Let’s assume for a second the posts for the past ~90 days here and on other forums are all accurate. Without concrete confirmation on any of these (outside of the ADL job family elimination) people are reporting redeployments in the Business Risk Office, in Navigator, Auto, Recruiting, Retail Bank, Card Customer channels, and myriad offshore shifts in numerous areas; Is this trickle effect an attempt to avoid triggering some sort of WARN act notice more broadly? What are the combined layoffs amounting to for the enterprise year to date?
With stock price health being a known motivator for C-suite and upper echelon leadership decisions, influencing macro policies, would not a big-bang announcement of a reduction in force of X% of the company not result in the typical share price bump “reward” likely being sought after, let alone the cost savings and “prudent move” analysis summaries offered by The Street? Why the incremental slow-bleed approach without press releases to ensure a nervous investor base that C1 was doing the “prudent” move (as a trend FOLLOWER) and trimming pandemic-era hires, or right sizing for the economic uncertainty we are in the middle of?
If reducing costs via attrition is really a driving force here, why have we not seen a similar page in the playbooks of others (Amazon, Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) implemented where arbitrary reduction numbers are publicly announced first, with the actual axe falling shortly after a public announcement (while associates who are “on the fence” in terms of their self-perception of job security end up self-selecting out of the rat race, thus helping to contribute to the reduction numbers)??? With the annual performance cycle complete and bonuses deposited in the last pay cycle, I’m surprised more overt cost cutting measures haven’t been publicly announced for all the wrong reasons.
Seems to me, lacking a direct question during the next shareholder or quarterly earnings call, or Rich Fairbanks internal roadshow, C1 will continue to quietly and incrementally reduce or offshore headcount without leveraging the big-bang benefit/admiration they could achieve by being more forthcoming on what RIF (reduction in force) strategies are actually being implemented.
Good people (associates) and their customers in card and bank are all in a state of omnipresent turmoil and uncertainty as a result of the lack of visibility to the actions being taken by the enterprise. With unemployment scraping upon record lows, rumors of a significant change to what C1 considers a “hybrid” work environment, and investor appeasement being a known prime driver of strategic decisions (that have historically negative consequences for those doing the work), what is the motivation of ANY employee to stay wed to C1? Maybe this has been the master plan all along… but I doubt it.
Does C1 really think everyone is living in an awareness vacuum? Deposits are down, it’s more expensive than ever to borrow money for a car, house, get a business loan, utilize merchant services. Fraud and the tech to counter it are at a premium. CD and savings interest rates are sky high just to entice monetary influx. Defaults on loans and card debt are forecasted to be in line with a-typical recession-level trends as soon as the current quarter, yet no one wants to say we are in a recession. Default reserves are at record highs to offset the forecasted losses and are being lauded as “appropriately conservative” by analysts and pundits.
I am a Dir+ level associate at C1 who was approached last week to validate my lowest performers (the powers that be KNOW what the rating were for my team and don’t need me to validate…just look in Workday - why the games??). Then I was asked identify the associates within my team who were “necessary and vital” for continuity of our functions and deliverables by my VP. Last straw for me was being asked to complete a resource risk profile under the auspices of a “workforce management” activity where aggregate head count was arbitrarily pitted against adjacent partner and complimentary teams on a soulless spreadsheet, lacking the ability to convey inherent flaws in the way the comparisons were structured. Clearly there are “real” RIFs being planned and I just wish C1 would call a spade a ♠️. Let people know without a veil in place what’s being planned, where it will impact. Allow associates the grace of being afforded a competitive advantage by jumping early if they choose with the enterprise’s intentions made transparent, while the labor market is still favorable. Allow the C-suite and investors their coveted gains in share price by going public with the macro intentions; You may be able to sleep better at night knowing you “actually” lived up to the stated company values.