Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Here are the enterprise hubs. Lines of business/enterprise functions have the option to choose a subset of these:
New York
Wilmington/Philly
Charlotte
Des Moines
Minneapolis
St Louis
Dallas
San Antonio
Phoenix
Salt Lake City
San Francisco

Prior to the current OC's arrival (and specifically the COO's), Denver, Atlanta and Portland were scheduled to be hubs, but they are off the list. NYC, Wilmington and SF were not, but now they have been added.

Theoretically, Wilmington is a credit card-focused hub -- people hired there should have something to do with the credit card business, even if they are in another function like risk or technology. And SF is supposed to really only be open for new hiring in technology-focused roles, not just in EIT.

"The advantage long in the past was WFC could hire the best candidate regardless of location."

Yes, and now that the bank has moved to a hub approach, those candidates have to be in major cities, resulting in not only more expensive office space but also increased personnel costs due to the higher cost of living AND having to compete with other companies for talent.

Phoenix is likely a hub not because it's strategically positioned from a financial standpoint but from a technology standpoint: the greater Phoenix area (Phoenix/Chandler/Tempe/Scottsdale) is pretty much immune to natural disasters (fires/floods/earthquakes), so it makes a good location for BCP.

"The hub approach is also making it difficult to move to different business lines. This is really unfortunate."

The people coming up with this idea are not the brightest.

The advantage long in the past was WFC could hire the best candidate regardless of location.

"Richmond is considered a hub for WIMT hires."

I wouldn't call it that since in recent months they moved multiple jobs from there to STL.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2021/02/01/wells-fargo-shifting-hundreds-of-jobs-from-innsbrook-to-st-louis-minneapolis/

@1nyh+1bbkLTbv: Poster here again ..

Wow, it is quite surprising Wilmington, DE is not on the list specially considering all the banks (Chase, TD, CapOne, Citi, BofA, Barclays) have presence in the city. On top of that, I would think it is easier to hire someone if they already reside in the same city (less cost / no relocation, etc.).

Another surprising one on the list if Phoenix - WTH! How many risk folks we can find in this area (probably some - mainly AMEX is out there I guess). But, it is surprising to have Phoenix as one of the hub and NOT Wilmington. Same applies to IA, but since historically lot of LoB was located out there and so probably we have risk folks out there.

I wonder what goes in deciding which city is a hub and which city we can 'consider' a new hire (ex: Atlanta, GA).

NYC/NJ
St Louis (this one is apparently in discussion)
Dallas/Ft Worth Texas
Phoenix/Chandler AZ
Charlotte NC
Des Moines IA
Minneapolis MN

Agree with previous poster - even if you get grandfathered in to a remote role, you have to seriously ask yourself how many years of your career you want to spend in your current job, especially when recruiters are emailing you with remote work using current tech.

The hub approach is also making it difficult to move to different business lines. This is really unfortunate.

corp risk core locations are the following markets:
NYC/NJ
St Louis (this one is apparently in discussion)
Dallas/Ft Worth Texas
Phoenix/Chandler AZ
Charlotte NC
Des Moines IA
Minneapolis MN

The above are for corporate risk and current as of May. Literally Mandy N is not granting exceptions to these. I'm a hiring manager and tried to get an exception for an existing employee for an important position and was denied. Generally the rule of thumb here is that you need to be in the market area, and if offered a position it will be for a specific office location, but making you go in daily to that location will be up to your manager. From the company perspective they just want you in the metro so they don't have to pay any travel related expenses if they need you onsite for meetings or events. Have colleagues who have also hired recently and couldn't offer to candidates who were not willing to relocate. This is real folks, they may delay "when" they make you move but corp risk is not offering any relocation and expect if you want the job you will move or look elsewhere. No idea what this means for existing employees who want to stay in their current jobs, but forget about trying to get a promotion and stay where you're at (caveat being very high up positions seems they've allowed temporary exceptions for some)

And before people get in a tizzy on what about xyzzy location, this is corp risk only. Other LOB have different locations, restrictions etc.

West coast is generally not an approved location, I have only seen it in Wells Fargo Tech which was the SF/Bay Area. The easiest way to tell what your markets are for your LOB would be to look at current job openings. They'll have locations listed and would not expect to be elsewhere if not listed.

Richmond is considered a hub for WIMT hires.

@1vgk+1bbkLTbv, I’m a hiring manager in Corporate Risk. NYC is absolutely a hub & totally open for posting. SF and anywhere in CA is absolutely off limits, no matter how many of your team might already be there. Cuz co-location and all that!

