position open for me. Ok so once I was ready to go back of course my job was not there but I was put on a unpaid job search for a group in WFA to reassign me a new vacant position with preferential hiring meaning that I didn’t have to interview with hiring managers or anything they just basically put you into a comparable job to your old one. Well 2 months after the whole supposed job search I got every excuse from the group that was finding me a position like after review this role was not comparable to your old role or you are somewhat qualified but not fully and just shifting the reasons for every role looked out and would take weeks to look at these roles then come back with those answers of why. Ok now they are trying to generate me a severance package and I am just wondering here if they have violated some ada law or something because I do not feel like this job search was truly done to try to put me back into a role and I did have a major toxic environment with my boss before I left and he was definitely making it apparent that he was trying to fire me even after I was upfront with him on what I was dealing with mentally and he seemed to make things even worse for me so then I took leave and now I am here with no job just on unpaid job search and I’m extremely upset and feel like because I took leave and because of my situation with my previous boss that all of this is going down like this. Any help advice tips ect are welcome. Thanks

@3efb+13QzVzNO Please quarantine yourself indefinitely. You’re infected with the imbecile virus.

@3pam+13QzVzNO. Go away troll. Useful information was shared. Made me think about being out after surgery during a possible layoff and new location strategy being implemented.

What’s with the TLDR posts? This is for WF bankers. Not very intelligent people. Need short and irrelevant posts peppered with falsehoods and chest thumping.

Think tweets from maga.

@2ayi+13QzVzNO

Don’t be daft. Your statement, “then you have really been blessed with an extremely unchallenged financial life,” wasn’t warranted. You provided zero insight from your experience to the OP. Since you’ve been there, “I’ve been there and it was not in my top five financial hardships and I suspect would not be for most breadwinners supporting a family and beyond,” you still lack understanding that whether you are in a minimum wage position or contributor role, even mid to upper management, the financial impact of possibly going without a pay check and benefits for 2 weeks, more or less a minimum of 12 weeks/3months, could crush an individual and their family, causing a domino effect of great financial repercussions in the present and future if they are not financially prepared and know their entire financial picture. Maybe YOU have truly been blessed and need to rephrase your post for clarification since this wasn’t one of your Top 5 Financial Hardships, and provide insight into what you did to prepare and what your actual experience and outcomes were.

Let me break this down for you to better understand what the OP or any Team Member might be facing. The health insurance offered at the time of my disability had a $4000.00 yearly deductible for a single person, for a family the deductible was $8000.00. So if you are seeking medical treatment, be prepared to shell out the deductible, as well as copayments and coinsurance. Your mailbox will be stuffed full of medical bills, EOB’s and figuring out how to finance treatments, surgeries, rehabilitation, medication denials and fighting for coverage. You can quickly go into medical debt.

Imagine for a moment, 9 years of a deductible at $8000.00. That number is $72,000.00. This does not include your medication that requires specialty pharmacy approval and sky-high payments. Now get out your calculator. Do you have an HSA? Do you have personal savings to make that yearly deductible without feeling the impact? Most likely the yearly deductible and specialty pharmacy purchases go on a credit card or a medical line of credit is opened and you make monthly payments for 24-36-48-60 months. Can you afford that additional payment along with your mortgage/rent, car payments, utilities, college loans, child care and all the wonderful surprise bills that show up unexpectedly? Maybe a major car repair? A leaking roof from failed gutters?

Let’s throw a wrench in this just to mix it up.
• What if you are NOT approved for STD? Then your Time Away will be PTO if available (Accured vs. Non Accured) and/or Unpaid FMLA. How are you paying your overhead and benefits when there is no paycheck coming in?
• What are your years of service? If approved for STD and an approved Medical Leave of Absence, will you be paid 100%, 65% or 50% of your Base Pay? Could you live on 50% of your Base Pay?
• Does your spouse/partner have a salary/income and able to continue in his/her working years to cover any financial gaps during your disability? Or will this cause strain on the budget and relationship?
• Are you barely sc-aping by and making it work, month to month? How would a missed paycheck impact your financial household? What about 6 weeks of reduced or no pay?
• What can you or your family sacrifice and cut back on to stay afloat?
• If you are Single, do you have the support of your family or friends to help you thru your disability? Will you be able to sustain yourself without financial assistance? Would this impact your overhead and would you need to make small or large changes?

Get a piece of paper and make a decision tree for yourself. You have seen these many times over the years and sometimes its better to see it laid out in front of you to see what your decisions and outcomes might be.

This is a major personal health and financial decision, but if “This will be the biggest financial impact to your life, whether you are out on Short Term Disability for 12-26 weeks or on Long Term Disability, beginning week 27” then you have really been blessed with an extremely unchallenged financial life. I’ve been there and it was not in my top five financial hardships and I suspect would not be for most breadwinners supporting a family and beyond.

Because you are considering taking a Medical Leave of Absence you need to plan and do your homework thoroughly. I’m writing this from experience as a former Team Member who is on Long Term Disability since 2017.

First you need to evaluate your financial life, family responsibilities, medical insurance premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, co-payments, mortgage/rent, car payments, utilities, college loans, every single bill and every single penny you have saved or don’t have saved. This will be the biggest financial impact to your life, whether you are out on Short Term Disability for 12-26 weeks or on Long Term Disability, beginning week 27. The chances of you being approved are slim to none unless you are going on maternity leave, having your appendix or gall bladder removed, Knee or Shoulder Surgery (Short Term Disability) or you were in a head on collision with a tractor trailer and are a paraplegic (Long Term Disability). This will be a new and stressful, full time position while you are on Medical Leave, submitting medical records, gathering and herding doctor reviews and approvals and waiting anxiously for approval every 4-6 weeks in the hopes that you made the cut off times to be paid consistently and biweekly.

