Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

what's with people and the anger against people that have worked their way up? Pretty sure that's what people think of as part of the "American dream", if you work hard, you can continue to succeed and do well. Who cares if someone started their career as a teller? If they got additional education and experience that qualified them for higher level roles and worked their way up, why is that even an issue? I think that's great! Now I'm certainly not for promoting people based on "who you know" or unqualified people w/o the needed experience for roles but it doesn't sound like that's the story here. It sounds like a person(s) don't like a mgr in tech that used to be a teller and just look to make a joke of it whenever possible. Move on for goodness sakes and focus on your own life. Everyone starts somewhere, unless you're a crony of JD or CS that is.

My first job as a WF employee was online customer service, basically signing people up for online banking and online banking related customer service inquiries.

20 years later and I've been running the production installs for one of the bank's main customer facing portals for 6 years.

I have no college degree, I worked my way up from a grunt-level job, got a break on what a manager saw as promise and capitalized on it, worked to become a leader in each job I took after that point.

It's possible, though it gets harder and harder to climb the ladder. I'm at the point I'm going back to school to get a degree because I've realized that I could make over twice what I'm currently making if I had a piece of paper to wave around in front of a hiring manager.

I'm a manager now and there was a time when I didn't even know how to read.

They had to send me to a building with other illiterate five year olds and have us taught how to figure out word things.

What was Wells thinking?

I was once a grocery store clerk and later a food service worker. Now I lead a tech team - clearly unqualified.

Unless they plucked a teller out of the branch and placed him in a manager position, I don't understand what the issue is...people are allowed to advance!

@wld Exactly! I realize that at Wells, like any company, some folks get promoted who shouldn't. But one of the few things I have appreciated about the bank over the years is, it's not like an Investment Bank where you really can't advance without an advanced degree etc. For every lame person who is out of his/her depth in a role, I'd argue there are multiple legit success stories who worked their way up from the branch network or ops, and add value.

Why do so many employees think they should be the arbiter of who can advance, and who cannot?

Come gather ye round, while I tell you the hair-raising tale of a TELLER who became an ENGINEERING MANAGER!!!

Seriously, tons of leaders start as tellers at this company, as teenagers or in college. It’s not indicative of anything. Get a grip.

This event of a "teller who rose through the ranks over the years to become an engineer manager" happens more often than many care to admit but not as often as many are willing to believe.

There is one Senior HR leader who started out as a secretary and then rose through the ranks over many decades to become the Senior HR leader that they are today.

I did not believe it myself until I listened to this person speak during a meeting. Afterwards, I knew the story was true.

Think about how someone who can now influence various factors and drive HR initiatives which impact employees started out making coffee and filing papers the next time you see a nonsensical directive from HR.

He's still here! Look forward to more teller manager rants in the future!

@mfc, it is related.

Not layoff related

@zhi, your statements are factitious. And you, @sja and @tty are ridiculous. Your speculations and assumptions are so completely off-the-mark.

The point is (and there are many people bringing up the problem with promoting tellers and admins to high-level technology positions - not just one) that these people are unqualified and the bank will never become best-in-class in technology - EVER. That is why the bank is so completely archaic and the goal to become the best in technology is completely unattainable when you have tellers and admins running the show in technology. Do you understand? There is no innovation or forward thinking; there is trying to hang onto your job for your life by surrounding yourself with the competent engineers to do your job for you. There is no grudge; there is no complaining about a co-worker or teller envy or whatever you are making up.

The one admin was moved out of their technology leader position recently. Another manager was just let go that was a teller and thought they were completely untouchable. Do you think people aren't finally recognizing the issue? They are.

Also, when you are saying the conversation of the teller died down for a while, you are obviously spending too much time on this board. And maybe you should give up your teller patrol role.

I have seen it used in the context of unqualified folks being promoted to manager. Some poster spoke of a teller being promoted to some IT management job or something. It seemed facetious. Not serious at all.

@jyv Exactly.

It kind of died down for a while. I honestly thought/hoped the person beating this drum had either been blocked for violating terms of use, or laid off him/herself. Or maybe called out on these personal attacks at work. There's no way someone with such a huge ax to grind would keep it professional and discreet at the office, so the diatribes against one particular manager could have been recognizable to colleagues.

There's one guy who spends all his time posting on a layoff website stuff that has nothing to do with layoffs, because he has no work to do.

I guess?

There's a lot of people who come here to complain about co-workers, which is lame, and to tell people worried about their jobs to stop whining.

The internet is filled with losers calling other people losers.

I don't think it's "people" bringing it up; never seen an actual explanation for it at all so my guess is it's ONE employee who doesn't like this manager for whatever reason and feels the need to make unrelated comments constantly.

Seen it a few times myself, just guessing it's from some blowhard with an ax to grind that is probably (PROBABLY) not quite qualified for or effective in their current role, either.

Unqualified management?