Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Reorg changes eliminated so many positions.

My understanding is that they have eliminated positions pb1,assistant managers and cssr. That is where the layoffs are right now.

Well I keep getting emails and phone calls from contract technical job recruiters who are literally begging me to come and work for their client. Say my skills are just what their client wants. I guess I will still have some sort of technical job if laid off at Wells Fargo. Also could just retire but still want to work and earn $$$. I like my job at Wells Fargo right now and will not leave unless they lay me off.

It’s getting pushed down he chain for managers who will mostly keep their pets. Some managers will choose based on performance and some ethical managers will take a stand agains giving good performing employees bad ratings. In that case their managers or their managers’ managers who don’t know you p will decide your date. It’s slightly less chaotic than shuffling a deck of cards, but not by much. Anything can happen to anyone and it’s best not to dwell on it.

There is also a "diversity component". I don't know exactly what it is, but I do know that it exists and that it is part of a weighting that is taken into account.

IM SURE ITS CHARLIE AND THE NEW GANG....... That dude only cares about his bottom line, even if it means axing mass employees before the holidays that worked though the pandemic

I worked for a semiconductor company years ago, I was IT so I worked with HR on layoffs, locking down accounts as people were notified, etc.

The HR ladies, they were all women at that company, and I were pretty close, and they told me how it worked there.

The CEO, a clownish man who was regularly beaten down in the business media for being a joke, had a spreadsheet of all 1,100 of us (small company) and he spent a few days picking names to let go.

The CEO had no idea who any of us were. He was famous for stopping people in the hallway and asking "who are you and what do you do for me".

Some decisions about who gets let go are based on business needs, and some are just a clown with a spreadsheet.

I think the last two posts make it sound more dark, vindictive and soulless than it is. Layoffs s—. Period, full stop. But numbers come down and the buckets have to be filled. There’s no one, single way that’s perfect for deciding - tenure, experience, cost, future needs, performance are all factors. If a dictate comes down to cut 20%, the cuts will happen. In most cases, it’s a numbers game, not a personal attack. WF is where it is due to a long period of mismanagement and a lot of people have to pay for mistakes of past leaders.

Wow, interesting process. Sounds like back alley dealing and horse trading, or, always be in the lookout in who and how you talk to people, as a knife can come out at any moment.

There is now we make layoff decisions in my area. Perhaps you see some similarities.

Not that much different from ranking exercise. Immediate boss has some input, and then everything is bounced 2-3 levels up the line for final decisions. Sponsors rescue their favorites, managers talk about old baggage for people that is totally unrelated to recent contributions in order to provide some reason to throw them to the bottom, etc. Few in the room know you unless you have been around a while with some exposure to senior management. Often one negative comment from anyone sinks you unless someone else speaks up to save you, which seldom happens. Disagreements are worked out on the sidelines. Usually involves I'll support X if you will support Y, and then I am ok with cutting Z. Fill the buckets and then get lunch.

Then HR and Legal run the disparate impact analyses and recommend necessary adjustments to get everything bullet proof in terms of diversity, discrimination, etc. A few tweaks are made and it's done.

You might be surprised at who scr*wed you. It may be someone getting back at you for something that happened ages ago, not necessarily anyone in your direct line of reporting.

Good luck!

As a manager, I had to lay off a banker who performed well when she was working, but was out most of the year on leave. It seems that overall production had a say in it. She rated higher than two newer bankers but she was out so much she couldn’t produce. I was surprised.

I te was a displacement team who made the decisions, not managers

I heard team member evaluations play a role

It’s certainly not just your manager. The OC sets a number, which ultimately passes to the lines. From there, numbers get assigned to divisions and so on down. Ultimately, your boss’s boss gets a number and either starts identifying people or goes to their directs with some level of guidelines. Managers then have to rate people on a set of criteria from HR and then a decision is made.