Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Curious what group you’re in. Same situation here

Worked at Wells for 10 years and put up with an awful, abusive management team in Middle Market Banking. Left for a position at a competitor, and it is much better. Wells is a toxic dump.

1 is worst. 5 is best. 2 is inconsistently meets.

LOL! rating system is 1 is the best, 5 is the worst.... getting a 2 means your doing good!

I had my co-called review. As we know this was kind of drummed up at the last minute as my mgr was informed 3 weeks before. Never had one in the 5 years I have been at the Co. I'm in IT, we have 15 analysts under our mgr. My boss went over all points and I did pretty darn good, nothing needed improvement. But, there was no rating, no number associated with the review. That is until I looked up my review and saw I 'meet.' From what I have read this connotates to a 3, which is fair. But, if I'm being compared to my people in my group, who knows what that really means. Did my peers receive 4 or 5's? Time will tell I guess where I stand

Same here. New employee (less than a year) and received a rating of 2. I was also hired from outside the company while the others on my team were internal transfers. Was even told they all out perform me.

They aren’t going to cut the new people. The new people were brought in to bring fresh talent and perspective. The legacy folks are a bunch of complainers.

nothing new... old timers here who are anticipating layoffs will hire a new person or persons, even adding in a contractor or two and will beat them into submission from the beginning know that when its time to cut people they will cut the new people and contractors.

And you don’t seem to understand the difference between litigation and regulatory problems.

One of the consent orders from the Fed that has led to the asset cap is regarding HR. The Fed doesn’t have take to Wells Fargo to court, they just issue fines and more punishment.

The steps involved in terminating someone for cause go well beyond a performance rating, and it appears that some managers are making factual errors in their reviews in the first place. That’s the problem with your argument. Terminating is hard work, laying off is mass quantities is simple.

I don’t find it surprising that this company would find a way to get in more trouble though

Previous poster here. Steps ARE being followed. Ratings of 1 and 2 are part of it.

If you don't understand how corporate works, you'll soon see.

There are always ways to let people go for cause. It's called "creative RIFFING".

You also seem to think WF is scared of litigation. Have you learned nothing over the past several years? More litigation just adds to existing pile. And most terminated employees do not sue (clear cut stats on that).

I don't agree with what's going on, but it's part of CEO's master plan.

Anywhere WF can cut costs – in any way, no matter how despicable – it will and is.

I ain’t your Pal, Bud

"Welcome to the Party,Pal"....

If you are in HR then you know that firing someone, especially an Exempt employee, requires multiple steps under current procedures.

So either you are claiming that HR intends to throw out its own procedures, or you are wrong. Which?

Since the HR organization is in a huge amount of trouble with the regulators already, they are likely to be very interested in this if it’s true.

A major criticism of HR has been bad or nonexistent procedures on everything from compensation risk management, to performance management documentation, to ignoring employee complaints and ethics violations.

Given the extraordinarily poor roll out of the mid year and ratings approach, HR is probably already under fire.

On that basis, I sincerely doubt that mass terminations for so-called just cause are likely.

It is more likely that people who are underperforming will be laid off and therefore receive severance.

@jup+16dFTkjE Bingo. Not sure why other posters are so ill-informed, thinking the the rating has no causal effect.

I'm in HR and 1s and 2s are the herd being culled through terminations for just cause.

No severance. Period. Significant cost savings. WF is planning to challenge any unemployment benefits claims by these folks, too.

i would go to another job, don't recomend leaving another company to come here and not straight out of college either, it will be career k–ler for everyone

@c1n - but doesn’t 2 give them reason to fire you?? And thus no severance?

@rom "If leadership had any morals"

Please don't refer to them as leaders. They are simply executives. A real leader would never put something on their subordinates that they are not willing to do themselves. These people are cowards, nothing more.

Welcome to Wells Fargo, get use to it!!!!!!! Most of us who gave up good jobs to come to this septic tank of an employer end up regretting it.

