It used to be formal layoffs with packages were the only thing to worry about. Now they're moving toward firing people individually. I personally know three people let go for reasons that made no sense. One had fine reviews but was told their performance was poor. Really? I hope they talk to a lawyer.
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As someone who formally disputed a bogus PIP fabricated on half truths and outright lies by management, with unattainable performance improvement goals - because the poor performance did not actually occur and therefore, could not be improved upon, I can attest that it takes very little for them to fire you. I wasn't a poor performer, I was a risk because I refused to carry out unethical assignments, so they promoted someone that would. They needed me gone to make it happen.
The PIP was generic and vague af regarding performance metrics (non-existent). HR did absolutely nothing. I even had receipts and used company policy language in my dispute. The whole process only took 60 days from the date the target was placed on my back to termination. Top performer, consistent exceeds expectations ratings, and not a single prior performance issue.
I appreciate the desire to want to believe in a fair, law abiding system, but I'm honestly surprised at how many comments there are giving USB the benefit of the doubt on this post. Sure there are some legitimate poor performance terminations in the mix, but let's not forget how absolutely vile the current leadership is at this institution. They're aware people are no longer going the extra mile and also holding out for severence. They've gone completely rogue now trying to maintain the upper hand and absolutely are terminating good employees in an unethical manner. Good luck finding a lawyer to take a case based on performance alone. Even if the bank does get their t-t on a ringer on one or two, the penalties and fines are a slap on the wrist that doesn't outweigh the expense of severence and/or unemployment insurance.
Some details left out of the OP story.
On the macro-level - once they filled that position at the Global Capability Center offshore, they don't need the American counterpart anymore. That's likely the one-off going on throughout the company.
@bg one side is also free to tell whatever version they feel is the "truest". Aka the version that makes them look like they didn't absolutely fu-k up.
Yes, it's well known people get managed out and shady stuff happens. But I think OPs friends aren't telling the full story.
It's very difficult to fire people. Your fired friends are either not giving you the whole story, or you're not giving us the whole story.
Not defending the company here, because everywhere it feels like folks are just waiting their turn to be laid off and it's demoralizing, but the hard part about terminations, especially about involuntary terminations, is that one side is free to tell whatever story they want and management is not allowed to reveal any details.
Oh they use the revisionist history performance improvement plan. No severance. Yay! Value for the shareholders.
BS
HR doesn’t let managers fire people just for something as generic as low performance with no forewarning or documented evidence of discussions and opportunity to improve. Something more to the terminations. .