I asked my manager and she told me she had no involvement in layoffs and didn’t know the night before she had to lay someone off . I don’t know I hard this find to believe .
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1/2 the team was given up to RCSA work & then laid off. Did the manager have the say on who to give to RCSA? Knowing it would lead to a displacement?
I'm also a laid off and now retired M-4. My whole team was laid off at once. I knew something was going on...I asked my boss to be straight with me because all my years of WF service at least bought me that amount of honesty. He told me the Head of our organization offered my whole team up based on a straight budget cut that was required in 30 days worth of time.
Obviously as a Director I was not consulted. The decision was made at the top of my organization and my whole team met a budget number and they went with that. A secondary lever we tripped was that we had a fair amount of the team that were remote (meaning the core locations were picked 2 months earlier) compared to peer teams.
I was formally told on Monday, the day before, we were all being laid off...then I had to lay off my team one by one on Tuesday, the lay off day, before noon and their access was shut off. I was done at the end of the day...and that was that.
I worked in compliance and usually the layoffs are done by high up 1-2 steps down from Charlie 6 months in advance. Then it’s cascaded down to 3-4 steps to decide names but from there it’s arbitrary.
I was told off the record almost 3months in advance along with the names of others in the same wave.
it really just depends on the reason for the lay off. For location strategy managers and their leadership know it's coming and have a list of impacted (remote. non core or specialty market) but HR handles these so manager won't know until just before you. For efficiency driven layoffs, that is a different story and varies by team. in some cases managers are actually doing the layoff so they get a little more of a heads up to ensure they have time to take the required training. In my experience, most lower level direct managers (m1 or m2) are only made aware a day or 2 in advance.
Fairly certain mine knew mid-day the day before. They starting acting a bit off during the day.
The real answer is all/any of the below because it is constantly fluxing. Here are the minimum guarantee’s :
- We have all been ranked as to the direct impact if displaced and that has been bubbled up the chain.
- Reviews do not necessarily correlate to impact so just because you’ve always been an exceeds doesn’t mean you’re the most or one of the most valuable on the team.
- What I have seen is that those selected have run the gamut from “important not to lose” to “no impact if lost”.
- I know my manager has made recommendations that have both been followed and completely ignored.
Everyone’s mileage may vary. I trust what my manager has told me because for the several years we have been together there has never been a reason not to and everything has played out as described to me. Both the public and confidential information I have been given.
Former SVP/Director (retired) here. I have had multiple scenarios regarding displacements. I have been advised I needed to reduce headcount, and been provided a number, at which point I tried to make the best decisions for my teams regarding displacements. I have also been in the situation where an entire location was being displaced, and I was involved in the planning process for better than a year. I have also been in the position where I was informed, but had no involvement in the decision or planning for the displacement. It typically depends upon the reason for the displacements (location strategy vs budget). I was not ever informed the day before or day of the displacement, HOWEVER, I have remained friends with former peers, my former directs, and others within the company and I know several recent instances where the managers were not aware that their teams were being displaced. They were told there were org changes coming, and when they got the team meeting, assumed it was to announce the new org, only to find out their teams were being displaced and they had 30 minutes to update their contact info and other HR related tasks and then leave. The managers manager was also not aware until day of.
WF has become a cut throat company and honestly, I am glad to no longer be there. I feel bad for many of my friends who suffer anxiety each day due to the work environment there.
My manager was in tears when they told us who was leaving, especially over one of the most skilled, most loved and long serving members of our team. I know that wasn't their choice. Such a sad and scary time for all.
In my experience, the criteria is usually one or some combination of location, performance rating, and tenure. These decisions are made at a director or SVP level (meaning at least 2-3 levels up from the actual employee). If none of the above criteria can be used to determine the actual people, then they may have a discussion with the manager or supervisor to decide who goes. The individuals are usually decided on at least 3 months in advance. However, the layoff can be cancelled literally up to the night before the employee is informed if business needs change or more people in the group voluntarily leave. That's why the employee's direct manager is usually not informed until the last minute.
Every time I've layed off employees it's been a building closure situation, and I get the news the day before the employee does. For "efficiency" layoffs, however, I'm sure managers or sr managers or directors have input in some situations.
I don't believe there is a night before. Probably more like a week or two before. I do believe they give them a count of who they must ax and the manager chooses.
Now when I worked at another bank, my manager had no say. H/R told me he fought hard to keep me in the coming days, but was told it wasn't in the budget.
By the way OP, if your post includes broken English or a huge grammatical error, people won't take your post seriously, just saying... If the mistake happened when you were cutting and pasting words, that's so unfortunate.
Technically, the line managers don't make direct decisions on who to lay off. However, Sr. managers often solicit feedback from the line managers. As such, the line managers can influence their bosses and make recommendations. Because your managers never made "a direct decision", he/she can always say, "sorry, I didn't make this decision".
My manager had no say; he was told who was going to be displaced and approx. timeframe. The Wednesday before the Tuesday (displace date) is when he was told the exact date. Heard this same scenario from several managers.
Seems like I've read on here the manager knows the night before. I've always wondered if HR tells the manager displace someone on your team. Then wonder if it's pre-selected by HR, or chosen at that point by the manager. All by written communication between HR and the manager. I would think everything is documented. Wells Fargo is formal for sure if someone in HR heads up the Displacement Advisory Group. (The one that sends out WARN letters).