Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Working for Wells Fargo in an unsafe and hostile office environment it was no wonder my mental health had been severely affected. The week of October 26, 2023, I had missed a week of work due to illness. The following Monday when I had intended on returning to work I was actually scheduled for a very important MRI, so I had to miss work again. I am currently in remission from br---t cancer and when I tried keeping in contact with my manager the week I had missed and then the Monday I needed to miss I was left to silence causing me even more distress and anxiety. My MRI came back with a new lump so I was scheduled an immediate mammogram and biopsy that Tuesday. I called in to work and emailed but no response still. At which point I left a voicemail crying on one of the managers phones begging for someone to tell me why I have not had a response and if I was still employed. Thank God my biopsy came back non cancerous. But none of my managers at WELLSFargo had even acknowledged me. So with the other incredibly uncomfortable situations going on at the office I felt I could not return to work until I spoke to a manager to get explanation as to why I had been ignored and left to panic about my job after being sick for 5 days. I continued to reach out to my manager and workforce via email begging for some sort of acknowledgment, whether it was them saying I was fired or whatever the case be. Finally Nov. 6th after I messaged workforce that no one in management would acknowledge me or respond to my pleas of help and that I was unsure what this meant or if I was still even an employee, a totally different manager reached out to me to let me know my manager was no longer there, since when I don’t know but that she wanted me to have every option available to me and told me to continue working with accommodations and Lincoln to possibly work from home because of my health concerns. She didn’t say I could come back to work she didn’t say how about you start at home this week and we will work with your doctors from there, she didn’t help at all except to tell me she got my messages and good news my biopsy was clear. In fact I stayed in communication with her and workforce while my doctor filled out and submitted paperwork to both Lincoln financial and wf accommodations team several times from October 26 to November 10 to no avail. My doctor actually recommended that I look for something different. She said she has never seen the type of questions she was being asked for this type of accommodation. She had already given them my office notes and my diagnosis and everything they asked for several times but the paperwork kept being sent back and my Dr asked for even more. My Dr said she would do it but she felt that they really just didn’t want me there anymore. The first time she had suggested this I thought no way. I like my job I am not going to be forced to quit. But then by Nov 10 2023 and still no work or pay from Lincoln and no support from management I called it quits and put in my resignation. I had called Hr that morning to explain to them what was happening and had been happening inside the office I worked at and with the managers. They said even if I do resign they will still open a case because the things that I had said had happened were not supposed to be tolerated. They didn’t discourage me from quitting though. When I did finally send the message of resignation the manager I sent it to did nothing to help me and did nothing to keep me. I had been capable of working that entire time but no one in the office gave me that as an option.

@1wlv+1q6Jhr3y

Maybe in your LOB, not in mine. My FTE is fixed, so if I somehow chased off people, I'd just have to hire less experienced ones to replace them and my retention numbers would su-k. That's the opposite of efficiency. That might negatively impact my annual review, but the opposite has never been true the entire 23 years I've been here. Not all businesses are the same. Breaking news I know.

Everyone at Wells should be "quietly quitting". Even those that have good managers. Why? Eventually, you will either lose your "good manager". You will be either moved to a project with a toxic manager, your manager will leave, or your manager will be laid off.
Assume you will be working for a toxic manager shortly. In the past, in normal times trying to "fix" a bad manager might be in order.
But these are not normal times.
Instead of buying back stock, which Charlie anticipates other banks doing, Charlie is reserving money for severance and offshoring expenses -- calling all of this "efficiency".

@2pdo

Some of the things you recommend are illegal in some states.

Record every convo ypu have with this mgr. Document every email. If your on a PIP, make their life he-l by confirming everything you do in regards to that PIP and make them accountable. It will be at least a year before they have enough documented crud on you so you have a lot of time to correct and satisfy the PIP.

WF is trying to get people tp quit, but is also ramping up termination efforts. EOY performance reviews are the start of mass PIPs, with 2024 full of terminations.

It's an ugly strategy and quite often unwarranted. They are counting on minimal lawsuits. Those terminated for faux cause should lawyer up.

This is why the $$$ set aside for severance seems low. WF plans on major RIF, but w/o the severance expense in many cases.

Seemingly innocuous Workday performance app check-ins are used to "paper" employees. Don't let mgrs tell you otherwise.

