Yesterday I was laid off. I actually am glad this happened because I was ready to quit even without another job - I hated this job and this company that much - the worst in my career. The role and the company were far different than I understood when I took the job and I found the environment to be very toxic and the constant threat of layoffs sapped my morale and motivation. Based on information I received on this site, I held out a little longer hoping that a layoff would catch me, and luckily for me, it did. This gave me 4 months of pay I was not expecting between nonworking notice and severance and made me eligible for unemployment if I don't find another job by the end of my severance.
I found that the toxic environment and layoff threat was similar when I was at BofA. I left there voluntarily and vowed to never work at a bank again. After a number of years I was recruited at WF and broke my vow. The role seemed perfect, and the pay was good. When I was at BofA, folks considered WF the "good bank" because BofA was in the news getting fined left and right, and I was hoping my experience would be different at WF. It wasn't. Same toxic environment, same constant layoff threat, but in addition WF was way behind BofA as far as technology goes - so hard to stay current and relevant in the marketplace. Folks at BofA had the same attitude as folks at WF - nobody wanted to leave without severance. Even though I was lucky to get severance, I would have left without it. Too many people endure the cr-p that these companies dish out all for the sake of not wanting to lose the severance they earned. Everyone knew how much severance they had at any given time. Severance is a set of golden handcuffs. Life is too short. If you hate this job, go elsewhere, even without severance - just not to another big bank. You will not regret it in the long run.
Anyone wanting to work at a big bank, or really any large corporation, needs to have thick skin and not worry about layoffs, reorgs, selfish or seemingly incompetent CEOs, tone deaf management, illogical RTO requirements, etc. All of these things are out of your control and worrying about them won't result in anything except making you unhappy. I am not built that way, so could not endure it.
I know, this is not an airport, no need to announce my departure, but I hope that this info might be useful to someone struggling at WF or considering taking a position at "the firm", and gathering my thoughts was therapeutic for me. 🙂