Thread regarding U.S. Bank layoffs

OP needs to get a clue. My bank is further down the same road. What you're missing is that the layoffs won't stop. They will continue, every year until there's hardly anything left in the US outside of customer facing people (for as long as they are needed...) and executives. Everything else will be outsourced, automated, or contracted. My company has outsourced and contracted100,000 people in the last 14 years or so and the layoffs are still increasing, not slowing. 12k last year, likely heading for 15k this year. First they'll tell you that you need to "return to office" for better collaboration and culture building. The RTO process is designed to do two things. First, some people voluntarily leave. This saves the company money on severance, so the torment has benefits. Second, some will not comply. Those people are fired for noncompliance, also saving the company severance. The idea of blind obedience is reinforced in the compliant population, and they are lead to believe that doing so will keep them safe. But it's a lie.

Next they will claim that your biz group has identified specific hubs to centralize their people, again, to enhance collaboration. A certain percentage of the workers will fall outside the lines...and will be downsized. They'll say they were let go based on this location strategy, but you know fundamentally and as a practical matter that it's a lie. It's obvious when some of the victims beg to be saved and offer to relocate to a hub on their own dime and are refused the opportunity. You see, a relocation must be approved, and yours has not been approved.

Meanwhile, every effort is made to contract our roles out or eliminate them via automation/AI. These "efficiency" terms are legion and replace hard working and knowledgeable employees with people that couldn't care less about the future of the company. The executives care little about the chaos that ensues, and claim that it's an improvement. While they fire your friends they'll drone on during countless meetings about how much they appreciate employees, without a hint of sarcasm in their well-practiced voices.

The final blow is to start closing hubs, one at a time, as even more domestic roles are eliminated. They'll label them as not being 'go-forward locations'. They'll claim that it's necessary to compete in the marketplace and that they are being mindful as they lay waste to their workforce. All the compliance and bu++ kissing in the world won't save you from this round.

The modern bank executive has a fantasy, one where a few overseas wage slaves and AI toil away and earn billions while they sit in their ivory tower high fiving each other. The only obstacle to making that a reality is that severance for large numbers of people is expensive, and bad PR could lead to a negative impact as well. Can't have that, so they scheme to bring about their plans through lies and treachery. The string of indignities won't end, because all they want from you is for you to voluntarily quit.

Young workers with limited YoS and severance coming will bail more and more frequently. The old guard nearing retirement will hang on for dear life, uninterested in testing the job market and rampant age discrimination. A good number of people will be stuck in the middle, not close enough to retire, not so young that jumping ship into this job market seems like a good idea. The culture slowly dies, and no one in the ivory tower gives a damn.

Such drama.

"Based on that number above, that means ~59,000 people are still going to be around. It's not like they are going to eliminate 50% of the staff."

Is an estimated 16% RIF in one year not a big deal to you? Certain departments and functions have been decimated. Let me guess, the layoffs are fine as long as you are not impacted?

The layoff process description is accurate. The anti Western anti capitalism ideology isn't.

100%. This is what the currently incarnation al of capitalism is (and maybe many incarnations previous.)

To add to the poster pointing out some truth to the OP -- very valid. The perspective of "I did not get to chose who was fired and I had to read from a script someone else provided for me" (for example) was a very great perspective to share. It's a shame that the valuable points are hidden behind such a smug wall of text and rhetorical trappings that I'm not sure the OP was intending.

"SOOO much bad information here."

So stop posting.

Okay a lot of people are coming down on the original poster, but there is some truth in what they say. Andy did make a commitment to Wall Street to reduce expenses by X amount.

The only way that’s gonna happen is to cut people, cut buildings cut overhead. So that’s the theory behind the hub locations, we’re going to consolidate and then we’re gonna close those locations that we no longer need to eliminate rent, or any gain on sale goes back to the bottom line. Along those lines we’re going to cut some of the staff out because we don’t need them anymore and we can do more with less, or so they think.

Departments probably have been given a percentage that they have to cut Or dollar amount that they have to save. It’s a part of doing business. Things have changed and this is kind of how the world is right now. I’m not saying that it’s right, but you have to read through the lines on the original post. There’s a lot of truth in that post.

Getting laid off su-ks, but talking about jobs as a divine right is also very juvenile.

Also, quit with the paternalism towards the younger generations in this lazy post filled with straw man arguments towards capitalism.

Pretty much every other country on the planet has some version of socialism with varying degrees of totalitarianism. People lose jobs there too, and it's not all as it seems. The majority of the the World population still wants to come here. I wonder why?!?

True American capitalism is dead. Other wise in 2008 the government would not have bailed banks or later other corporations.

Greed and corruption is very much alive.

Useful id--ts who perpetuate the problem like you are still doing what they are told.

Has humanity not learned that following orders that harm others don’t work out in the long term?

A post that condescends to the youths and imposes what their politics should be. OP's suggestion that they are GenX/almost boomer checks out. Weird that they assume the posts are all from young people that need workplaces explained to them and not primarily other 55+ year old men.

And that someone should be you dear author.

Our psyche eventually snaps when you do things for your job because you are told to by your boss that you know in your heart are awful.

While maybe you tried to educate on the process you just showed that the process is outdated and unsustainable.

One things to note is those who do the chopping will one day be chopped too.

I read no guilt or shame in your note. Don’t justify cutting people jobs so easily.

Please spare us your half formed communist manifesto. You’re a tool, literally and figuratively. I have worked for 7 banks over a career at least as long as yours. This bank is indeed unique in its approach to its employees. This bank has fostered an unusually toxic culture which demands more than it’s entitled to while giving back the bare minimum. Wear your lapel pin and speak no evil, lest the hand of Big Brother fall upon you. Remember to say “thank you” when we deign to match your lowly 401k contribution once per year (did we remind you that it is “voluntary” for us to do so?). Forget that other institutions might treat you like an industry professional while we shower you with valueless and undignified tokens of our “esteem” that are akin to a Burger King employee of the month award. Endure an endless stream of conference calls designed to create the appearance of management. Your actual production is secondary to your ability to help your manager look better in comparison to his/her peers. Accept the fact that you will not know what your compensation will be until we tell you, and don’t question it when we do. Be happy you even have a job, and adopt an appropriately fear-based posture of obeisance like the rest of your fellow serfs. It’s all so ugly, d-mb, mean and cheap – and they’ll never do what needs to be done, or actually commit the capital, to ever rise above the status of a hidebound little parochial bank that has outgrown its efforts or abilities. The bank gets bigger, but the management approach stays the same. This can’t be taken as an indictment of our economic system, and it only seems normal to lifers that have been here their whole careers.