Same here. New manager took over team 6 months ago. Never attended any team meetings saying he is busy with other team while I was busy with helping the team allocating , coordinating work along with another team member who played a minor role. Now the manager says that I have to justify my place in the team and lashes out with unreasonable arguments and demands.
Can’t believe if both of us are in the same universe considering the workload I took up last year and his perception even though I kept him in the loop all through.
There is definitely a push from top management to get as many people to quit to avoid paying severance.
CEO himself mentioned this last week about this.

Post ID: @1xhn+1q6Jhr3y

Of course managers who get people to quit (and thereby reduce HC without severance) will be positively acknowledged and rewarded in their “performance” under efficiency and expense reduction.

Do NOT go to the ethicsline as one poster mentioned, I can tell what will be said without you waiting the 3 plus months for them to get back to you (conveniently so it'll happen right after the window to report to EEOC or another government agency has closed)
"We investigated and found no wrong doing". There saved you a bunch of time and headache.
Your manager is a POS like so many at Wells now, although there is no clear incentive to have directs quit, CS has been clear that's what they want and many managers that add no other value think this is their way to stay or prove themselves.
I'll be staying until they pay me to leave, all the while acting my wage (no increase in pay means a reduction in spending power which means a reduction in my efforts)

@idwk...Did you comprehend what you read? The OP wasn't ranting. The manager was. It seems the OP is aware they should look for a new job but also knows severance is on the table. We don't know what part of their career they are in or what their personal situation may be. For some people, severance might be the better option.

It is worth it to ask if Wells is actively trying to force people to quit to avoid paying severance.

@daf+1q6Jhr3y

Thanks for this. My manager is in a west coast non-hub and knows he is history. So, his idea is that well the whole team has worked for the group too long so we all should start looking. No thank you. You do not want to move to a hub. I am all set. Again, I am not impressed with 6 or 7 down managers, they have no idea what is going on.

"Our jobs are being outsourced and it has been stated by management during town halls to expect reductions in head count".

OK, so what's the problem here that warrants such a long and winding diatribe?
Your quote above is quite clear!
Grow up.
Don't rant.
Update resume.
Start looking.
There you are, all your issues/solution outlined in four easy steps.
You're welcome!

@1xki+1q6Jhr3y Times and this bank are different now. Glad it worked out for you back then.

I got a similar talk back in 2008. I took my severance and it was the best summer of my life, got hired back.

Where/when/how did pilgrim men beat off? No lube back then. Family's always right there.

Manager treated me poorly for no reason. So, I left the team. Turns out the person she replaced me with was a friend of hers. Co-incidence? I think not.

“ incented” ? Incentivized.

This is not a thing OP. Well, a manager being a douche is a thing for sure, but they aren't getting some kind of kickback for getting you to quit.

OP, I could have written your post.
Same thing happened to me recently except my mgr is looking to terminate me bc I haven't quit despite mgr's hostile treatment. Mgr is looking for any possible reason to do so, and im 99% sure mgr plans on giving me a Needs Improvement rating to PIP me (1st one ever in my entire career).

There aren't words for how frustrating this is.

My old boss told me a few years ago that bonuses would be smaller "next year"- that was my indication she wanted me to move on, even though I was a high performer. She wanted to protect her "people" that were on the team before I joined. It had nothing to do with being good or not, just favored. She gave me menial tasks to do like organize & poll people for her Staff Meeting, even though I was a Senior person in CCAR. I literally bolted out the door. If you or your work is not appreciated, very few people hang around just for an inflated paycheck.

Not yet but I suspect I will have an OKR next year for “efficiency” as a code word for reducing headcount.

Simply, no

Manager This is hard for ME. My bosses expect ME to deal with this. Why won’t you just quit to make it easier for ME? Because you know it’s all about ME ME ME.

It’s not you. It’s them.

no, managers aren't incentivized to get ppl to quit.

Your boss might be in jeopardy themselves, have poor emotional control and lashing out because of their own anxiety about the situation

Your boss might be fed up/exasperated with you for some reason - also have poor emotional control and lashing out.

Either way, your boss has a problem.

Obviously they need to meet a quota for stack ranking employees to fire them. So if you quit they don't have to provide you severance and you unemployment benefits.

There are way too many horrid managers at WF than good and some have even seemed to have secured a position during the strategic layoffs. Karma is busy working on backlog—Karma will catch up.

No, managers aren’t incentivized to make people quit. That said, sounds like you have a bad manager, call ethics line.