Worked at BNYM for 12 years (Pittsburgh) before being laid off in Spring, 2021. Learned that my dept head actually decided at the beginning of each year who would receive what ratings and what raise percentage. The end of year reviews were written to confirm to the boss’ opinion of each person.
The dept was whittled down from 50 to less than 10 over the last 6-7 years. Layoffs were largely age-based. Oldest were laid off first and continuing down until management age is late thirties or less and rest of employees are below thirty.
When I confronted my boss about his apparent ageism, he argued that older people resist learning new tasks. He added that HR and Legal green lighted all his layoffs.