Tempe, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Charlotte, San Antonio, St. Louis. Hesitant to call NYC a hub when it's just the execs that are there, and they aren't even in-office due to COVID. SF may not be a hub in the future, but there's still a lot of WF people working there. For now it's more of a hub than NY.

@1nyh+1bbkLTbv

CA??? Hahaha, but no. There are a gazillion of us working in/near SF and many other CA locations, but nope, no hubs here. Naysayers, let me remind you that Wells still has a huge presence and many customers in CA. And y’know...a little bit of history here. And that B$ high cost area excuse went out the window when they added NYC to accommodate Chuckie.

Anyhoo, not CA and not DE (What???). The two hubs you missed are Phoenix/Chandler and St, Louis.

@nrq+1bbkLTbv: Mind sharing which are the 7 core markets you are referring to?

1. NC
2. MN
3. Iowa
4. NY
5. CA?
6. TX?
7. DE?

@@twz+1bbkLTbv. I am very confident no Line Manager is making this decision. At minimum you are 3 to 4 levels up from the line for this call.

It’s not being widely communicated but there most certainly is a location strategy, it does vary based on line of business.

Corp risk for sure is doing a specific strategy with 7 core locations and not granting locations

Interviewed for 3 different lob in the last 6 weeks and each had a requirement to move if selected for the position; one was more flexible than the others but still put it in the offer letter.

Recruiters have been pretty transparent in saying this is company wide.. just locations themselves vary..

When it will happen is another story. Tech had started it prior to Covid, but at least they offered relo. Corp risk is not offering any relo but they cannot offer a candidate the position if not in one of their core markets.

Unless the CEO, or one of his JPM trolls makes an executive decision, it will be up to line managers, some of them douchbags love working in the office. Fully expect those people to require a return. I expect my manager to remain liberal about where people sit if the choice is left up to him.

@ugj+1bbkLTbv you must be an idi0t to work 50-60 hours a week and brag about it. If you were smart, you'd do that job in 30-40 hours a week.

It would be far more effective to have the infrastructure to fly in remote team members a few times a year for on-site team building than it would be to require 3, 4, 5 days/week in office for people on teams spread out around the country. What difference does it make if you're on calls all day from a cubicle or a home office? I say this as someone who worked from home, but loved the option to reserve a flex desk every week or two to get out of the house, prior to the pandemic.

I heard from a senior leader this morning that everyone in the company will have a choice to work in an office location or remote .... except for you.

I’m seeing lots of recruiters reaching out with “100% remote permanently” in the subject line. Looks like WFH will become a perk benefit like free food used to be.

team building in the era of the ongoing team dismantling?

buahahahahahahahaha

Team building comment by Saul was funny - you need to be in person for team building. No one on my team is at my assigned location. So no need for team building. I doubt they will be flying team members in to same hub location, that’s too expensive.

@agt+1bbkLTbv , I also have concerns about hubs being random or just moving for the sake of being in "a hub". Previously before the pause, a member of our team was being told they had to move or take a package so they would be in a hub however the hub that I and a few others are at was not given as choice. Instead they were going to be at least 3 hours away at a different hub and be the only one on our team at that hub.

Our small group has been told that there's no change to our full WFH status that has been communicated. We're a nationally spread-out team, the two closest team members to me are 355 and 550 miles away. Making us go into offices just to be around people we will never talk to about work initiatives is zero benefit and will destroy the already low employee morale.

Plus, headlines are all about how people who have proven they can work remotely have created a strong case for not paying for them to be in a corporate office. They will likely leave rather than be forced to go on-site and therefore the ground is shifting under management's feet since they risk losing their high-skill talent in those jobs.

We are probably not hearing much because management needs to recalibrate their goals on this.

The only thing that concerns me is the relocation strategy. When active, they tried to move one employee from the east coast to the west coast. The hub relocation policy is random and unorganized.

I am not in a hub but I am willing to move if the location selection is reasonable. If it’s a random hub with bo thought behind it , I will be forced to take the severance package.

I'm hearing that it depends entirely on your LOB and role, which is why there are no all-hands communications on the subject.

@uxj+1bbkLTbv You juvenile Shi!bag. Lots of us have been working 50 to 60 hour weeks all during covid, so GFY about getting back to work. You're a doucher Troll.

OMG, the humanity, we have to get back to work. This is a cacastrophy, I can't take it anymore....