Lazy Manager

I have been at Wells for approx 3 years now and been working with a manager who is flat out lazy and it is clear that he is there just to collect a pay check before his retirement. Following are my daily observations:

I catch him sit in his office constantly playing on his phone where he is texting and/or playing games
He often forgets things or maybe dosent care of our groups priorities which could be a factor of him being old (he is 58 years old) or him basically just coasting till he retires and not caring
just last week I saw him sleeping on his desk for at least 20mins which was a new record
he keeps telling everyone how he is so busy but in reality he is a complete mess and is very unorganized. This guy has a team or 4 and the rest of the team knows this so the whole team is unproductive and does not add any value
we are in the operational risk group so he uses the cover of “Rcsa is a firm priority” but dosent seem to care of making any inroads with the business or being a good partner to help them manage their operational risk profile outside of the “Rcsa work”
I have no idea how our group head doses not see this behaviour of my manager. I sometimes feel that this whole team is a house of cards because my group head is also new (less than 2 years and wells) and is 60 years old and pretends to care about the business but in reality is collecting a fat paycheck under the “I am here to help fix the Rcsa for the business”

With all that said, what is the best way to operate in this scenario. He is clearly a layer above me which blocks me from moving up, showing the results of my work to higher ups and getting any visibility when it comes to career mobility and growth.

Obviously his aloof behaviour has an impact on my work, my mental well being and constantly puts me in a zone of tension given the impeding layoff issues at Wells and the general issues this firm has with employee engagement and morale.

I am still young and have years to go but seeing managers like this get by everyday is disheartening. Any tips of how to manage this situation would
be greatly appreciated.

Comment! It's anonymous!

14 replies (most recent on top)

Lower-level managers are just as discouraged and disgusted with the bank and upper-level leadership as the employees are. Believe me, we ALL recognize that we work for a desperate declining organization.

It makes sense for older employees to stick it out if we are close to retiring. But the younger employees should be smart enough to jump off the sinking ship.

If you complain leave age out of it.

Ageism is not allowing you to really focus on the real problem. Are you 18? Only asking because 58 is not close to retirement age. Read up.

You’ve described the manager I foolishly supported for over 10 years, waiting for her eventual retirement at 70! It was a painful ride full of a lot of wasted time with her ongoing, lengthy personal story telling and little work accomplished. Now that I’ve had three other managers, I recognize that there are pros and cons with all kinds of managers. Find a way to be happy with your situation or look for other roles. Just know the grass isn’t always greener.

You can learn from this person.

You should be careful. It appears there is ageism going on here. Shame on you.

Once you've been here 3 years you'll understand there's no point doing more than filling a seat, all we're here to do is send what's remaining to India to get done by people who just check boxes.

Not all hero’s wear capes. Grab a pen and paper and start taking notes. You have a lot to learn from this man skippy.

Please do a better job at checking your resume for misspelled words then you did this piece.

Quit or try to move to another job within/outside of Wells. Incompetence is not an age thing. I coasted to retirement at Wells before being laid off. I now know that there are better places to coast to retirement than Wells.
What makes the Wells managers toxic?

Management is not action-oriented. Very few are "do-ers" -- most are "big talkers" and "maintainers". As a technician, you think you can stay out of politics. You keep saying "let them be". But as your post shows -- you can't.
Management is not technically competent. Over 8 years I had 6 managers. Only one I consider a true technical manager. He knew the technology, outlined the voice of the customer (VOC), and got others to employ it.
Management does not care about the quality of the employed technology. There is no way to move "up" at Wells. Since management does not know .. or care about the technology there is no way to critique one's work. I saw the most kludgy home-spun Javascript code I saw in 20+ years -- which a toxic manager considered the best in the world.

If you are young take you should take your skills elsewhere. Wells is an untrained, non-tech company trying to catch up. I was in a group where 90% of the laid off employees were "do-ers".

You were looking for a job when you found this one so leave if your manager is that bad.

You need to get a life and stop obsessing about your manager. There is something wrong with you.

I was in the same situation working on the risk team. My old manager quit years ago and they brought in a new manager from another bank and almost everyone on our team has left WF due to this new managers arrogance and laziness. I'm not staying here much longer.

Quit. If you think 58 is old and "coasting to retirement" you are delusional. Seems all you are concerned about is the size of your bosses' paychecks.

Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Lazy Manager

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