This is BS - they are jacking up the lives of close to 1500 people and now backing down on the bigger picture! So many lies...they also said there would be personal exceptions reviewed and then tried to play it off as it was never said — All of the these phases now unlikely to happen — they put people through all of this anxiety for two years! Terrible leadership...and it's obvious the senior managers did not take the empathy training!
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With the latest news release today that the USA will not be able to stop the corona virus from spreading across the USA Wells Fargo should have a deadly virus disaster plan to spread it's employees apart from each other, ensure they have a laptop to work remotely if the office, city in which the team is located is placed under corona virus quarantine by the USA government. This could happen. Italy is currently closing many of it's towns, telling people to stay home, quarantining the towns. This is going to be bad. Wells Fargo is currently doing the opposite of what the company will need to do to survive a USA/India world wide corona virus pandemic. Rethink the relocation strategy.
Rethink not letting the employees telecommute. This is Bank of America's disaster recovery plan, in part, have each employee take their laptop home each night in order to work remotely in case of a disaster where employees can no longer get to, or work in, their office location. That was one of the steps in Bank of America's disaster recovery plan last that I worked for that bank.
@4mzu+13CEPHPp - If you know the 5-6 sites, then please share them here. Don't just dangle half the information.
@3hef+13CEPHPp It was told to us in an all hands by my senior leaders. They announced their 5-6 sites plus India. This is the next phase. No timeline was given, my guess would be this time next year.
Agile teams is just an excuse. What are they going to do with people in the future who change teams? Or teams end or merge? Pay everyone to relocate again? Nah, this is bogus.
3ycw+13CEPHPp how exactly do you know this? Are you just assuming or do you have some factual information?
They are moving forward with phase 2. If you remember in December Saul said his biggest regret in 2019 was announcing the relocation strategy without having enough data. He isn’t going to make that mistake twice, so he isn’t announcing anything. Next phase is your technology group will pick 5-6 locations plus India. If you aren’t in this 5-6 locations your job will be relocated. Find out where your group plans to realign. That is phase 2.
The 270k down to under 200 that “everybody knows” is at least a 35% cut. Nothing near the “elsewhere intend to cut thousands of jobs?” or “ WF committed to reducing 5-10% of it's total workforce” and “Analysts are reporting it be 26k employees”. It’s probably best to stop throwing out guesses as facts and wait for more info. Your CEO’s style is to cut 5-6 % at a time, often in discreet standalone business units or smaller geographical regions. He does seem to have an recognition on some level that he shouldn’t cut something which he doesn’t understand too deeply at any one time so he round Robbins the targets and returns a few quarters later to take another whack. You’ll get a sense of the normal tempo and pattern soon enough.
@bsv+13CEPHPp was this really said?
“If I tell you we are not moving forward with phase 2 that would be a lie. If I tell you we are moving forward with phase 2 that would be a lie. “
With such a talented manipulator of crowds and dream twister what possible need had Wells for Charlie?
Saul did not say that he never said it. He said they decided not to take those factors into account. So in the end, they changed their minds, as management often does. I would guess that most telecommuters had some reason or another, whether child care or elderly issues or something. So if they all gave reasons, then they wouldn’t be able to consolidate everyone into these Agile teams.
But I wonder how much passive resistance will occur on the teams, where someone who used to work just fine from home is now forced into the office. I think this will hurt morale and cause some to be less engaged or caring as they feel like they don’t matter. They save feeling more engaged is one of their goals, but it seems like this situation is just the opposite.
This is the same Saul who said numerous times if you have child care needs, elderly parents, special needs children, you could file for an exception. Only to say he never said that. The same guy who not that long said he never said you had to go in office while HR and CPG was telling us to get our asses in an office 15 days a month or 3 days a week. He lies every time he opens his mouth. And then laughs and smiles to fake staged questions to avoid the hard concerns that cause morale decay and stress in people's LIVES. He said Danes don't like confrontation. Obviously, lying is perfectly okay
@2iyd - Nice comment. A bit of a tangent off your last paragraph, but (EIT) in my experience there is a total lack of measurable standards. They yearly goals ambiguous and frankly a joke. I have heard that it was suggested (mandated?) to management that the percentage of identified non-performing employees per group needs to be upped. I'm not sure how that will pan out, but unless they revamp the individual goals to include some more concrete items, it will be hard to take any performance rating seriously.
