Location Strategy Update

As others here have done, here is some news regarding the Location Strategy. This is presented in the spirit of assisting our Leadership in their oft-stated goal of "being transparent".

Physical areas where Wells Fargo has a major presence have been defined as "Growth Locations" and "Maintenance Locations". We are told that there will be no new hires allowed at "Maintenance" Locations.

Here are the "Growth Locations": Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Des Moines, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Francisco, and St Louis. Overseas offices in India and the Philippines are also categorized as growth locations.

All other non-branch locations in the US are "Maintenance Locations". Special mention was made - and repeated - that Charlotte is a Maintenance Location. This was questioned by several people. The reason given was that the Charlotte has been identified as "a high risk due to over saturation of that market". Comments included "we have too many people there" and "there is a lot of competition there".

Also, there are new guidelines being sent out to managers pertaining to physical attendance at office locations. Team members who have "assigned seats" at a Wells Fargo site are now being directed to work from that office location at least 4 days per week, and spend at least 8 hours per day "badged in" at that location. The reasons given was "there is a heavy focus on space planning" with "high visibility".

We have also heard that no new telecommuters will be allowed.

We are also seeing more chatter about "Hudson Yards", in New York from senior management. Unofficial thought is that this will soon become the unofficial headquarters.

Speculation: (a) Business units are scrambling to demonstrate that their allotted office space is "being used" in anticipation of headcount reduction numbers being directed upon them from above. (b) Telecommuting is being reduced, with the most impact to initially be felt by remote people in the geographic region of Charlotte who do not have "assigned seats", and in other areas that are not within realistic commute distance from "growth" locations. (c) Hudson Yards will eventually become the new headquarters, with San Francisco continuing in name-only.

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CF anti WFH @BNYM https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bony-mellon-work-from-home/bny-mellon-puts-brakes-on-changes-in-work-from-home-rules-for-staff-idUSKCN1QO22V

Charlie doesn’t have to justify squat. Working from NY is part of his deal. The board had to agree to it to get him. Over and out

CEO would love to make New York a high growth location to justify him working remotely there. But this guy ain't gonna last more than 2 years tops.

Declaring HY as our new HQ is a no brainer. There is no cost impact. It is a paper move but sends a positive message to the investment community. Shows that a new regime is in place. The stock moves up 2 % just for that one move.

Wow what bad choices and cities outside the us even worse.

That should give Bernie and Elizabeth some ideas for new legislation

CPG just opened some floors at the Brevard building in uptown Charlotte, for open office neighborhood seating. They are renovating the building, floor by floor, to jam in as many as possible with this new first come, first served seating. No one has assigned cubes there.

They are also looking at the same idea for the huge CIC complex in Charlotte, another ongoing renovation. So Charlotte buildings are being invested in.

I had heard that hiring in Charlotte will be stopped or slowed down, but I thought it was in order to finish the floor space remodeling. We are being moved around in Charlotte, so they can work on sections of the building. Then when a section finishes, a group moves in, and the next section can be remodeled. It is a multi year project.

If we brought all the telecommuters back into the office, we would have no open seats, so the remodeling would be impacted.

When you mention growth locations, are you referring to the city's metro area? (e.g., Is Concord in SF East Bay considered part of San Francisco?)

Hudson Yards is already ours.

San Francisco and the entire Bay Area is some of the most expensive real estate in the country. I'm not sure what it costs WF to be in SF, but I don't know that Hudson Yards would be much different. FYI, never been to HY.

But I have been to New York, Manhattan, some nice places, but I don't think about stagecoaches rolling down 5th Avenue when I think about New York.

Odd choice for a company that has built its marketing on horses delivery gold on dusty southwest trails.

A big thanks to the OP, this information is very helpful in allowing us to figure out what it is they're not saying when they give updates.

I’m not doubting that this post was made in good faith, but there is much here that doesn’t make sense.

As of today, Charlotte has the most open positions of any city. I doubt all of them are backfill. Only SC comes close in open requisitions. Under 100 in all other places, but 600 in Charlotte
Why would a company with a problematic expense base grow in some of the most expensive cities in the world?
Why would telecommuting be a problem after the CEO stated support for it himself yesterday?
The badging business makes no sense either, many buildings don’t require badging out so either they measure the 8 hours business some other way or this is BS. People already game the badge system anyway

Since I have personally witnessed people in senior positions doing things that go against things the CEO has said, I am going to assume that a bunch of clowns are running this show. This stuff is a tragic example of an inability to properly manage people by focusing on stupid stuff that doesn’t drive performance and only disengages otherwise high performing people.

That Hudson Yards space is super cheap I bet.

Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Location Strategy Update

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