Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Another example is announcing the BYOD policy without a true plan in place. I've counted three executive-level "Ask Me Anything" sessions that have been inundated by BYOD questions as a result and still no real answers. So much time wasted.

@bya - Saul's job is to solve business problems with technology. However, the business has to want to change to make it work. I've been in many industries over the years and seen to many systems put in by IT(I was IT) when the business really wasn't asking for the change. The projects failed.

I have not been here long enough to understand what Saul is capable of but the things I have seen from everyone is how to we drag this out as long as we can vs getting things done quickly.

The waste here is unbelievable. 15 meetings to get a decision that needs another 15 meeting s to get approval.

The silos are laughable. We do the same damn work over and over again when we could do it once. The run it like you own is what caused this. I want my stuff when i want regardless of what is most import to org as a whole.

Nothing wrong with management by slogans.

We have done it before. Remember “Eight is Great” slogan when all the fake accounts were opened? It worked out so well before, I’m sure it will work out even better now.

The constant focus on diversity hires in IT coupled with all the outsourcing is going to result in disaster for WF. They don’t have a plan and it shows.

No one commenting on the assertion that we're managing IT to Saul's 6-S listicle?

Hmm, I would think a red flag like that would draw more attention.

Management by slogan.

Our efficiency ratio was better than our competitors before all of the settlements and asset cap. Look at 2010 to 2017 via Google. The lack of leadership in moving the bank towards resolving long outstanding issues, especially in IT, is what has precipitated our current situation.

This is stupid. People aren't really hoarding their PTO. COVID screwed up pretty much everybody's vacation plans. A lot of people plan vacations in spring and summer. With most things closed and people staying home, vacations aren't happening. Plus with working from home, it's way easier to deal with stuff from home if things slow down during the day or late in the da etc.

Re: comparing to other companies on tech. Benchmarking is a common thing you know. If we're behind on many things it's because we've hired id–ts leaders with id–ts running major initiatives that won't listen to boots on the groud. Just look at the cluster f**ks over the last few years – big data, on prem cloud, public cloud and the list goes on with tons of redundant systems as well.

People have been telling people to hoard PTO in case they get let go for months.

On this site.

The PTO thing is tough. It's not all driven by fear of layoff, but it's part of it. In a normal year, there are big PTO trends during spring break and throughout the summer. A lot of people had trips planned in the spring, maybe Memorial Day weekend, maybe had plans to take PTO to go see sporting events, etc. A lot of those plans were cancelled and people were waiting for better times to get away vs. just taking PTO to have a quarantine staycation. I haven't been hoarding mine, but I am a good week or so behind what I'd have normally taken at this point just due to cancelled personal travel and family visits.

An article in the August 23 WSJ entitled "Companies Fret as Vacation Days Go Unused" summarizes data from 3,000 companies that indicate that people are delaying their vacation plans due to COVID. Not all PTO deferral decisions that employees make are driven by workload.

i disagree, in every company i have worked everyone takes bulk of PTO at EOY, as there is a freeze and federal govt is basically closed then. Things are slower at that time and is the best time to be off as so is the rest of the United States.

I agree we need to be better than the competition. However, before we are better don't we need to be somewhat equal. The Chase model and playbook are a bit predictable and less than inspiring. I can't help to think if we were someone more sophisticated in our capabilities we would be in a much stronger position. We are playing defense and not from a position of strength. So while we should aspire to be better and different, I think getting to somewhat equal footing wi have our stock up 2x and perfoqnce will appear as if we turned a corner whe in reality we just earned a seat at the table. How long until we are an actual peer of our competitors?

Pot call kettle black. Posting on here about c-ap you know nothing about (pto) is real mature?! Lol!

@nsd You sound like such a team-player, mature and humble. Good thing we have you to set us all straight.

No, Dummy. Some of us have been too busy working and solving risk and control issues. Someone has to earn their paycheck around here. I take my pto in the Fall, I earned it. No hoarding here. Mind your own business.

Many people did not take PTO because of fear of layoffs. They did not take PTO because the country has been locked down in many areas and they were asked to shelter in place, or there was no place open for them to go.

@op Exactly, you don't follow the example, you BE the example. Matching our competitors is essentially just being a cuk. We need to do things better than them, not just follow along.

There's a 7th S, referred to as a number 2.

The customer facing business functions almost all have restrictions on how many people get be out on any one day. In the contact centers, they have to go through a bid process and how much PTO they have banked is irrelevant. If there are customer facing functions where management does not account for this, sure that’s a problem. But plenty of roles on the backend don’t have this consideration, so HR is not going to come up with a blanket policy. Be careful what you wish for, I for one don’t want to have to bid for every holiday and PTO day.

Plenty of people posted on here that they thought management encouraging them to take PTO earlier this year was a conspiracy, so basically lower level management can’t win.

@vua: Agree with OP on the end of the year issue. I’m involved in one of the Trading areas and year-end is one of the busiest times of year. It’s difficult to stay on top of it even with a full staff, much less short-handed. People being out at year-end, especially that last week of the year, causes many errors and puts the firm at risk because only the inexperienced back-up staff is around. And the trading business, of course, branches out to many different departments at Wells.

Some of us forget how many different departments there are within each LOB at Wells Fargo and across how many different locals.

@dxk, I was talking about Saul and IT, matching other banks is not how you compete against other banks.

Athletes don't look at the competitiion and say "what can I do to be the same as everyone else".

I understand we're dealing with years of neglect and paying for a lot of misconduct, but the lack of vison is not encouraging.

What Charlie is doing is different from what Saul is doing, he's working our numbers.

Saul is the head of an Information Technology department and his goal should be to use technology to be better than everyone else.

Not to be the same.

But I guess, if I understand your point correctly, individual thought is fine as long as we all do it together. :-)

Don’t forget they’re cutting MR’s & reducing hours in 4Q. They will need the full-times there

I'm the OP, I work in IT, everyone scrambles to get thier systems and apps done before the year end freeze, and spend their 2020 money.

And for the last few years, they've opened up the year end freeze to more work.

Every year we deal with people being on PTO, the holidays, and all the delays those cause.

Putting PTO off until the end of the year as a just in case savings account for a possible layoff is a danger.

Painful, if nothing else.

I’ve been in 3 different LOBs at the bank, it’s never been busy at the end of the year. Thanksgiving week, and the last two weeks of the year are not only change freezes, but loads of people take time off routinely. This year, project budgets are being cut by 25% or more, so there will be even less activity. Budgets for 2021 are up in the air, so very little will be done for early in the first quarter because resource commitments can’t be made.

My prediction for the fall is that the economy will get significantly worse, COVID will get worse and combine with the flu, and more slashing will be planned.

Charlie's whole impetus is to match other banks efficiency ratio, why wouldn't he be measuring himself against every other bank in other categories?

The guy has no individual thought.