Does anybody have faith in the leadership we've got going on here? I'm talking about genuine, wholehearted belief in their abilities and decisions and faith that they are working in the best interest of the company. While at it, is there anybody who thinks that the cuts will be genuinely good for the company?
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The CTO needs to go. The TDA client attrition everyone is talking about, is partly (maybe largely) due to a reduced user experience compared to what was available with the TDA client facing applications. This 100% falls on the CTO and his du----s policies that cripple development teams and innovation and place all of the decision making in the hands of some pie in the sky enterprise architecture team that are not vested in client experience in any way. The architecture team is also incapable of making actual decisions and prefer to setup meeting after meeting to discuss. This is due to the fact that many of them haven't been involved in the delivery process for many years (or maybe ever). Get rid of the CTO, and bring in someone new--not someone who has been an understudy of the current regime.
@gke+1p10bbFm I have a theory for this. BCG was brought in precisely because office politics are making it difficult for the layoffs of high value targets (directors) to happen.
@ibh+1p10bbFm It wouldn’t be that hard but Schwab would make it that hard
Any director with more than 3 employees ranks them. Not even by number but top third middle third bottom third. Justification for each one. If a leader wants to be cute and put no one in the bottom third they need extra justification as to why and have it signed off by an MD. Then look for redundancies, how many directors report to another director and lead 3 people or less. Start with the low performing redundancies , re org the middle performers and if you need more then start axing the low performers on the largest teams and work outward from there.
If you think “that’s unfair” or “mean” or “you can’t rank people” we can probably guess what third you are in…
I wonder how much money would be saved if BCG wasn’t cashing in so many billable hours dragging this out?
@dsw+1p10bbFm Because what you said requires actual effort and knowledge on the part of management. If it took them this long to do a simple, algorithm based layoff, how long do you think it would take them to do an actual merit based layoff? Probably won’t happen till 2025.
“Culture” is going back and sitting in cube city for 8 hours with all the conference rooms booked because joe like to work quietly in one and Susan takes all her video calls in another.
So you sit at your desk, in between WebEx meetings and you are expected to work on extra things to be more “productive “ in the hopes of getting an exceeds expectations and a 3% salary increase instead of 2.8%.. don’t worry , there’s a mandatory fun event schedule from 415 to 445 that’ll ensure you hit the most traffic driving home. You’ll get to enjoy some hyper processed food that was overpaid for and listen to some speaker who charges to much to read someone else’s ideas. But hey, it’s about the culture
To answer your question? No I have no faith in this leadership anymore
I don’t trust leadership as far as I can throw them.
Agree with most folks, cuts are necessary but not like this.
Should have been an opportunity to get rid of under performers. We all know the people who are genuinely bad and for some reason have been here for over a decade.
There are other issues too. The promo cycle/process is archaic, the performance rating system isn’t effective and setting objectives seems like it was created by a highschool guidance counselor… there have been issues that needed to be addressed that aren’t, and the layoff bungle which will be followed by the reorg bungle which will be followed by the RTO bungle prove they’re out of touch
You guys are overthinking this as usual. It probably went something like this.
Walt: to preserve the bottom line we need reduced headcounts. Think forced RTO will do it?
CFO: yup.
Walt: ok let’s make announcement.
One month later…
Walt: why is forced RTO not working? All our client facing breadwinners are leaving but redundant managers still staying.
CFO: dunno. Looks like we need layoffs.
Walt: Bring in Boston Consultancy now!
BCG: what do you want?
Walt: maximize money saved.
BCG: announce layoffs are coming several months in advance. Be as vague as possible and say that it is top down to encourage managers to quit. And also, your RTO needs to come after the layoffs. Don’t want ugly scenes in the office.
Walt: will do.
@pov+1p10bbFm Most of us know that cuts are necessary but the way they handled it is beyond atrocious and helped the company's morale. I wonder how much of it is them following BCG's advice and how much of it is their own decision.
If the cuts are done right , it would be beneficial. No one can say they never expected something like this post migration . This was always bound to happen. The issue is about timings and how they planned this whole execution . Few things they could have done right .
Announce the layoffs in July but provide a time line . Like we will start around October end and will update impacted employees. before planning this ,could have done better on the RTO too. Announcing RTO before a layoff wasn’t a good call . All this felt like decisions taken with no planning . And this gives the impression that Schwab executive leadership isn’t capable enough to handle these , how do you expect them to turn around the firm .
I trust leadership to a certain extent. Recent decisions appear to be not well thought out but rather just go and do approach.
Layoffs are sadly beneficial. There are many redundancies in roles and we are top heavy. The number of director+ roles is absurd.
These leaders know the industry inside and out. They don’t know what to do about getting bodies back in buildings while keeping most employees happy.
I think they are operating with fear and self preservation. The goal is to not embarrass an 86 year old man more so than fix the company.