Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Because the tuition program is a pain. They make you jump through so many hoops, then even when working with a school still cannot decide what is an eligible class. Last time I used it my time ran out while working with a pending request for reimbursement.

My god the whining here! Anything in life worth achieving takes discipline. $5000 for tuition...? I would have been doing cart wheels for that. Are people really complaining that they’re not getting enough free money to pay for their education? Seriously?

I waited tables to get through undergrad and grad school in the evenings and paid off my loans for decades. You do learn a lot more when you work for it, and I don’t mean just formally in the classroom.

Because I have top notch undergraduate and advanced degrees, also tops in class in post grad B School from a great University. In Wells it is better to be politically astute than well educated. Mentally walk up your chain and tell me if that isn’t true.

I never inquired while here at Wells, too well paid to care about a degree, but in the past at other corps they always had some catch to it, had to be in area of instruction related to your job, they would pay for some courses not the others, you didn't get money until graduation blah blah blah

your right, university of phoenix is a fake degree; I do agree with your assessment on MBA, thats what people should get or similar. Thing is 5k is like a penny on the ground, do I really want to waste time picking that up? Seems like a no brainer and I see no benefit to $5k

Smart people wouldn't be putzing around in this forum, so there's that...

I used the TR program before to get a certificate in Project Management from the University of Phoenix. It was useful then, but I'm not sure if I'd use it to, say, get an MBA – $5K/year would be a drop in the bucket, and the process to get reimbursed is way too cumbersome, IMO, to justify the effort required.

OP’s lack of self-awareness could mean she doesn’t even realize her post, and follow-up responses, are so condescending. I work with someone like her. She provokes people, and then accuses them of misunderstanding her.

"The implication clearly being..."

Actually, there's no implications at all, clear or otherwise. There's also no assumption about any person's position vis a vis layoffs or the threat of them. It's amazing what you make up / read into things. It's like someone walks by and says 'good morning' and you spend the next 4 hours grinding your teeth in consternation wondering what the person REALLY meant by it. I know it's hard to believe, but sometimes there is no hidden agenda and they just meant 'good morning'. Same thing here, it's a simple question with nothing implied that isn't a figment of your very active imagination. There's a benefit, someone is wondering why people would/wouldn't use it. That's it, and try as you might, there's nothing more to it than that.

Why because I had to get a damn degree to get the job. I don’t need a PhD above an N MB S so no thanks. That program is for those who did not already have the credentials.

@xzf+196t2K4w a bit judgemental maybe? Have you considered the possibility that this poster lost a spouse to death or divorce through no fault of their own?

@1xsi+196t2K4w, POIDH

I’ve got palms to rosey up. Hard to take a class with one hand on the mouse and the other on the rod

Thank goodness we have Socrates here to "just ask" why someone would not take advantage of the pittance of tuition reimbursement WF offers. The implication clearly being that if you're suffering due to layoffs or career stagnation that it is somehow your own fault for not accepting WF's generosity. If you wanted to actually be helpful you would have pointed people to where they could find help, rather than demanding excuses for what you see as denying it.

While I agree that a learned sense of helplessness can be detrimental and people do need to stop feeling like victims and push forward, doing that in this context, on a message board centered around layoffs is vile. Others on here have offered constructive advice not dissimilar to what you mentioned- networking, education, self improvement, etc, in actual friendly and helpful manner. Take a cue from them next time and save the passive aggressive Stockholm syndrome questions for the next C suite Q&A.

"I would be interested in hearing your feedback after reading the replies."

Sure, why not?

1. if you already have a bunch of MAs or a PhD, more power to you! You're also the minority. There are tens of thousands of WF employees that do not have an MA. We've got the whole gamut. I know an employee that doesn't have a high school diploma or GED. We've got others that are in their early 20s and haven't got a degree yet. So we've got a diverse group when it comes to education.

2. as far as the 'i don't make enough $ to go to school', hey, if that's where you are, I feel your pain. That said, I went to school when I was making less than $15/hr, so it can be done. There's lots of ways a person could bridge the gap created by a reimbursement plan (between when you pay and when you get paid back). Could be a short term loan of some kind, could be charged to a lower interest CC on the intro period, could be $ from a family member, there's lots of possibilities here. In my case, I just made it a priority and saved up. In the long run, you get reimbursed, so it's more like a 'hold' on your money than a permanent expense.

3. kind of classes you can take: there's a ton of flexibility at the AA/BA/BS level. So long as it is part of your degree program you can take it and get reimbursed, at least you could a few years ago. They don't buckle down on the subject matter until you get to the grad school stuff. Again, this may have changed but when I did it so long as it was part of a degree program all was good. Here's the trick though, no one actually tracks or does anything to ensure you finished said degree program. You can change majors pretty much any time you want, so there's a lot of flexibility. I know an employee that has been taking college classes for years (decades?) with this program. You can slow roll your progress on a program, and switch programs, it's not really an obstacle. Sure, if you want to sign up for a degree in farming studies, it might not get approved, but there's a WIDE range of applicable degrees across the company and electives make occasional oddball classes doable.

4. $5k isn't enough: you can spread out the program and take $5k worth of courses per year. Nothing says you need to take $50k worth of classes and there's no requirement to go to a super expensive school either. There's a lot of good inexpensive options these days and if you're going from a bachelors to a masters, there's not that many credits. I think my total out of pocket was around $100 due to a few required items they wouldn't reimburse for. I stretched the 2 year program out to just a bit over 3 and the company reimbursed just about everything.

