Thread regarding Edward Jones layoffs

@em seems like. I feel like everyone is in a wait and see moment until end of cascade 2. Why work so hard when you are going to be separated in the fall? Have a good summer and let the chips fall.

Does anyone, including ELT, take PP seriously?

@ef Good call. Has anyone heard what happened to pay grades? Job architecture? Grades still exist on JAC but they took down the JonesLink page.

Anyone notice a weird vibe since Tuesday in home office? Did everybody quiet quit at once?

@e1 This is the problem I've seen. In a sense, the firm is getting what they pay for.

Am I the only one who thinks its funny that we went from discussing pay grade updates to layoffs within a 18 month span? During that span we also stopped allowing for open QA and chat discussion in town halls.

There was little financial motivation to work at EJ but many did anyways bc of the culture. Without the culture, EJ is going to have to start paying up for talent. <3% annual raises for exceeding expectations for years on end is not going to keep talent.

@ah The sad part of that is the service associates that answer calls from the branches, and get yelled at for things totally out of our control. The operations jobs that were offshored made a huge negative impact on the service to our branch teams and clients, such as not getting a timely distribution of their money. I wonder how many lawsuits have been filed due to this. It’s embarrassing and sad.

@dd Correct. There is no financial upside to being an associate at Jones. You’d make more elsewhere where all the value isn’t given to gp’s.

@dd You summarized the issue perfectly.

What makes the firm slow and inefficient is its culture. People have gotten way too comfortable for mediocracy at all levels with no sense of urgency and complete ignorance of competitive landscape.

Other firms move faster because people want to move faster and are incentivized to do so. We’ve accepted slow pace of change/innovation as status quo. Just because you lower corporate org complexity doesn’t mean things will get better/faster.

You need people to be more proactive, take ownership for their work, and have accountability. I see severe deficits in all those domains.

Big part of the stagnation is low morale and lack of upside for associates because GPs siphon 80% of the value out of the firm. In a sense everyone (including GPs) accepted their role as a “bondholder”, clipping the coupon and protecting themselves from potential downsides (which can comes from change or innovation), instead of acting like owners.

P, you might make more money, but you lost the respect of thousands.

Seems like fiefdoms were redrawn but the root cause of information siloes and conflicting priorities was not directly addressed. I get the sense that the new ELT was set up as a hunger games style competition to select the next managing partner.

Nothing being said of the thousands of offshore contractors who are getting paid with too few results.

One thing I don’t understand is why operate Segments outside the Wealth Management / Field Management? Integrate them into the WM/FM leadership structure. We have so many GP leaders with competing priorities.

Some of the layers were addressed others were simply not. Some partners were tossed out not because their role was eliminated reducing layers as their role still exists on the org chart. This was simply ELT getting rid of some folks they felt were performance issues but never really addressed the performance, oh yes the what and the how. They need to lead by example. They judge others for what they think is not addressing performance issues when they really have no idea since they aren’t close to the work they just think the person is blah blah blah yet the have people directly responsible to them that they never addressed but pushed them out during ER. Lazy way out. I saw within the Business segment one partner with no team responsible to another partner what is that about? And they are perplexed why the trust is lost.

This is exactly why Penny and anyone on the ELT who was here during the hiring frenzy needs to go. They caused problems the firm has not seen in decades while taking a pay raise. This is absolutely repulsive. They are ripping off every other associate at the firm.

Fair points all around.

What I reflect on is...what is really causing inefficiency and slow decision making?

Sure, spans/layers can be improved. And we could have done this carefully, thoughtfully over the next 2-3 years versus suddenly in 4 months.

But consider what isn't being addressed...

• Lack of defined process across the firm
• Leadership fiefdoms across functions (even worse now)
• 20 years of maximization of GP returns at the expense of modernizing technology and infrastructure
• A robust performance management system
• Chronic understaffing in certain areas of the firm (you read that right - real estate, service, etc).
• Sub-par senior leaders lacking the sophistication to lead the firm forward
• A lack of an accountable Managing Partner (hint: the more anyone needs to say that word to others, the less they actually are).

This hyperfocus on spans/layers isn't solving the big issues and will undoubtedly create more issues than it solves given the reckless way it's being implemented.

The firm went through a layoff in the 60s. At that point, they vowed never to do it again and put in place strategies and controls to ensure the pace of HO growth never outstripped the demand for resources from the field. It remained this way for the next 60 years. PP blatantly and very obviously over-hired during the pandemic, led by kingdom building new GPs.

It will be hard to unring that bell as everyone that learned how to be a steward of the firm has been fired, retired, or replaced.

It will not be the same firm. The culture and direction of Edward Jones is lost. The sooner you can accept that and act accordingly - whether you believe the new culture and direction are better for you or it is irreconcilably different from your values - the better off you will be.