What salient points would you make both negative and positive?
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The EC is clueless on how to currently run a company - read the above posts - all good examples - took way too long and done WAY WRONG - doesn't set a good example that you want to work for a company run by these id--ts
A company must be able to zig-zag as business conditions warrant without being overburdened by individual employees’ feelings, ie, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
There are at least four stories.
- How companies, including this one, use layoffs to dismiss good workers due to age, physical ailments and other non work related criteria. This is particularly true for companies that self-fund healthcare costs. The layoffs highlight an idea that employees are interchangeable parts and shows how corporations lose sight of their most valuable assets. Expense line focus is the mark of a failing CEO/CFO. Revenue and expense per employee should be the mark - are we deriving value from our staff?
- How Schwab was impacted by a massive merger, rising interest rates, deferred maintenance, trades to zero, return to office, slow advice and private client conversions in a Gen Z market that focuses on instant self-service, a changing CEO and dramatic overbuilding of infrastructure while failing repeatedly to get to the cloud all at the same time. The lying from Walt, for a company that proclaims trust is their corporate glue, links each of these.
- The impact of layoff delay, the use of an expensive consulting firm to structure the layoff and the impact on morale. This is a soft story that doesn't lead anywhere, but it is the story when considering Walt and Chuck's personal narratives over the years.
- The future of financial services. Automation, AI, cloud, outsourcing, zero cost trades, complex interest and bond rate spreads, fintech competition and boomers dying and leaving assets to heirs. As a continuing employee, I am most interested in this. It ties to who was let go and if those dismissals really positioned us for future success. I don't see any correlation.
Positive:
- Company was bloated and needed some streamlining. Go back on this board before reductions were announced in July and people largely agreed most orgs were overweight.
Negative:
- handled poorly, dr-g on for literal months.
- morale is destroyed across the firm due to the EC's handling.
- Walt lied to us all repeatedly and there are recordings to prove it. Particularly around RTO, which is the next big initiative.
That making us wait MONTHS for something that was basically 100% completed within a single DAY was cruel & unusual punishment and quite frankly should be criminal.