A badly needed reset…
We had a 1% layoff attempt way back in January 2023, and for unknown reasons it failed and was less than 1/2%. HR employees posted here about stopping it because of broken water pipes and other reasons but really nobody knows why it was cancelled.
What is known is that we still have not had a major layoff since Charlie Scharf’s August 2018 massacre. 1% and lower are normal levels at all normal companies. At 1/2% we are essentially layoff free.
To put this in perspective, the true layoff era was from 2000 to 2008, where we displaced 10% per year, every year, no exceptions. Ever since that era there has been nothing out of the ordinary for any large bank or other corporation.
Forced rankings have really helped us to trim the fat.
While It would really be nice to trim a few layers at the MD level and above, and also delayer Middle Management, that is an issue at every large corporation.
What is not healthy is for employees to constantly obsess over utterly normal turnover levels while the real issue here is the lack of pay progression, toxic management, systematic cutting of all benefits from 401K to Pension to Medical, etc.
One final point… you own your career. Every day that you read this forum in disgust is a day that you really should be working on your job search. But do be aware that BNYM layoff levels are utterly normal everywhere.