In the year end reviews you can type in comments to argue your point of view. It wont change your rating, but gives you a chance to explain. I dont know if that is available with mid years, but something to look for. I’m not sure if putting something in there is a good or bad idea, but wanted to let you know it might be available.

What’s frustrating about this scenario is that the OP’s manager had the opportunity to use the Too New To Rate rating. Which is what I would have done. Too small of a sample size (especially with what sounded like some downtime after onboarding).

You are allowed to put comments in your review (at least you can at year end) when acknowledging it on the site. I’m not saying whether it’s a good idea or bad idea, but if you wanted to notate your disagreements, you can do so there.

Ugh, the same person keeps posting that 2 ratings mean you don’t get a severance package. THIS IS FALSE. You don’t get severance if you are fired or quit, your rating is not relevant to whether you get a package in a lay-off situation, stop posting misinformation.

Agree with below on document, document, document. I would send a follow up email to the manager laying out the history of transfers and such, as well as anything in the performance feedback file that’s factually incorrect. Forward this email to yourself.

You seem to be caught up in some type of cluster situation, honestly, you are probably just better off leaving it, it’s not likely to improve. You need a manager who will look out for you, minimally and sometimes that is not enough either.

If leadership had any morals they would come out and say it - we are gonna rate people a 2 so we don’t have to pay you severance

Oh I’m not progressed enough than should be expected. No benchmark though.

Thank you for the advice it helps. I was a team of 9 now 7. My immediate group was 3 but one quit after 8 weeks in and my offer to another company the same initial 8 weeks got halted due to Covid. This was due to new role created per Charlie companywide. I Had nothing to do for two months and lack of management engagement. The other person in my immediate group got transferred so it’s just me now for the last two months with no direction. My background does not pertain to the role I’m doing which has No guidance and all my work is highly criticized and wrong. I got no feedback really on how to improve except learn systems and not provide so many details. Review has fabrications in it which I pointed out during discussion. Review was emailed 30 mins prior to discussion yesterday. No fails were mentioned prior at all. There are goals listed that were never discussed. Manager was taken back in my defense of said inadequacy.

If push comes to shove and they have to lay someone off, you’re likely it.

I still haven’t received a rating.

What that means is they needed a 2 to give another 4 and since you are new they could give you a 2 and a reason for it (you are new). Based on what I am hearing (I am a low level manager) a 2 in a knowledge job is no biggie. If you are a 2 that has been here a long time then I would be more worried. What I would do is get SPECIFIC goals from your manager and PROACTIVELY set up meetings to go over them.

Do not get mad, tell them you appreciate them and the job and you will take the next 6 months to get to a 3. Make sure you put everything in writing and hit every goal on time or ahead. Document Document Document. It is posts like this that make me wish this was not anonymous and I could give you a call and walk you through some options.

I cannot so what I will reiterate is a 2 is fixable - you are new in the job - do not be defeated no one likes the $hi! sandwich we are being fed. Chin up but do not give up.

Did your manager tell you what to change in order to meet expectations?

I don’t care for the ratings game, it’s not objective and when you receive your list of expectations at the same time you are being rated on them, it’s unfair and stupid.

I just observed a reorg around this spans and layers business. Decisions were clearly made on the buddy system, and there was an obvious effort to protect middle managers. I doubt it saved any money, so the failure to make decisions is going to drag out the pain.

Same. New employee. Rated a 2 due to “forced bell curve”. I’ve had this manager for less than a month because my prior one left.

Considering the timing of your role creation and assuming the lack of guidance and feedback are true. You were set up. Cost cutting is no surprise. And if you have a team of vets who work well together, better bring in a sacrificial newbie for when layoffs come. Get that resume ready, don’t be caught off guard.

I'm so sorry. Wells treatment of you sounds awful and similar to what I've heard from others. They use people like rags now. It's all about share price, viability and cost-cutting.

The fair, human, decent element is gone...or at least put on hold for several years.

We're adults, working for this company, and should be treated with honesty and respect.