Re: the reader reply that perhaps Charlie put the brakes on Phase 2 ... that sounds like pure speculation based on what they would personally do. Anything's possible, but I doubt that. To speculate more, if top-level execs really intended to defer Phase 2, they would benefit from improved employee productivity if they came out and said so. It seems to me that they are trying to get the best of both worlds ... suggesting that maybe the axe might not fall, so maybe you should relax and concentrate on your job again.
But they have to wait till April to measure the effect of "Wave 1." (That's how long people have to decide.) It seems logical that then they will decide on the scope and timing of Phase 2.
It seems to me that if people are forced to accept a relocation to a city that they probably don't want to live in, or a relocation on their own terms to a city that they maybe have been toying with the idea of moving to for personal reasons, they would be more likely to either quit and stay where they have chosen to build a life, or move to their choice of city for a different job rather than relocate for a struggling and inflexible Wells Fargo.
If not as many people relo as they hoped, maybe Phase 2 will be tuned to treat people a little less like meat puppets, and offer affected employees more flexible telecommuting from states where there is an intentional WF presence.
If they were really interested in modern tech skills, they would challenge employees to demonstrate or gain those skills, and would retain those who did it, regardless of the arbitrary characteristic of where their chair is: reward for actual performance. That would require them to trust managers to effectively and consistently execute based on measurable performance standards, to avoid lawsuits. Maybe they should focus on their management-flattening for Phase 2, and then look ahead towards making their desired headcount in a Phase 3.
Theory - CEO put the brakes on this.
Why pay people to relocate when you intend to cut thousands of jobs? Why run up office space costs when you intend to need many fewer seats anyway? What was the objective of this anyway?
Saul has a monthly call with Technology. On Friday, he said there are no plans yet for Phase 2, although that could change as the needs arise. He said we will get warning of phase 2 if they decide to do it. For now, they are watching the results and impact of phase 1, and the Agile team transformation. That is the context, it was Friday’s call.
It's more like a reduction of 50K+ at this point, regardless of the number of phases.
WF leadership has a history of being awful at predicting volume of natural attrition. They always overestimate.
If they don't reach desired attrition, more phases will be added. Basic math.
I'm sorry. I feel like I am missing a piece of the puzzle. WF committed to reducing 5-10% of it's total workforce. Analysts are reporting it be 26k employees. Who at WF said that there would be no phase 2? Context pretty please? Thank you
The bank isn’t just “too big to fail.” It’s too big to fix.
270k employees.. It’s widely known that number is going to be under 200k, given larger banks/ broker dealers have that number. The fact the cap limit wasn’t lifted, nor is there talk it will be. This beyond fake accounts, or the “ eight is great” sticky banking montra. Many people who promoted that culture have been promoted to the highest of highs only to reverse that thought process. Wonder when the OCC and OFAC will audit FCRM with international wires, especially with sanctioned countries and looking the other way or your bosses would fire you for wrong colored shoestrings . CLT is hiring so many Senior Compliance Consultants and Operational Risk Consultants that have no clue of risk/ compliance / critical thinking of how to right this ship from finally hitting the iceberg....
Never say never. Phase 2 may prepare so if your think you may be targeted definitely prepare yourself!
And by the way, i was planning on going on vacation to Spain too! but now i have to save my money for my emergency spending account in case I'm on the list. (for those of you at the Ask me Anything today! 😜😏)
“If I tell you we are not moving forward with phase 2 that would be a lie. If I tell you we are moving forward with phase 2 that would be a lie. “
Where did anyone hear that Phase 2 maybe off the table?
There is no room for empathy at Wells. It’s all about profits and always will be
I may be dreaming here - but there may not be a phase 2. It will depend on the outcome of Phase 1. As a survivor of Phase 1 - I do feel some guilt - but also some temporarily relief.
To be honest, I am sure there will be resistance. It would not be surprising if some of the affected will lawyer up as well. May be they would band together and file a class action lawsuit. Obviously we won't find these type of information form normal/official channels.
He yo-yos and changes his statements every time. Tired of his ‘travel brags’ while cleaning house!
Just remember kiddies, this jack off will be drinking a $100 bottle of wine with his fancy dinner tonight when you are home with your family sick to your stomach about having to relocate to a new town to maybe keep the job you've poured your heart blood and tears into which has most likely taken years off your life. They don't care about us, we are a number, period.
This guy is a complete joke, and not even a funny one. Wasting time on id–tic questions when you KNOW many were submitted by people wanting answers about the relocation nightmare. He needs to be ousted immediately.