#stealthlayoff

No announcements, no WARN, just a few people here and there?

Well so much for the change in posture with new "leadershits" as folks are still randomly getting tagged and Rif'd. No news, no word, just the same old quiet layoffs to help bolster someone's 10 Mil stock target as a reality and not a bad dream. Exit while you can.

Be aware: they no longer want the negative attention and blowback from company wide layoffs. Instead, they are doing aggressive, targeted cuts. Yesterday, they laid off several directors and engineers from DevOps. Before that, marketing, design, and CS3.

• I posted this as a response, but figured it would be more useful to some if it was a standalone thread. *

  Come one, everybody! Don't be so gullible.

  CK didn't say there wouldn't be layoffs in our recent all-hands call, he just said they aren't focusing on that right now. It's an incredibly careful response the comms team has prepared ahead of time for the topic.

• What does 'focus on that right now' even mean? Focus on it later (this month? next month?) He might focus on them next week if the market reacts badly to his strategy?
  P23 and P24 were VERY expensive once you calculate out the VERP and severance packages of thousands of senior skilled colleagues with decades of time at the company. They'll want to find a cheaper approach to 'brushing their teeth' going forward. (Clue: "Our new Performance Management" where we overload you with work, give you impossible targets to hit, then later on use missing them as the reason to fire you for performance reasons with no payout).

• After the morale cratering debale that was how they handled P23 and P24, they'll want a quieter approach to future layoffs. They don't even have to tell you. Just cut a team of 15 here, 25, there, 55 here, 30 there... no need to announce it, and if anyone finds out use the bogus 'location strategy' explanation (you know, the BS one where a team of 30 can get cut because that office is not in their strategy, yet for other colleagues in that same location all is fine).

• The next layoffs will be cheaper and done as sneakily as possible - manufactured performance problems for expensive workers followed by unattainable PIPs, and voila.
  Let's not be gullible. "not focusing on that right now" absolutely DOESN'T mean there will be no layoffs in executive speak, just like "there aren't any plans currently" or "we want to keep our best people". They're empty non-answer phrases that give nothing away.

SAP couldn't give 2 ships about you as a person. Do what's best for you. If that means stay and try to put up with the political drama and backstabbing, good for you - best of luck to you. But if not, don't be blindsided. Tidy up that CV and start paying attention to what's out there. I certainly will be.

BNY Mellon’s significance on this forum is clear: the forum has become a real‑time barometer of employee sentiment, revealing a workforce that perceives the bank’s strategy as dominated by cost‑cutting, stealth layoffs, cultural deterioration, and leadership distrust. The volume, tone, and consistency of posts signal reputational, operational, and talent‑retention risks that BNY cannot ignore.

1. Stealth Layoffs & WARN Avoidance
Numerous posts allege unannounced, rolling layoffs, often tied to:

RTO policy enforcement

Performance review manipulation

Site closures (e.g., Pennington)

Employees repeatedly claim BNY is circumventing WARN Act notifications by staggering terminations and using “performance” as a pretext.

2. Labor Arbitrage as Core Strategy
Threads explicitly describe BNY’s operating model as:
“If someone, somewhere, can do it cheaper, that’s where the work goes.”

Offshoring, contractor freezes, and AI‑driven job elimination are recurring themes.

Employees see this as systemic, not cyclical—a permanent shift in workforce philosophy.

3. Leadership Distrust & Cultural Breakdown
Robin Vince (RV) is a central figure in discussions, often portrayed as:

Detached from employee reality

Focused on cost‑savings and personal compensation

Culture is described as toxic, demoralizing, and psychologically unsafe, with morale at “historic lows.”

4. RTO We-ponization
RTO dashboards, “red periods,” and inconsistent enforcement are cited as:

Tools to push out employees

Methods to avoid severance

Many posts describe RTO as a layoff mechanism, not a business need.

5. Operational Instability
Reports of:

Unresponsive or dysfunctional teams

Leadership churn

Poor communication around relocations and site closures

Employees describe the environment as chaotic and directionless.

What This Means for BNY Mellon

1. Reputational Risk
TheLayoff.com is heavily trafficked by job seekers, analysts, and journalists.
The persistent negativity shapes external perception of BNY as a troubled employer.

