It’s a fact that the terminated employees made a mistake. They shouldn’t pretend it was ok to keep a reimbursement for a returned item. Also a fact, Fidelity wants to reduce workforce in a cost effective and PR-friendly way. They also don’t want very talented ex-employees to have an easy time joining the competition. What better way to accomplish than to find a minor violation, axe hundreds, pay no severance, and tarnish the terminated employees’ regulatory records so the employees can’t work in the industry for any reputable firm again, while preaching integrity to the media. If they actually cared about the employees and the goal was to correct bad behavior, how about warnings and coaching as the first step? Nope, years of silence and then straight to termination and public disclosures. We have seen top shelf employees get blindsided by this and families affected. The investigators love the power they wield over their subjects. No wonder the role attracts the type of people it does, you know what I’m talking about. Open secret in the industry that Fidelity does this. Competitors have been happy to hire Fidelity talent in the past but not if there is a stain on brokercheck. Sick of stress wondering if tomorrow it’s you based on some minor thing from years ago you can’t even remember. Feels like the only way to protect your livelihood is to take the first step which takes guts. How to tell friends and family the reason why you’re suddenly looking to take a parallel job at Schwab?
Posted by @SUABhNe-araf in a long thread, I thought it deserved to be posted on its own for laying it out exactly as it is.