Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

yea a lot of red tape here for sure; definitely too may people bugging us and such.

NOt sure if its right thing as they are hiring a lot of hire $$ employees the CEO is. NOt sure what the value add is. No progress on the cap and its been years now!

@wzy: The fact that you refer to people losing their jobs as “waste being discharged” pretty much says everything we need to know about you.

@lax check your reading comprehension I said no such things.

The brokerage firm I worked for ran the business to the lean side, from the top down. Senior leadership and managers actually knew the portion of the business they were responsible for. They hired intelligently and were accountable for their areas. If a manager had a pattern of bad business decisions. they were let go. If business picked up in one department, management moved people around and even stepped in themselves when necessary. Everyone worked together towards the common goal of a successful business. And the employees and shareholders profited greatly.

Wells Fargo is run like the government. Each department a cost silo. Managers put in charge of areas they know nothing about. Everyone pointing the finger at the other guy. No one is accountable. Leaders helping themselves and their buddies, shortchanging the business and all the stakeholders.

Those who think this place is just fine haven’t been around long enough to understand what a well-run company looks like. Lowering the standard just when we need higher standards. If this company wants to compete in a global marketplace, we must have standards that exceed average.

@rbz: no not really. Your comment suggests layoffs are the only path to profitability. Charlie has been in his seat for a year and the stock price has lagged behind its peers during that time period, which is a good barometer for how the market views Wells Fargo’s current leadership team. Little confidence.

Investors want to see more from a CEO than cost cutting and layoffs. The “maximizing profits at all costs” is outdated thinking. They want a CEO who has a vision, a mission and overall strategy for the company. And then a CEO who communicates that vision compellingly. And so should you.

: @eqv, yep I didn’t say we weren’t lagging all I said is that the statement made by the op is a inaccurate call, our peers (who are doing better and are more efficient) have been cutting bottom 5-10% yearly for some time. Is that enough facts for ya?

@lxd, I'm in IT, you don't know the half of it.

We're islands of teams living in the past and management is determined to keep us that way.

Saul and the high level folks have no idea what most of us do and middle management is incapable of speaking up, probably for fear of losing their job.

And any suggestions on how to fix things, large or small, is often met with open hostility, so people lay low and get by.

We all suffer, and our customer suffer.

This is not how actual tech companies are managemed and it's embarassing.

@lxd, I'm in IT, you don't know the half of it.

We all know what needs to be fixed, and what is needed to bring our tech up to 2020, and it's actually not that hard to do.

But we're not allowed to, and to even bring up some issues will get management in battle mode.

Some of it is management turf wars. Petty.

Saul and others have said they want us to be more like a tech company.

They have no idea what that means.

Charlie wasn't hired to make the company run well, he was hired to protect shareholders after years of mismanagement and criminal actions.

Layoffs are the easy and sleazy way to get that done fast.

Actually fixing a company requires time and imagination, and our leaders just want to cut staff and cash out.

So I agree with the OP in some ways, lots of people are missing the point in others.

Employees should be the tools in the tool box to build a great business, Wells is using employees more like chess pieces right now.

Sacrifice some to win the game.

A sad but effective way to win a war, but a lazy way to manage a company.

@uyn: um if you follow the sector, Wells Fargo is lagging behind it’s peers, and has for some time. You should know your facts if you want to attempt to take a stance.

I agree with this post. Inefficiencies and bloat are the result of ineffective self-serving leadership, not employees. Mis- management has seeped into every fiber of the organization.

Anyone who tells you the solution is employee layoffs is trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Or has already bought the con. It is the self-serving complacent small-thinkers and yes-men who got us to where we are today.

Layoffs will simply result in a smaller, yet still noncompetitive dying, organization. It’s the difference between Circuit City leadership and Best Buy leadership. Both were big-box brick and mortar electronics retailers struggling during a time when online sales began to surge. Circuit City is now bankrupt.

Circuit City refused to evolve in a fast-changing environment. They cut costs rather than investing in the future and their brand. They did not invest in technology or their customers. They undervalued their employee knowledge and morale by replacing high-paid workers with low-wage workers, ultimately ruining customer service and the company.

Versus Best Buy who brought in a new CEO who reimagined and expanded the business. The new Best Buy CEO made half the salary of the Circuit City CEO. While Circuit City was destroying employee morale, the new Best Buy CEO invested in training and retaining experienced knowledgeable employees who would ultimately provide a better customer experience. They purchased the Geek Squad, which changed the business from simply being transactional to also offering post-sale support. And Best Buy continues to evolve and experiment with strategies that have employees and customers at the center of their efforts.

There is a better, more intelligent path this company should take. But we do not have a CEO who has the motive, the vision or the talent to lead us in that direction. He and our BOD are digging the Circuit City hole Don’t buy the what the yes-men are selling.

Don’t drink the Kool-aid.

We deserve better. Our shareholders deserve better. Our customers deserve better.

I wonder how many people it took to decode and update “team members “ to “employees” in the handbook? That might take the cake in terms of “bloat”

@lxd

You think that’s bad, you should see the 50 pieces of paper and 200 people involved in watching over code deployments to prod environments. And heaven forbid you send someone information you’re not sure why they need, and you didn’t use their exact wording, having already had to send the same info to 20 other people in 5 different tracking systems.

@1zd Agree, too much bloat and bureaucracy. The real problem is misaligned incentives for manager, some of them get bonuses the more people they hire. Done enough times, the bank is going to have too many employees not producing enough to support their own weight. Couple that with layers of management in the middle that seem to exist for the sole purpose of corporate structure and you've got a serious weight problem. Need to trim the fat and start a kale smoothie diet.

um, it's just the norm in the industry. all our big peers have been doing layoffs but they've actually been doing them yearly for quite some time so no one is shocked by it.

I think i just read the newest inaccurate comment. times change quickly. Productivity should increase. There will always be a steady ebb and flow of growth and contraction in a company.
Companies, like a person, are not static. Every so often waste has to be discharged...

They’ve been trying to do layoffs for the last two years, but no ceo can stick around long enough to implement. So for this bank it’s not just the downturn.

Let’s be honest, Wells sorely needs mass layoffs.

I needed to get software installed recently. It used to be one phone call and 1 to 2 hours later I would have what I need.

Now I have to fill out a form, wait 1 week for a reply. Then I have to answer 5 questions from team 1 when someone finally does pick up my request. Then I have to deal with team 2 cos the software team 3 package didn’t push down to my machine correctly.

3 weeks later, if I am lucky, I have my software. But most likely not.

Wells is so bloated and so full of people hired just to support a processes that make no sense it truly amazes me that we still make money.

Charlie is doing the right thing. As an employee I can say it s—s. As a shareholder I can say it is the right thing to do.