#meeting

Just a quick reminder that while we’re all committed to collaboration, scheduling meetings at 4 a.m. feels less like ‘flexibility’ and more like a hostage situation. Work–life balance shouldn’t require night vision goggles. Unless the building is on fire or we’re launching a rocket, no one should be required to function professionally at that hour.

As a retired, original LP owner I am wondering why the most obvious question was not addressed.
How will this change affect annual payout percentage, for original owners, in the future. We have enjoyed an average 20% for many, many years. Will that most likely be reduced.

At BNY, leadership isn’t something you do—it’s something you post about. In this gilded age of corporate theater, where substance is optional but hashtags are mandatory, BNY has perfected the art of appearing important while doing absolutely nothing of measurable value. Welcome to the House of Optics™, where the louder you are on Teams, the closer you are to God (or at least to a LinkedIn shoutout from someone with “Global” or "Head" in their title).

Let’s begin with the sacred ritual of the Selfie of Significance™. At BNY, no moment is too trivial to commemorate with a front-facing camera and a forced grin. Did you attend a 15-minute “Leadership Listening Session” where no one listened and nothing was led? That’s a selfie. Did you stand near a VP while they cut a ribbon on a building funded by tax credits and the dreams of displaced mid-career professionals? That’s a selfie. Did you walk past a banner that said “Innovation Starts Here” while wondering what your job actually is? Selfie. Bonus points if you tag the Executive Committee member who once waved in your general direction at a town hall.

But the real magic happens in the Testimonial Industrial Complex™, where associates are gently nudged (read: strongly encouraged) to post about how “energized,” “inspired,” and “humbled” they are to be in the presence of greatness—greatness being defined as someone who once said “synergy” in a meeting without laughing. These testimonials are often indistinguishable from hostage notes, except with more emojis and fewer demands. “Feeling so proud to be part of today’s strategic alignment session with our fearless leader!” reads one post, accompanied by a photo of a man in a Patagonia vest nodding at his own PowerPoint.

Leadership at BNY is not measured by outcomes, impact, or even basic competence. It is measured by decibel level and calendar saturation. The true leaders are those who speak the most in Teams meetings, regardless of whether they say anything. In fact, saying nothing is preferred—it reduces the risk of accountability. The goal is to be seen speaking, not heard making sense. Bonus points for using phrases like “double-click,” “value prop,” and “let’s circle back” in a single breathless monologue.

And oh, the meetings. BNY has elevated the Meeting as Performance Art to an Olympic sport. There are meetings to plan meetings, meetings to debrief meetings, and meetings to align on the outcomes of meetings that never had outcomes. If you’re not in at least six simultaneous Teams calls, are you even leading?

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee floats above it all, like a celestial body emitting vague strategic radiation. They are thanked profusely in every post, regardless of their involvement. “Huge thanks to [Insert EC Member] for their visionary leadership!” reads a caption beneath a photo of a hallway. No one knows what the EC actually does, but their names are invoked like corporate deities—part reverence, part insurance policy.

But BNY’s pièce de résistance is its Public Diversion Strategy™, a masterclass in distraction marketing. While morale craters and more layoffs loom, the company unveils a new building, a new partnership, or a new initiative with a state college mascot no one’s heard of. These announcements are accompanied by drone footage, branded cupcakes, and LinkedIn posts with captions like “So proud to be part of this journey!”—a journey that, coincidentally, involves replacing experienced professionals with interns and new college grads who think COBOL is a TikTok dance.

These partnerships are not about education or community impact. They are about labor arbitrage agreements with a side of PR frosting. BNY receives generous economic development credits to build “pipelines” of low-cost, inexperienced talent while quietly offboarding seasoned employees like expired yogurt. The message is clear: if you’ve been here long enough to know how things work, you’re a liability. Please collect your commemorative stress ball and don't let the door hit you in the a*ss on the way out!

And yet, the illusion persists. Awards, merit and promotions are given for “visibility,” not value. Promotions go to those who master the art of Strategic Echoing™—repeating what someone just said, but louder and with a slide. Recognition is bestowed upon those who “lean in” to performative enthusiasm, not those who quietly deliver results. The loudest voice in the room is assumed to be the smartest, even if it’s just reading the agenda out loud.

In this ecosystem, actual accomplishment is a liability. It implies you were focused on work instead of cultivating your personal brand. Worse, it might make others look bad. The safest path to success is to be loud, visible, and vaguely inspirational. Think TED Talk energy, but with less content and more acronyms. Afterall, who started this practice and how has this become the fabric of the Robin Vince BNY culture?