5. I'm busy: that'd be a legitimate reason for not using the benefit, pretty much what I was asking for!

6. You should go to school right after high school: who says? we're all on different paths in life, and some of us ARE right out of high school.

7. 'degrees don't mean jobs': no, they don't hand you a degree and a job to go with it, but they open doors. Some postings have minimum requirements and without the minimums you won't even get an interview. We can debate whether or not that should be the case, but it's how a lot of companies do it. In my younger years my spouse tried to get a job with the forest service at one of their HQs and you needed a bachelors to get an admin job and answer phones in an office. Wells has many many job postings with education requirements. It is what it is, sometimes you need a piece of paper to get in the door. If you don't want/need access to those types of jobs, more power to you, I'm just asking questions!

8. "advocate for his abhorrent employer...". There's one in every crowd, and they are so easy to bait. Work on the reading comp skills my friend. I didn't advocate for anything. Serious question: when you go to the doctor and use your health insurance, are you also "advocating" for Wells Fargo? No, you're not. Same thing here. We're talking about a benefit. You can love the company or hate the company, it makes no difference, it's just a benefit. I take it you refuse all benefits including PTO and 401(k) match, right? Because to do otherwise would be advocating for something/someone? Do you even think these things through prior to posting? Doesn't seem like it.

9. you have to make a certain grade in the class: yes, you do have to pass classes to be reimbursed...or to get a degree. How would higher ed work otherwise? No matter what you do you get a degree? There's got to be some standards. If you're really that worried about this requirement, there are schools out there that are pretty easy on grading (aka degree mills).

10. I have 7 kids: actually I didn't say I want you to do anything. Just asking why some people don't use a benefit, which you did an excellent job answering BTW.

11. certifications are better! Sometimes, depends on the field in a lot of cases. I would suggest 'both' is optimal, but to each their own. "I think certs > degrees" is certainly a viable response to the question.

That pretty much covers most of the highlights.

Post ID: @dyx+196t2K4w

Agreed. I don’t always recognize passive aggressiveness right away. I tend to want to give people the benefit of the doubt and don’t always realize why a post or reply hits me wrong.

After re-reading OP’s post: I think you called it.

As previous posters stated, the tuition reimbursement program requires you to pay upfront. If you can afford to pay upfront, then you probably don't need the 5k...am I right? Also tuition rates far exceed 5k - master's degrees are $25k to 80k when I applied to graduate school.
I decided to upskill during the pandemic by taking certification classes (IT), and left WF for a 25% pay increase.

Kids, hobbies, etc. I've yet to someone get a promotion or raise because they just get another degree. It's more important to have certain licenses or certifications

It doesn't work like that – you can't just take any random class. You need to be enrolled in a program that offers a degree. It also needs to be relevant to your role. Furthermore, as another poster mentioned, you need to pay upfront and then deal with red tape and approvals.

@pff+196t2K4w: It is 5k per year reimbursement

OP

I would be interested in hearing your feedback after reading the replies.

I have 7 kids and am a single mother; I come to work in a hostile environment here at wells. Now you want me to re-do the education I just did spending north of $100k?

I make peanuts. I am on my own and have rent, utilities and food and basic needs to buy.
I am also in my 50s. Sounds like an excuse but it's not easy on your own with no one to help.

I use the program , you do have to pay up front it’s a lot of red tape and you also have to pay it back if you leave within a certain time. You don’t have to pay it if you’re laid off though.

Well -I think you might mean well, but some of us (including myself, in some ways) are coming from a place of privilege, relatively speaking, and don’t understand the struggles many people face. Moms and Dads or single parents working hard all day and then coming home to kids who need to be fed, bathed, helped with homework etc.

I cannot verify this personally, but I have heard from friends here that you have to pay up front and are then only reimbursed if you make above a certain grade. Many of the people here, who were not fortunate enough to go to college after hs, are only making $15 or $20 an hour and don’t have that kind of money to put out.

Some of our back office people are really hurting financially. I have given some extra cash to many of them through the years. WFC makes a big deal out of contributing to charities, when some of their own employees are having trouble making rent and feeding their kids.

my classes cost more like 50k per year though,

Hmm I wonder why the OP, who comes to a layoff-centric board to advocate for his abhorrent employer and launch passive aggressive attacks on people whose jobs are at risk, is so sensitive about being called a yes man

You should have done this already after high school

I have a child, a family, and hobbies

Wells Fargo paid for my bachelor degree! With all the talk of layoff and employees feeling used, my question to you is; Why are you not using WF to by taking advantage of these programs? One thing no one can take from you is your knowledge!!! When my number comes up (and it will) I will be in a better position to find another job because I used WF like they are using me.

I already have a marketable degree. Multiple degrees, or hokey grad degrees in business, wouldn't take me anywhere that I can't already go.

College is good, but it's something you do earlier on, and then focus on actual work experience to propel you forward.

maybe some people already have a master's level; people should use it, but my college cost way more than $5k, is this the max?

Because I already have two master's degrees (paid for by previous companies) and am ready to move on from formal education in my life. :-) Other people may have young kids at home, dislike school, already have their degrees...plenty reasons not to use it.