Thread regarding Bank of New York Mellon Corp. layoffs

Realistically my team is pretty small and we are all average workers or bettor although Charlie does not believe in such things. There was an employee on my team that was told that he had to "take one for the team" with the BE and it was nothing to worry about. Well he did not even make it to the next month before being walked out. In the current climate BE's at mid year or year end are placing you on death row with no chance of a pardon.

I do not know what situation is worse to be in - the employee who gets the BE target on their back or the manager who is forced to rate someone BE and fabricate some BS reason because senior management made them do it.

It’s id--tic what they’re doing with BE forced rankings. If you want to ensure as best you can that there’s a healthy bell curve, provide more guidance and training to managers around just what is and what is not BE. The way it’s structured now is just what is mentioned in other comments. Pick one for BE regardless of whether that’s the case or not....and managers have to try and nitpick some BS reason for it. As you might imagine, these employees see right through the BS and the negative morale that comes with it’s having detrimental effects on the morale of the entire company. Gimme a break. This is no way to run a company. If they’re truly BE, by all means it should reflect in ratings, but forcing it come hell or high water is pretty dumb if you want to retain talent and care about employee morale...and clients for that matter.

It’s not quite the same as Nazis following orders from Hitler, it just feels that way sometimes.

One day I might wake up and realize the forced ranking policy I brought upon this company is disgusting. But not today.

Signed,

Charlie

I am a manager and not following orders.

I rated a person OK and that was overlaid by my manager’s BE. Yes I asked for an explanation and said it wasn’t fair, but was shown that “differentiating performance” video and told, “that’s what we do here”.

I don’t feel complicit, but I still wish I didn’t work here anymore. First opportunity, I am outta here.

Hey BNY, you got a two-for: a BE to make you happy, and a good manager out the door.

Happy now?

We had a manager who stood up to them and refused to rate an additional person BE, having already been forced to unfairly rate others BE. He was fired in the next round of layoffs.

As for our team, we don't have any BE performers. When this started, people who got BE ratings were told they were "taking one for the team". As our actual work is not BE, they had to go to one of the corporate bs goals, like "diversity and inclusion", and rate people BE on those categories.

I don't know how they can get away with this from a legal standpoint. We are being told that there is nothing wrong with our work, but still being rated BE because they "have to" rate 10-15% of the group BE.

I'd love to record some of the conversations and run it by a lawyer, just out of curiosity.

Managers justify their participation in the process in the same way Nazi soldiers did: they essentially say, "Well, it's a horrible thing, but I was following orders and doing my job. If you want to blame anyone, blame those at the top."

There are a few brave people with real moral fiber, but at the end of the day, most are complicit in the process, and therefore bear some of the ethical responsibility.

Confirming: yes these are the instructions BNY gives for targeting one or more people out of a group, without regard to how great everyone might be.

(There could be exceptions, dispensed as needed to favorite people or teams.)

But if you are unlucky enough to be in a group of high performers, anyone could get BE.

How ironic is THAT.