So what’s the lesson here? At BNLie, it’s not about what you do—it’s about what you appear to do. Leadership is not a function of impact, but of optics, volume, and proximity to power. The currency of success is not competence, but curated enthusiasm and PR hype. And the ultimate sin is not failure—it’s silence.

So smile for the camera, tag your favorite executive, and remember: the building may be empty, the strategy may be incoherent, and the talent may be fleeing—but as long as the LinkedIn post gets 100 likes and 450 impressions, everything is fine with the personal brand.

Integration meetings between HPE and Juniper are in full steam and it is interesting to see the human psyche there. All lemmings working day and night, knowing that as soon as integration is complete, they will the first one to be let go. Toiling hard to eventually ki-l their own jobs!

This has been the well rehearsed blueprint.

Confirmed, have a meeting on the calendar. Off cycle due to holiday next week!

Anyone received the Business Update meeting invite?

Good luck everyone.

Uh-oh!

It's probably the EC figuring out a new time for meetings, but what do any of us learn at these? Rah rah b.s. and lies.

Is this it? Is this how people are notified? Is there any chance this could be something else? I feel sick to my stomach.

i see a sudden meeting with hr, is it scary?

Just got an invite this afternoon to meet with my one other coworker (We’re L5), the SVP of our area and then our boss’ boss. No agenda, no details. Meeting is private. Seems really strange and now I’m stressed out again.

Is there 1000ish people in this 9am meeting? Could there be a round 2 today? Still dead silent over where I am.

Tell these id--ts there’s no sound in the meeting. Seriously, what an awful company.

how long do we have to wait? meeting invites shouldn’t come after 8 right?

apparently there will be multiple going out. So hang in there if you get one in another wave it may just be a reorg. But I think the first wave is the 9-915 meeting, strong possibility that’s a lay off and anything later may be something else

LOB: CLT

No email or meeting request for me. When will we start hearing?

Do we know what time the meeting is rumored to be? I have heard to check for an invite between 7-8am or it could come earlier. I have also heard you will get a different invite if you are safe… does anyone know if that’s true? Are you getting a meeting put on your cal regardless of the outcome? Or would that meeting be later in the day and be the “announcement” of the restructure?

Checking in to see if there were any 4 pm / EOD comms or meeting invites stateside. It was reported that TII received invites at 4 pm IST

I know tomorrow morning is when the meeting will be, but anyone know timing of when invites will go out? 4pm today or 7:30 tomorrow morning?

What other departments got hit? Seems like this is going to be another big one. That was a fun meeting, love to hear what others are being told.

My leader has a meeting scheduled with the team on Wednesday for update on HQ changes. Does that mean we're safe from layoff?

Nov 21st - Has anyone heard about some leaders told to keep Nov 21 open for something. I am not sure what...nothing good or just a management meeting? I saw a post here a while back that mentioned it but wondering if there is an update with more information.

Canceled abruptly!

Whenever we have these off sites for our division, I always feel like we leave with more questions than answers. Just once , it would be good to have GPs that can answer questions directly vs wishy washy unclear responses.

Say a mass layoff happens next week like it did back in 2015. Will the meetings where they break the news to people be over Zoom? Will there be a room option and a Zoom option tied to the meeting. I’m just trying to picture how this will all work given our hybrid model, as that obviously wasn’t a thing they really had to worry about back in 2015. I honestly hope it’s just a Zoom call. Sounds less traumatizing lol

Considering cancel this meetings for my office day. It’s hard to be in office by 7am and stay until 8pm to take those calls.

Penny just announced there will be a partnership restructuring meeting on November 5, 2025. This is being presented as a very exciting opportunity for the firm. I would not expect this to be very associate friendly regardless of how Penny tries to spin it.

I was at 12, granted my attention was not full.

#collaboration

I've been here for a year and I've come to realize my manager can’t let anything go. He changes directions mid-project, gives out bad info, and sticks his nose into things he clearly doesn’t understand. Every decision turns into a meeting about making his own boss happy instead of getting the job done. It’s exhausting and makes it really hard to get any work completed efficiently. Is this a known Wells Fargo thing or did I just get very unlucky?

Attend Board Meetings and a few meaningless town halls
Hire Retreads from JPM but cut jobs held by everyone else
Collect millions in stock and salary
Vacation often

Here we go again… another meeting with upper management… you know what that means more bad news for company

Thoughts?

Any ideas why we are having this meeting on Tuesday? Seems weird

I’ve lost count of how many meetings end right where they started. So much talking, no real direction, and when someone actually offers something useful, it gets dismissed. Why is it that the people running things can’t tell the difference between noise and insight?

What a total bore fest…

What the heck were these people even saying?????