Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Make no mistake about it... WF won't be eradicating telecommuting to improve productivity.

WF will be doing it to increase "natural" attrition. Dissatisfied employees who want flexibility and remote work option find new jobs (with better companies), so WF avoids costly severance and unemployment benefits. Plus, they avoid bad PR if layoff volume lowers.

10+ years ago WF used to be nice and fun place to work. You could learn new things. It is not anymore ... It is not by any stretch.
Overpaid upper Mgmt. is pushing obsolete “stealth” RIF techniques from 80’s to force people out “voluntarily” and avoid paying severance. Plebeians are keeping quiet and not raising any questions while ship is sinking. “Buddy system” got too big to tackle, so this is their best shot at moving headcount lower. Very primitive. Instead of improving processes and employee satisfaction, they are getting rid of people that know and can-do things. Upper echelons need to justify their salaries as well as inability to steer this company in the right direction. It is simple as that. Poor planning, poor communication inside and out, clowns with extreme salaries that can’t be logically justified and with great “new” recycled ideas to sell and “recycle” until they abandon the ship and move somewhere else to do damage. How this Location “Strategy” would help environment with thousands of people that will be on the road vesting time instead of working effectively?
I am a telecommuter,top performer, SME in multiple areas and almost no life “balance” for a past few years. Very sad state of affairs. Good luck all.

I worked for a company that reorged and made telecommuters come into physical "open concept" offices. They called it "Hotelling". It didn't work out. Too distracting to get any work done, and added hours of driving time to everyones day that otherwise would have gone towards doing productive work.

What are locations that has 10 or less staff members ? Not clear what it means, 10 or less in your project or total team members? any idea

Yup, back on.. full steam ahead!!!!!!!!

It’s very hard. Plan on getting a lot of your work done evenings and weekends on your own time. S—s, but there it is.

I am concerned that the new "open" office environment planned will be VERY distracting when one has to concentrate hard on their difficult project assignment. That is one of the great benefits of telecommuting. Little distraction in the home office, very quiet, allows one to fully concentrate on the task at hand.

I have worked in some VERY noisy office areas and found the noise to be quite distracting while I was trying to work on my programming projects.

So much harshness here. I expect there is a good chance that my telecommuting job will go away, but at least I will not be surprised by it. I might have a choice to relocate - I am very curious to hear the terms of any package. But I've been through this before at other companies, and I appreciate Saul's candor and the warning of incoming bad news, which has helped me plan for my own resiliency. At some other companies, they just whack you hard one day and walk you out the door. Regardless of whether you are disappointed by the old-fashioned decision to keep staff in physical fishbowls, Saul is clearly working hard, and I appreciate how he is handling his difficult role.

MARK MY WORDS. By 2021 the corporate WF headquarters will be moved outside of SF to Charlotte, NC. WF is the last of the major financial services companies that will relocate like Bank of America and Schwab. The ultimat location strategy as there will be significant cost savings on taxes, salaries, and real estate.

At least Saul and team are talking about location strategy. It’s eventually going to affect many more groups around the enterprise yet most leaders aren’t acknowledging it yet.

Charlie already loved San Francisco. That’s why he left Visa.

Just to make a point about the company offering to relocate an employee that they DO want to retain.
A lot of companies request that their employees relocate to a different state. Many employees request to be relocated to a different state.

The first big company that I worked for, in the IT department, was closing the North East USA data center and consolidating it to the less expensive South East USA data center. I was asked to relocate to the South East data center location, having been employed at the company for 12 years. At first I did not want to go. However it was an offer one could not refuse. The company bought the condo I owned at the time in the North East. Paid for me and my family to stay in a hotel in the South East to find a new home there. They paid for the moving costs. Paid for the down payment on the new house (not condo). Gave us moving expenses. It turned out well for my family. A good deal. Did miss my family and friends in the North though.

Lol wells had a location strategy in early 2000s and it ended up a disaster even though at that time they were less than half the size of the company now. The company needs to be smaller through selling off lines of businesses.

Charlie is going to just love San Francisco.

Wait, what's that you say? Charlie's not moving?

How can that possibly be?

Hey for those folks, hope you have the number to your attorney ready. May be not to sue WF ... but to have you best interest in mind.

HR is for the company, not the employees.

Saul himself seems to be a little bit less enthusiastic. Perhaps the open floor plan is draining his vibrant spirit...

He’s so full of himself... what a great leader when he doesn’t even know how to Research plan and implement something...Go back to the Netherlands