Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Same thing happened to me. Long-term good performer who fell to a meets under the new system. I can handle that but I can’t handle the lying that took place in this year‘s review. I work on a high-pressure regulatory project twice a year. I’ve been told I’ve been doing a good job until this year’s review.
I happened to get sick on the day the self assessment was due back in October. I asked my manager if I could turn it in the next day and he said no the system is closed at the end of day per HR. The following Monday when I felt better I asked again if I could turn it in because I’d been told by friends that their managers told them they could make changes or turn it in if they hadn’t in the week following the due date. I asked again and again was told no. I contacted HR and was told that yes I could submit a self-assessment and that all my manager had to do was release it to me. I asked if I could do that and he again said no. I followed up with a second email asking if he had had a chance to read my first email and did’t hear back until a month before my review where he asked me to send my write up.
My annual review was scheduled the day before we were supposed to acknowledge it which I found odd since he’d always been on time in the past. I knew from friends that they had had their performance reviews the previous week.
I was given a chance to read my review an hour before. I found an inconsistently meets and a negative comment about an incident that never happened that negatively impacted people on my team. I asked for examples and didn’t get any. Like others I didn’t hear about this at the midyear review and there was no coaching. I confronted the people I supposedly harmed (nicely) and they were shocked at what had been said. They felt bad and scoured their emails for examples where this might’ve occurred and didn’t find any.
I asked friends if anyone else had had a lie put in their reviews.
I have learned over the years that HR is not there to help you and that if you go to the EEOC Wells Fargo will find a way to fire you within 2 weeks (this came directly from an investigator at the EEOC).
I am convinced they’re trying to get rid of me since I’m near retirement age. I am three years from retirement so I am biding my time, I’m documenting what happened and I’m going to HR to document that it’s on the record with Wells Fargo.
I am sorry that this has happened to others and I’m glad that you’ve been able to go elsewhere.

Exact same thing happened to me. Its a messed up company. I was a Golden Spoke winner and got a new manager who just didn’t like me. Suddenly, i was a 2 performer. Yeah right. I now work for a competitor.

@tzh+1ftacxXE
Similar thing happened to me. I covered for my manager that was on extended leave. First, she barely gave me enough info to do the job: I asked for a list & warm introductions to business partners & she said it was not needed, there was a lot left out in the overview training & I had to do a lot of independent research once she left. It was stressful, but I handled it successfully. She came back towards the end of the Year End review process, so her manager (who thought highly of me) did the inputs for my year end, and she delivered it to me. There was a nuanced line that could be interpreted negatively at the end of the Manager's portion on the last summary section that looked out of place and wasn't even mentioned by her during the verbal year end review. When I asked about it she said she didn't know what it was as she had not entered in the verbiage. When I asked the 2 up Manager he denied knowing about it or putting it in. When I went back to my Manager with this info she said someone gave the 2 up Manager some feedback to that effect, however no-one had ever mentioned anything to me in reference to this or provided "feedback" throughout the year. The 2 up Manager agreed to take it off, yet my manager said it was "too late" and "no changes can be made", although I knew from other managers that amendments could be made. I decided not to pursue it as I was moving off the team, and the overall rating was not impacted. Needless to say, my merit increase did not move over, and per HR it should have, but my old manager indicated that "you got your raise already with your new job". It left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm certain to this day that my (relatively inexperienced) manager added that last line in my performance review (otherwise good/glowing) to stick to to me for doing a good job while she was out. Trust is eroded. Never been treated this poorly for delivering & doing a good job.

Yes! Totally hire a lawyer and make some bank bruh!!

Is it actually worth it at all to attempt to dispute performance ratings this way? It doesn’t seem likely that the outcome will be a change in rating, and even if policy dictates managers aren’t supposed to retaliate, you’ve got to be on your managers sh*t list going forward, no? Even if it’s only subconsciously on their part, it’ll probably just get worse for you.

@dcj if you are a non white male or any female, then yes

@dcj+1ftacxXE HR actually told me that the process they used and any documentation the previous MAY or MAY not have provided is proprietary and I can’t see it … that’s laughable , if they had documented coaching I would have the right to see it ….

So if an employee was terminated and went to the EEOC, HR and the manager would need to provide documentation to how they addressed, put an action plan in place and coached the employee for improvement. If that’s not there, EEOC usually wins. Not sure when WF got away from doing documentation on performance.
Also I was asked to bring down one of my ratings and I said no.

