I would like to hear your opinion: if a person gives their best, is dedicated to their work and adds value to the company, is it still possible to end up unfairly marked as "below" expectations? If so, is it possible to prevent it somehow?
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Bob Kelly was fired after he found and accepted another C.E.O. position, gave notice, and then tried to change his mind and come back. Gerald Hassel then stepped in to lead. Bob Kelly never worked with Charlie. He was gone long before Charlie arrived.
Hard to believe Bob Kelly allowed Charlie to fire anyone in 2008. But I guess you know what you're talking about...
But we’ve had exactly ONE sub 1% layoff in the 4 3/4 years since Charlie’s 2008 August massacre. Even January’s less than 1% cut was historically low. Consider that from 2000 to 2008 we had 10% plus layoffs annually with no exception.
I’ve heard of PTSD but this is simply unjustified paranoia.
@9snp, if that were the case, 99% of our employees would be doing the needful. Something tells me you don't even work here if you're that clueless. Tell Uncle Todd we said FO-E!.
You can still be paranoid if you like but it doesn’t change the fact that we haven’t had a significant Layoff since Charlie Scharf’s August 2018 massacre. And don’t tell us that January’s sub 1%layoff is significant. From 2000 to 2008 BNYM displaced a full 10% per year for eight years.
But feel free to be paranoid.
I hope this jag who’s on here day after day talking about there not being layoffs since chainsaw Charlie gets canned.
Ja----s
@7tpl, layoffs haven't been performance based in a decade. It's mostly based on your location and the politics that goes along with it.
And just because we only have a couple 1% layoffs per year doesn't mean you shouldn't worry. 60% of you co-workers are offshore and won't be axed. So if we can five hundred people every January and another couple hundred every April or so, it's just a matter of time until you win the lotto.
There’s a lot to complain about but anybody living in fear of layoffs is paranoid. We’re performance based and it’s been 5 years since we’ve had a major layoff… way back under Charlie in August. Do your job and you’ll be fine.
HR doesn't deny that we use Forced Rankings… quite the opposite. This was announced at Mellon in 2000 in the very same messaging when bonuses for the rank and file were established. People were really excited to be performance based with bonuses. I know that it’s made me work harder for decades. It’s a beautiful system.
But there hasn’t been a significant layoff since Charlie in August 2018. What drives this psychosis? A Sub 1% layoff in January can’t explain it.
@6shf, I think their point is that employees live in fear of being fired. Instead of competently handling layoffs by telling all employees what benefits they have if they're fired, the size of the planned reduction, the timeframe of when they're going to be ranked, the timeframe and eventually the actual date and time of when they're going to be notified, if they're fired OR NOT, and about how long they can count on having a job if they weren't fired.
The work is not hard the political games at the company of having to play dirty to get ahead is the part that is hard and sets the good workers back who are their to truly keep their head down and work.
Uhh, yeah. But If you’re going to be that picky then you’re wrong. They actually are employees in the process of transitioning to displaced employees.
What an @rse.
@4tgc, those are EX employees who are being somewhat comforted.
It’s actually pretty easy to meet expectations for those who are putting out effort. But for some people who are doing their best, it may still place them as the least productive employee on the team. In cases like that it is possible to be B.E., fated to be on a PIP and displaced. Some people really just aren’t cut out for their job. But the good news is that there’s a job for everyone somewhere and you only need to self assess and make sure that you know what you can offer.
I recommend “ What color is your Parachute? You’ll learn how to self assess, learn your likes, talents, the kind of work you like to or are meant to do, etc. If you find the job that you love you’ll never work a day in your life. For me it was Financial Services and Technology and for a long time it was here until the place just disintegrated.
https://parachutebook.com/”.
It seems better employees are more of a threat and a target, managers fall into the "theme" of common feedback from the mediocre workers that provide the negative feedback. If you notice productive workers don't need to provide negative feedback of others or put people down to make themselves look better. Seems to be why at least those employees have a happy ending when they move on, realizing they deserved better. These policies aren't motivating. Wish management read this website instead of peakon to actually learn something.
They do promote the package to employees whom are being displaced and HR will even help with the paperwork to connect it to retirement for older employees. It’s the only HR process that seems to be well run.
I’m surprised that we still offer the SUB package. Most companies give only two weeks pay and people immediately go on unemployment. It’s an obvious place to cut and so many older workers would self select to leave if it was ended.
@3idl, well, all they have to do is end the package. In fact, what's the use of having it?
They don't even promote the package to entice new hires or when comforting current employees who are blindsided with their job being "eliminated". That's just stoopid.
No, our DEI HR hire seems to think that demoralizing employees is the way to get them to leave for free with no package.
A BE rating is sometimes used to save money on raises I think. How much money can the bank save per year not giving merit increases. I think they pick a few employees on purpose.
You obviously don’t know anything about the Bell Curve and how we’ve used it to create forced rankings. We all wind up below expectations by design.
If u get a BE, use as your signal to start looking immediately or plan to be laid off.
PERIOD
Really, @1xsy? You didn't ask what categories to give him BE in? Or if they wanted you to give him a BE overall? It seems further discussion would have been required.
We are all just another brick in a crumbling wall…each one of us will have our day in the BE arena. It’s only a matter of time.
Having flexible ethics is a key interpersonal trait at BNYM.
As a manager, I've had my director come to me and say "Give John a BE." No further discussion was permitted. Whether or not HR wants to admit it, we do forced rankings.
It could be due to forced rankings on a small team, or a manager of a long time group of good friends sticking it to the new hire outsider… or a heads down dedicated worker who never takes a break to network, gossip or schmooze up to the manager. Sometimes it really is just a flat out bad worker.
You don't need to be BE to get canned.
Our DEI HR hire seems to think demoralizing employees is the way to get more work out of them.
Absolutely. I received a surprise BE at a year end review. All my previous reviews were good, and I was not aware of any issues. My manager couldn’t even identify specific things I was doing wrong. In fact he was clueless on the work I was actually doing. Personally, I thought I was doing great and I knew that the actual stakeholders of my work were very happy. A month later I got laid off. The joke was on him though. I quickly found a better job for way more money and way less stress.
Doing your best? Performance should be evaluated on results, not effort.
Someone who is trying to do their best will distinguish themselves in their own way that may earn them time. But individual performance should be considered alongside that of co-workers. If others are performing better, effort isn’t going to be enough.
Just my humble opinion as a manager.
As the other commenter pointed out, management tends to pressure managers to find people to cut. They have a view that continually managing out the lowest 10-15% is healthy for an org. (There are lots of unintended consequences to that thinking that is destructive to an org.)
It’s a variety of reasons you could be below expectations. It’s not always because of your true performance. Managers are pressured because they have to make cuts somewhere. And there are managers that do it out of spite because they know the employee is not happy or content for various reasons and want to change departments. It happened to me, but luckily, I had good luck and faith with me. I was able to still leave and change departments in spite of a below expectations. Which was out of spite. just a way of holding me back from leaving. there are controlling managers. they don’t want their employees to move on.