What I don't understand is we have some great talent and great leaders. Edward Jones is letting go of people they have never come into contact with or know what they are responsible for. Great performers. Though, we have tons of folks that don't follow policies, don't put in 40 hours a week, low performers, etc. Why wouldn't the firm let go of the bottom so this place can thrive? They are so focused on getting rid of those in St Louis and monitoring every move we make, why don't they do that for the remote folks. They can tell how much they work. We are spending money for someone to run reports on what time the St Louis folks come into the office, where we are logging into and how long we work. Hope they are doing it for all. Again, find the people who aren't working and trim the fat there. I am afraid Edward Jones is going to be left with mid level and low performers.
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@k9 , this is spot on! There is no leadership accountability for execution. Talk is cheap, yet it seems to pay more than action at Jones.
@jw I have seen one particular team reinvent themselves so many times! Still newish to the firm, didn't realize multiple teams used that as a way to buy time but it makes a lot more sense now.
Would really love it if people were held accountable to delivering the vision they are selling. Seems like a lot of recognition occurs at the selling stage and execution is an afterthought.
@ep agree completely. Hopefully, they can’t hide from actual performance. No more asking for grace for not delivering for 24 months and then trying to reinvent themselves to reset the clock. We shall see how the new world will shape up. One can only hope that performance matters.
They are letting go of some bad talent and leaving plenty behind too. If they were serious they would have cut half of the GP's, but Jones is about who you kiss up to, not what you know.
Define “good talent.”
My GP accomplished nothing. He didn’t even care to stop by and say hello to his staff. He traveled a lot and had his hand in the newest and shiniest things for his brand.
Meanwhile our roles were undefined, we didn’t have a departmental strategy and worse, no expectations. He would go to ELT and discuss the one segment of the work that’s doing well.
I can go on and on, but it wasn’t a surprise to see his name on the list.
In many cases the GPs get in the way of progress. And in many areas the GPs run the business like they ran their branches. What we have are issues with “the truth” and the people that know the work deferring to the highest grade in the room to avoid taking responsibility. And it’s to the firm’s detriment.
It hurts to see your friends and coworkers get let go, but what I’m getting from this is if you’re left at the new and improved EJ, there will no longer be places to hide. Your decades of “knowing the history” is no longer needed because we’re looking to the future. Your friendships and alignment with the MPs and GPs no longer matter but what you ACCOMPLISH does. And the GPs should see this as a writing on the wall that you’re no longer Teflon. Your a-s can go too.
Best of luck
It’s about meeting the numbers that they set.
Noisy org change announcement with a long lead time definitely points to trying to induce employee attrition. The sad thing is, the employees that have the most options to leave are the high performers.
I also agree with the general assessment that long tenure employees are being targeted.
Good luck everyone!
@OP I have a suspicion they are trying to get people to voluntarily leave and then sell back their LP (either because they are upset with the company OR are licensed and want to continue to work in the industry). If, at the end of this there are less LP units, it would be “easier” to “reimagine” with a different company or a new structure. I think they WANT the tenured people to leave so they don’t have as much trouble/baggage doing what they already have planned. I realize companies have layoffs all the time. Since we never have, all of the business decisions don’t “seem” to make any sense. They have had a plan all along and transparency has never been part of it. Somewhere in the future, I imagine classes will study the psychology of how one business managed to gaslight/manipulate thousands of people into believing they worked for an elite organization and simply could not do better, be paid more, be more appreciated or cared for anywhere else. No, this place isn’t like “everyone else”. They are worse.