Download, print and highlight the sections of the Team Member Handbook related to PTO, Leaves of Absence, FMLA, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability and Extended Leaves. Study them line by line, memorize them and familiarize yourself with the terms, conditions and exclusions. If your disability does not fall under one of the approved medical or leave categories, then you need to come to a complete stop. If you are NOT in a financial position to take a roll of the dice in hopes of being approved for a Medical Leave and Short Term Disability, then you are causing additional stress and anxiety for nothing. Use a different approach by posting out to another LOB or Business Unit, or finding another job or career outside of Wells Fargo.

FMLA only covers your job security for 12 weeks. However, depending on your state, you could be in an “At-Will” Employment state, which means you can be terminated at will with no reason or cause, even while on FMLA. Notice the comments before, “terminated while on Medical Leave for Cancer, called by phone while on Medical Leave,” etc. Since WF is going thru yet another “shake up, re-org, efficiency & effectiveness or Agile and Lean BS program or initiative”, you are not safe from anything whether you are on PTO, FMLA or Short Term Disability. Your manager and the company do not care about you as an individual. The bank isn’t going to shut down if you don’t show up for work. Your manager and your peers will not sacrifice their position to save yours. No one will rally behind you, just remember that. You need to look out for yourself, your family and your future. Again, you need to do your research and come to an informed decision.

Depending on your years of service, you will receive either 100%, 65% (If you purchased the Optional LTD Insurance Policy), 50% or nothing $0.00 during your Short Term Disability. You read that correctly. Crack open the Handbook and start researching your exact situation the make an informed decision. You are NOT guaranteed approved Short Term Disability by Lincoln Financial. This is a third party process outside of Wells Fargo, and you will have to meet additional approvals based on their guidelines and terms. You need to also download, print and read line for line your Summary Plan Descriptions for your Benefits. Medical, Dental, Vision and all other elected benefits. You will still have to pay for your bi-weekly benefits whether they are deducted from your paycheck or you make payments directly to HR.

Physical disability? WF will use the “Reasonable Accommodations” policy and will get you set up in the office or be able to work remotely, and this will come from the third party reviewer, Lincoln Financial. Whether you have a colostomy bag and catheter, they will give you extra bathroom breaks or let you work from home on certain days that you have treatment. Unless you can no longer perform your current job or any job in the market/nation/economy, then you are not considered disabled. If you have a pulse and you can blink, to them you are able to work for them or in the market/economy. Bottom line.

Psychological/Psychiatric/Behavioral Health diagnosis or disability? Well you better be Involuntarily Committed, or check yourself into a Psychiatric Hospital for s–c-dal thoughts from depression and chest pains from anxiety. Hopefully you have already been seeing a Psychologist or Therapist for your depression, anxiety, sleepless nights, etc., who has strong, detailed records of your work-related stress and an actual psychiatric/psychological diagnosis and medication trials. If not, you are taking a 50/50 risk of being denied by the third party. Being stressed out is not an approved reason for disability.

Substance Abuse and Addiction Diagnosis? You better be enrolled in a 3 month or 6 month Intensive In Patient or Out Patient Program. Again, you run the risk of being denied if you don’t have medical proof, sound and solid documentation, as well as a Doctor with approving authority to write you out on Disability.

I was on Short Term Disability off and on between 2009 thru 2016 for medical treatments, I was not terminal. I was finally approved for Long Term Disability in 2017. It took Social Security 3 years to approve my Disability, and I had to pay back every cent of the SS Disability to the Third Party, Lincoln Financial because they paid my WF Disability Benefits during the SS Disability Review Period of 2016-2019. Yup, you read that right. Not a single penny.

So again, if you are NOT in a financial position to take a roll of the dice in hopes of being approved for a Medical Leave and Short Term Disability, then you are causing additional stress and anxiety for nothing. Use a different approach by posting out to another LOB or Business Unit, or finding another job or career outside of Wells Fargo. I can’t reiterate enough, this will be the biggest financial impact to your life.

I have been out a year and a half so far but for medical issues, not anxiety. I know my job is no longer available and I seem to be ok. As far as anxiety, get a different job and your issue should be gone. Perhaps a different company?

Even though @osx+13QzVzNO Is being a complete d–k I can’t disagree with this statement

So I was there for several years back during the height of the scams and fraudulent activities and I remember all of this would be true. My question is how was the anxiety and stress level still so high considering everything that’s transpired since the regulations?

Had a close friend of mine go out for anxiety. She was a branch manager hired in early 2016. I By 2Q 2016 the pressure was so much that she felt she had to do something. She was out for 3 months. Came back, stayed about six more months and posted out to a role in operations. That was about two years ago. She has never been happier. I’m sure it helped her that she sales scandal backed up her claim of crippling anxiety due to a toxic culture.

If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Don’t ask the rest of us to subsidize your anxiety and workload. Just go to another company instead of freeloading off the rest of us who are more focused on turning things around.

If your position is eliminated whether on disability or not you will not be “safe”. I was at another company when undergoing treatment for cancer and took out intermittent FMLA for my appointments - I didn’t have to take PTO for days I took related to my condition. I didn’t get paid for them either. But I felt more protection with the FMLA leave. Bottom line is you need to do what is best for your health - take care of you.

I think we all have physical and mental stress issues due to the environment.

I know someone who was laid off from WF via email while out on disability. She was receiving chemotherapy for bowel cancer.

I should say used to know because she has since passed.

I was out in short term disability for 5 weeks after surgery 2 days before returning I got a phone call telling me my position has been eliminated and I was terminated effective immediately. Was at a different financial company. You are not protected when you are on disability.