Thread regarding Fannie Mae layoffs

If you really want to save stop hiring so many useless PO per team

I think the “secret surprise” nature of these layoffs is what’s wrong with them. In layoffs in the past, senior leadership has talked about shifts in priorities leading to reshuffling. In many circumstances people were told in advance of their layoff date. People were notified in person so they could ask questions. There wasn’t this constant speculation of who was next and we were told when the layoffs were done. This is not to say my bosses weren’t clearly pulling apart and reassigning my role before the layoff which allowed me to prepare myself for what was coming. I think being told in my review earlier in the year that I should be put up for a promotion was particularly unnecessary given the intention to remove me, but it’s in line with how the rest of this has been handled without sincerity or professionalism.

@b1 That is the general thing there...don't point out anything wrong even if you have solutions. You end up stepping on someone's foot or making the incompetent management look bad. This is why unless they start getting rid of a lot of management (upper, middle, and lower) things won't get better. They think everything they do there is incredible.

I was recently laid off after decades with the company. I hold a PhD from an Ivy League university. I was let go after pointing out inefficiencies in my organization and raising some of them publicly at our all-hands meetings. Instead of having a conversation, management took the easy way out and cut me loose.

My personal experience is similar to number 1. My VP had no real director-level experience before he was hired at Fannie Mae. Over the last couple of years, he has pushed out several senior managers, and most recently, me. He has no business managing 10+ people, half of whom are contractors. He is a bully who seems to resent competent, accomplished people, and he can’t get along with anyone. What surprises me is that Fannie Mae lets him get away with it, and even seems to encourage the bullying and harassment.

As someone who was recently laid off, I can unequivocally say it came down to #1. I later came to know the exact politics that got played in the decision room contributing to my ousting - by someone who was in that meeting.

My role was latter handed over to someone else. If the point of the layoff was to eliminate redundant roles - what sense does it make to put in the VPs crony in that exact same role doing the exact same thing I was.

It also appears quite a few people left for other jobs or quit due to being sick of going into the office or being tired of poor management. I know of a few people that left and heard of others that were actively looking for different jobs. I had started to notice even when they weren't doing layoffs people just disappearing and never seeing them again.

Number 1 is definitely a big issue. I would say your #2 is more in line of them getting rid of more expensive people with lots of vacation time and replacing them with younger people making less with less overall benefits.
Not saying #2 is fair, but they still have lots of overpaid people that work at Fannie that would struggle to get or be qualified for a job half their salary. It has become a place where many won't leave and will throw others under the bus because deep down they know they can't get a job paying them this much and many don't have any real skills.

@af I’ve seen this same narrative pop up around this forum, and it’s far from accurate. I’ve been at Fannie for almost seven years: on design calls, support calls, on the floors, in the café. Not once have I seen people switch languages just to shut someone out.

Café chatter aside, that one’s on you. If it happens on a support call, you can politely ask the team to stick to English. No “serious investigation” required.

Frankly, this kind of rhetoric looks designed to pull attention away from the incompetent, crooked leadership and point it at the wrong people instead. Or maybe it’s just laying the groundwork for another round of unjustified purges.

P.S. If you are too nosy, maybe you need to learn a couple new languages :D

These crooked incompetent directors and managers are taking advantage of the situation hiring a bunch of their H1B contractor people while US citizens are getting laid off. Completely ban the hiring decisions solely from these crooked managers and directors. It is wild they talk their own language during production support call and meetings while a few other wondering what the f*ck they are talking about. Serious investigation and clean up needed at the mid-management level. Thumbs up if you agree.

If you really want to save stop paying:

1. $700k and more to incompetent VPs
2. $1m and more to incompetent SVPs