So they started exiting some of the Bay Area offices. Oakland is first to go! That’s a big Chunk of AML and FCRM...
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I heard that the location strategy and WFH elimination are now talk of the past. It seems that COVID has taught the firm what employees were trying to say for years now. I heard from many sources now that they realized that in order to attract talent and stand well among competitors they have to offer remote work and more flexibility. Now with that being said I believe location strategy isn’t applicable in the way they were portraying and such tone is starting to change. I don’t believe that eliminating the Oakland sites will be associated with eliminating the workforce located there, I believe they are still looking at the real-estate situation in the bay area and then will decide where to relocate the employees or if they will offer remote work for some. I know WF had a history of nonsense and stupid decision making, however I don’t think that they a dumb enough to eliminate over 60% of their FCRM & Compliance for a location strategy, most talent is houses in non core locations and it is all the way up to the BSA officer himself. Unless they have a regulatory death wish, I don’t think that location strategy decision based cuts will be applicable for this specific group. Spans and layers, eliminating dead weight and overlapping teams still makes sense. Who knows?! I think we should hang on with a bowl of popcorn.
Thanks to all the negativity and news about layoffs, location strategy, competitors now are headhunting WellsFargo compliance employees offering them to join but when it comes to offer-time they lowball them wanting to pay less, and they are using the lack of job security, location strategy, announced layoffs and the obsolete no work from home direction to pressure on accepting low offers. So Wells Fargo isn’t only causing massive stress to employees but also gained a very bad reputation among competitors that now they are taking advantage of the situation and hiring candidates from Wells Fargo for less!
How more damage is this place going to cause to the life of humans there! Very Sad
With all the office closures in the bag area,what would happen to roles like the regional service advisors (not the same as banking or financial advising)? As a liaison between corporate and the branches, I suspect my role could be eliminated.
Which Oakland facility is closing?
Common people, I do understand the frustration of some, I can also say that many places are hiring around the area and I am comfortable to say some target the type of skills that Oakland office employees have, you can look around, many want to hire you, move on with your life, there are a lot of folks already that left recently and many are about to leave. If you can’t handle the stress move on and you will be able to find somewhere else. All the best for everyone
I see it the other way around. If they said they knew where the oakland based folks were going to be seated, i would see that as completely not credible.
Nobody is going into the office for the forseeable future. In the bay area i'd be surprised if we get back into the office anytime before 2022. And as many have said - the whole remote work thing is getting reexamineed also.
Location closings being correlated with layoffs of people in those offices happens for operations centers - not for the type of staff currently housed in Oakland.
We're going to see a lot more announcements of properties being exited between now and then.
It is rather disappointing that the news came as a surprise for everyone, with absolute no details on what will happen to the employees working there. They should have at least thought out a better communication manner where they deliver the location exit and the plan for the employees working there specially that all the meetings with the management confirmed location strategy is still in place and layoffs will happen (and will be thoughtful) said MN. Obviously not having any details implies that they are not really thoughtful about people as the claim. Shutting one place without planning where the rest of the employees are going indicates that such employees are on the chopper block.
You don’t go say we are anti working from home and want butts on desks, and you are implementing a location strategy for risk that doesn’t include SF, then start shutting offices down and expect people to be happy. No one is happy when they learn they are about to lose their job and management isn’t being thoughtful or transparent about their intentions, they are basically making you do the work in an atmosphere of ambiguity and lies until they can get ride of you when they feel comfortable.
I would be surprised if they suddenly changed their mind and are thinking again about the location strategy and the status of work from home. What could’ve happened in a night and a day to suddenly change what they have been touting for over a year?
They need to be clear about their true intentions and it has to be fast.
The location strategy, needless to say, is being reexamined in light of COVID.
At present, SF bay area is still on the list post-COVID final destinations for the company. NYC is not. That doesn't mean there will be zero hiring in NY or that every job posted can be in SF... but in terms of real estate investment, they are not expanding in NY. And they will be shrinking the physical footprint in the bay area, because there's just too much of it for the size of the population there.
"They can ditch SF if they like, tons of other firms want the brains."
Most of the work that has traditionally been done in SF doesn't require a 170 IQ. There's a lot of administrative stuff happening and those papers could be shuffled in (insert less expensive city here) just fine. If we need a smaller office there with tech brainiacs that insist on living in SF, I'm sure they'll retain one, but we don't need thousands of people there.
They can ditch SF if they like, tons of other firms want the brains. Most in SF don't know they're worth about 3X if they just spent the effort to find a job at another firm.
Yes, Bay Area is expensive...so is NYC
Concord isn’t next. Fremont maybe.
Getting non-customer facing jobs out of the bay area isn't 'destroying' anything. It's the most expensive place in the country and it makes no sense to have an army of employees there. It's good business to relocate the non-customer facing stuff.
Yes indeed, moving HQ and presence from CA to NY saves a lot of money and compliments diversity & talent acquisition!
Why would any company who values its money decide to stay in Cali...
The hub strategy has been discussed for years before Charlie.
They were talking about Concord building moving again last year before pandemic, now with the location strategy makes sense it will be eliminated too, specially after what happened with buildings in SF and now Oakland. Not sure about Sacramento and ElMonte. It is very sad watching one person destroying the place and everyone is watching
Concord is next
How long will we call San Francisco HQ?
They will cut headcount next, it always starts like that. Things are slow and now they can start headcount reduction and rehire in hubs slowly while workload allows the eventually let all bayarea people go. Very strategic!
Not shocking- they’ve been looking at where they could reduce and Bay Area is very host cost.. would expect those that are leased to not get renewed in the era of efficiencies.
People received emails, effective immediately
if concord goes then I'd start to worry about SF Bay Area
What is the source of this information? When is the exit scheduled to start?
Maybe layoffs coming? It’s known they don’t have enough space to relocate employees to other buildings. I don’t think they are smart enough and will let people remote considering the location strategy that they keep assuring is still in place. Time to look for a job people
Bay Area tech giants and companies allow employees to work from home permanently. “The 9-to-5 workday is dead, and the employee experience is about more than ping-pong tables and snacks,” Salesforce said. “In our always-on, always-connected world, it no longer makes sense to expect employees to work an eight-hour shift (to) do their jobs successfully."