Not a lazy manager at all. Stack ranking forces somebody below meets, period. As a manager I have been told, yes told, to rewrite a review putting in some Not Meets wording regardless of the truth. It is as de-moralizing to the manager as it is to the employee. Chainsaw is using this to disrupt the organization so that people leave on their own. He must view severance as money out of his own pocket.

@rdo+1ftacxXE Any idea what the doc in teamworks is called ? I’d like to read it

It’s actually 60%

In 2020 they started calibrating performance ratings. Appx 70% of the org should be getting a 3 overall. There’s a deck on Teamwork’s floating around that describes it. The Lake Wobegon days (everyone is above average) are over

had a manager in WFA that did same thing, I got 3/Meets after a year of leading a transition to anew platform and working 70 hour weeks and was told I did not demonstrate being a visionary. 1. Never part of my role and 2 I was too busy being tactical . I left 4 months later and its been the bedt move ever.

I volunteered for a tough position that WF couldn’t find anybody willing to take. I knew it would be a rough assignment but I took it for the team. I left a department and team I loved and slugged my way through one of the most stressful working years of my life. I was told how much I was appreciated for taking that role multiple times. I got a ‘meets’ rating on my mid year review. At the end of the year, out of the blue, I got a slanderous rating. I left WF for another job with a raise one month later. It’s not like I didn’t have people knocking, but I never intended to leave WF. I was loyal to WF to take that role. It was rough on me to get that slap in the face at the end of a bad year of trying to patch up some of the bank’s other tough decisions with employees and customers. I felt like the fall guy.
WF, please start treating clients and employees well, and I bet you will get out of the Fed’s penalty box. I’m asking sincerely, because I do thing WF still has problems in that regard. I have a lot of love for many/most of the employees I know at WF.
Thanks for the explanation from the HR person. It helps me to know it was Charlie’s forced rating policy that ensures some bad decisions are made. In addition to my scenario, what if a manager has 5 employees and they all ki-l it? Sounds like somebody has to get hosed. In any case, the bank should certainly not force any ratings below ‘meets’. What on earth could be the purpose of forcing managers to give bad ratings if everyone on there team is doing good work? This leads to distrust. My trust was broken because of this issue, so I had to leave the bank.

These forced rankings and making manager change peoples ratings based on vague expectations seem very similar to the sales practice issues we have already dealt with . I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to a law suit similar to the 401k and OT ones announced in the media today. I get a bad rating when an employee deserves it but with zero documentation or basis the company will have issues eventually

@xlz+1ftacxXE I agree , I already took a new position:) just crazy that HR encourages the process and yet they won’t disclose if any documentation could be produced … it’s a laughable process and seems completely unethical to just go to the original manager and then say it is what it is and can’t change

First, I am truly sorry. Second, take it from someone who works in HR, we are not here to protect the employee by any stretch of the imagination. We are always there to protect the organization and if that means siding with the manager because it’s a he said/she said situation, that will almost always occur. Coaching doesn’t have to be in writing. If the manager could articulate that these expectations were communicated verbally (even if not true), that is enough. Coaching in CP&D was optional, not mandatory. Workday has the same feature and again, optional, not mandatory. I’m sorry to say there will not be a successful outcome for you. An unfortunate lesson to learn once you’ve been burned like that. Also, know that this is the second year that our CEO demanded (yes, demanded) that people be rated on a tier system/distribution. Industry research was performed AND presented in 2021 to sway him on how this is not something that is good for an organization, nor something that is done across most of our peers. He didn’t care because that’s how it was done at his old employer, so while he thanked those who presented it, the recommendation to move away from that the second year (2021), it was denied. So if your peers outperformed you, there can only be so many “meets” and “exceeds” and “consistently exceeds” and so you likely fell victim to that. Even if you all went above and beyond, it wouldn’t matter. They have to put you all on a sliding scale.

Point of view from a manager: sounds suspicious. End of the day you were a victim of the bell curve. Your boss or his boss doesn’t really respect your work thus they dished out one of the inconsistently meets ratings to you. Pure and simple. Look for another job, they do t respect your work.

Sounds like a lazy manager not doing his job :/ always document for CYA