Seeing a number of thoughtful and diverse comments on many topics, so thought I would ask you all if you believe there are ties to layoffs to this odd “strategy” of doing year-end performance reviews, essentially for only 3 quarters?
12 replies (most recent on top)
dumb!
One theory of moving the reviews up is the spans and layers cut coming up.
If you are getting ready to layoff a whole bunch of middle managers, you will have a large group of individual contributors who need reviews done by their new managers who have no idea of their work for the year.
So, you get all of the managers to get the reviews in and then lay off the ones you don't need. Problem solved.
@sao is correct. There is no connection.
There isn't a connection. Wells is just moving to industry standard of completing reviews and bonus determinations in December, delivering the information in January, and paying out in February. This matches Chase and B of A.
When the dust settles on this mess (assuming it ever does, instead of dragging on even longer), will Wells Fargo still be able to attract talent? When I get a call from someone who wants to network and is interested in Wells, I assume they are either in a desperate place or they haven't done their research on the company.
As I job search, one of the first things I want to know about a company is... what's the history of layoffs etc. I realize the eliminating bonuses thing was just possibility, NOT a prediction, but if I discovered a potential employer had failed to pay bonuses in addition to cutting headcount by 25% in recent years think I'd run for the hills. I would definitely be skeptical about a comp structure with a sizable discretionary bonus, and fight for more salary.
Perhaps someday WF will be a cost-cutting success story, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Who said that eliminating bonuses saves jobs?
The statement was that eliminating bonuses might expedite quit rates, that’s not all the same thing.
If you’re on the fence about leaving, and you know for sure that you won’t get a nice chunk of change in February, you might go ahead and leave. Getting a 2 on a review will not have the same effect.
Eliminating bonuses won't save jobs. It will save WF money, but it won't save jobs. WF will pocket the savings from not paying bonuses while still getting rid of as many people as possible.
Also, without bonuses, everyone's output will be minimal. Just enough to not get fired, which will in turn affect future bonuses, etc. It will be a downward spiral.
As an employee, you can either resent WF for the hard work you do all year with no raise/bonus to keep up with inflation etc., or you can do the bare minimum to reduce your resentment but have your boss accurately tell you next year that your performance doesn't qualify for a bonus.
So WF needs to ask itself: Is it easier to play games with comp every year, or is it easier to simply jettison a bunch of people? Neither is easy nor simple, but the latter option is likely easier for the bank.
A number on a performance review is going to motivate extraordinarily few people to quit, unless they really already planned to anyway. The bank has a for cause termination process that is lengthy and time consuming. It’s much simpler to lay-off.
If they really want people to voluntarily quit, they should announce that there will be no bonuses. I fully believe though that management would pursue such a stupid strategy because everyday I deal with at least 20 stupid processes, procedures, or paperwork that have utterly no purpose.
thankfully I will be on military duty until next year and will avoid this mess.
100% tied to performance reviews. But not how you think.
It's the tried and true method of reverse engineering. If they want you to be a 1, 2 or 3, you will be. Performance review timing just checks the box to "justify" the rating they will inevitably give certain employees to paper them out of the company. Terminations for "just cause" (wink) are highly encouraged.
If only more had quit (said numerous top executives in recent meeting), this unethical fallout wouldn't be necessary.
I despise this sinking ship and the rats crawling all over it.
Yes. 100% correlation. Major layoff next
Month.
TBH, I don’t think senior management is organized enough to be strategic. I’ve been around 30+ years and the incompetence and chaos is spreading like a bad rash. It’s everywhere: Risk, HR, Corp comm, enterprise project mgmt, finance,etc. Everyday there’s a new process, a new requirement, a new layer of useless management. I think the “accelerated” performance cycle is just another example of the stinking dumpster fire that is Wells Fargo.