Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Haha!

So true!!!

Good info

Touche

Afew years ago... I recall working on an infra project and the boss thought may be a good idea to have a Project Manager to help with coordination. I smelt something wrong and decided to keep the PM from doing anything in the project and we were able to delivered. Why would an outsider be able to help if this outsider is clueless of what's happening. Just ridiculous.

WIM was particularly full of pet projects. At one point, technical resources were being pulled to something called “ gamification”. They were building a video game for adults on saving money that looked like something Sesame Street would reject.

Meanwhile the production systems had broken stuff and problems dating to the Wachovia merger. The game project was the pet of somebody who had power. You can blame your fearless business leaders for this.

This is the best chain ever. I work in the brokerage arm. This explains why we could NEVER get one thing done. Ever. We had system problems that seriously affected our ability to conduct big $ business correctly, putting WFC at extraordinary risk. One in particular has been going on for over 15 years. The managers always told us that there were over 3000 system issues in the pipeline and you need to have the right person who will aggressively fight for your issue to be prioritized. I would say to my manager “Well if you’re not the right person and your boss isn’t the right person, who is?” Such a clusterF.🤯

15 years ago there would be a Dilbert cartoon for this project management BS. Now it's just sad for company to be so blind.

@1vcg

I disagree with the first part of your post. The enterprise methodology aligns closely, if not totally, to the PMI PMBOK which is a global standard. This was implemented because of a consent order. Other banks already deployed tools and standard methodology a decade ago. In fact, a lot of people in the LOBs who carry a PM title are nothing more than a glorified AA. I am glad the role has been professionalized. But there is still a way to go before every PM is a capable professional adept at both methodology and the soft skills.

Where I agree with you is that PMQA is way out of hand, worrying checked boxes instead of the health of the project and proper documentation of the charter, the financials and requirements. It’s unfortunate too that many people don’t understand status reporting, or the difference between an issue and a risk.

I’ve never been told I can’t work with the business, but what does happen is that the sponsor has a fleet of minions who are not knowledgeable and end duplicating the PM job versus acting as a SME.

Interesting, I am a project manager and we are still getting “coached” to basically let the business do whatever they want. If you raise a concern about policy violations, unethical behavior or problems with the project like it duplicates another project, they will just bring in a contractor who won’t do anything about any of that stuff.

There are projects that have been going on for literally years wasting time and money and never delivering anything, but they won’t address the issues with business, just swap the PM, that will fix it. I’m on my way out the door too, the company is really messed up.

I knew a PM who flat out told me he was quitting because the PM's were told to be overly hostile and agressive.

He said he couldn't treat people that way.

Wells has some issues with management.

PM at Wells has been nothing but a joke since Enterprise Project Management was formed and PM's lost the ability to work directly with their LOB's. Now you have an army of EPM people who know their jacked up methodology and nothing else. SME's often have no knowledge of the topic they are to be the expert of. I will never forget a few years ago when a e-mail was published about using the correct shades of Red, Yellow, and Green to reflect project status. The memo included the Pantone color chips of the newly MANDATED colors :( The bank is in this kind of trouble and they are only concerned about the correct shade of red, instead of the fact that the project is in RED status.

Two Words: Data Lake.

You forgot PM has no clue what you are trying to accomplish but sets project up that all communication goes through them and schedules meetings in a way the wrong people are meeting then reschedules with 14i94043 leaders and that gets pushed out due to schedules then they finally get the right people together 6 months later and the actual scope of work is 20 hours but all the paperwork and testing is 20,000 hours and then trying to get a CR takes 18 tries with no one looking at the documentation just rejecting it to make themselves relevant. and by then 3 years later the project is cancelled.

Dont forget about the multitude of "Technology Relationship Managers" that will also be assigned to the project.

Thanks OP! I was that Engineer time and time again. When I would go to the business unit who was responsible for an “identified issue,” they also layered the process with the exact layout for their team in a sense to cover their tracks. Like internally lawyering up to shield and protect their stupid antiquated decisions and processes.

I left. I checked out by 2017. It was like a bad acid trip day in and day out.

What I find hilarious is that you can’t use video during this pandemic. Why? Because I have been informed by my former colleagues and friends that I was right in 2016.

There is not enough network infrastructure to support the addition of multiple network devices. WF giving out Zoom Accounts and Licenses like raffle tickets, bulky big a$$ teleconference equipment s—ing up bandwidth that the voip lines in an office go down, and let’s throw in BlueJeans, Skype and all kinds of new shiny IoT junk attached to the network.

Nothing worked. Nothing ever worked. It was always patched together as Good Enough. No accountability, no informed investment to make anything work correctly.

Hilariously I was assigned a Tech Relationship Manager who was supposed to be the “go-between” for the conversations between the business unit and EIT. Come to find out, that TRM is making triple what I do in base salary and does nothing but schedule additional calls and check points for the 2 teams so that the project doesn’t lose momentum.

Glad I left. Wouldn’t go back if they offered me $1M. It’s all going to come crashing down. Just like the conference call numbers that froze up in March all thru April.

By the way, my conference call ID still works. I’ve been gone for 3+ years.

The GIM team is one of the most insane and wasteful initiatives I’ve ever seen. Talk about form over substance. The worst is the effect it’s had on actual issue management. Businesses that used to not fight over an issue or even raise it themselves no longer want to because it means they’re now taking on another full time role of someone who’s trying to jam an admin layer on top. Which would be useful as far as visibility except that the bureaucrats on the team use it for petty power plays and weird control issues. I’ve seen this from all areas of the bank and will be curious if they plan on revamping issue management.

Agile could help fix this bureaucracy, but instead they are wrapping it in Intake process and whatever the f*CK EPM does. It's pretty simple, if you aren't working on a Agile story, you are overhead, so get out of the way and let us deliver some value.

You forgot adding it to SHRP. Then, having GIM harass you about the Intake Form, the font color, cell size, root cause, Milestones and so on. Then, spending a month getting it just the way GIM wants it before its input in SHRP.

Overhead and administrative BS overshadow everything we do. It contributes to effort needed and subtracts from efficiency. There is no way out - other than firing all top management - middle management - and revamping the whole process to fix the bank. Just like GM, a BK is needed to flush the whole structure down the toilet. They couldn't make great cars until then, neither will we be efficient unless we do the same. Its systemic.

This should get the post of the year!

I’m not in EIT, but I fully agree with your premise that this company makes everything at least 20 times harder than it should be. Things get turned into projects that are a task or a small enhancement, it is stunningly ridiculous.

Too many people get involved in simple tasks who have literally nothing to contribute. And the people who do have work to do also have three levels of manager following their every email on the non project. I’ve been hoping there would be swift changes, but I am longer optimistic that anything will change. It is not about serving customers or fixing problems, it is about who can build the biggest fiefdom with the most useless people.

Too many managers in this bank, which is ridiculously redundant. I wish what they said is already prudent or well thought-out, but the fact is always on the contrary.