2. Talent Flight
High performers openly discuss:

Practicing interviews on company time

Planning exits

Warning others away from applying
This accelerates brain drain and raises replacement costs.

3. Strategic Execution Risk
A demoralized workforce undermines:

AI transformation

Client service

Operational resilience

Regulatory compliance
BNY’s own employees describe the bank as “McKinsey’s magnum opus of misery.”

4. Legal & Regulatory Exposure
Frequent references to:

Wrongful termination

Forced ranking

WARN circumvention

Discriminatory practices
…suggest heightened class‑action and regulatory risk.

Bottom-Line
Discussion on this forum portrays BNY Mellon as an institution in cultural and operational decline, driven by aggressive cost‑cutting, offshoring, and leadership detachment.

For analysts, journalists, and job seekers, the site functions as a candid, unfiltered window into a workforce that feels expendable, unheard, and increasingly hostile toward senior leadership.

This site is loaded with comments of actual and observed layoff behaviors. Check the new and active discussions if you are new to this site. BNY does not announce layoffs since their goal is to circumvent federal and state WARN Act notification requirements and to avoid employer payments to State Unemploument Insurance (sUI) in the event layoffs are publicized. BNY is very unusual and would never admit to layoffs. Instead layoffs are referred to as strategic realignments. They are continuous, systematic and calculated to support cost reduction and location target goals, eliminating experienced workers without severance, sending non-client facing jobs offshore. BNY also “we-ponizes” RTO policies and uses mandatory performance rating targets and forced below expectation ratings to expunge workers using PIPs. To add insult to injury, the company now has flatter or-a, changed the VP/SVP/Director pay structures, capped annual wage and merit increases (with 0 to 2 percent increases being the norm), created labor pipelines with state colleges and universities to maximize state and local tax credits, closed real estate holdings, increased the number of days required in office, and accelerated the reduction of all work from home associates. While these behaviors are not technically considered layoffs, they are designed to promote voluntary attrition. This company has created a place where there is a toxic culture and no psychological safety for anyone to speak up. Senior leadership and EC is highly scripted and does not promote an environment of openness, trust and transparency. Sure there are posts on LinkedIn from EC and chapped lips supporters singing praises, but that’s mostly to protect their positions and personal brands on social media as “hands on leaders” or “emerging leader wannabees.” Again, if you are new to this site, suggest you read through the comments to learn more about the layoff topics and comment history. The picture very clearly describes what’s going on here. The EC goes out of their way to create false optics of rainbows and unicorns. This site is for truth telling in a psychologically safe environment that the EC has intentionally, consistently failed to develop and maintain.

This deserves its own thread. OP: @ar+1kmt70t6q

This is happening to a number of people, good people too and it really makes no sense when they keep hiring. This now seems a regular approach to making change happen whenever and wherever by whomever

Many workers view return-to-office mandates negatively. They often perceive these directives as stealth layoffs. Remote work was common five years prior. This situation has changed dramatically recently. The article explores these impacts on companies and staff.

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2026/03/23/remote-work-stealth-layoffs.html

I keep seeing more and more Cisco employees on Linkedin with "Open to Work" on their photo. Looks like there is quiet layoffs happening.

PIP has been moved to 30 days instead of the normal 90 days. 30 days to get on pip 90 days to get off pip.….whoever makes these decisions are so out of touch with reality they should be in a mental institution

If you don’t hit 50% of your phone target you move immediately to a written warning.

All hands call tomorrow. Maybe members of the cwa should get on and speak up for us

.This past week, they conducted another round of layoffs, this time targeting VP’s and directors. It seems they are doing this in stages for some reason, trying to remain under the radar.

I was laid off after Q1 results were announced, even though there was no formal announcement of any cuts by the company. Came as quite a surprise.
They are doing stealth cuts every quarter, may not be a high number that they need to announce, but its happening every quarter.

So... I thought this was going to be a Technology-only round of layoffs but it seems that it expanded towards Commercial and possibly other teams... Brace for impact.

It seems that people are disappearing from teams without any company wide communication. Look on social media and you'll find evidence. This is worse than major rounds, in my opinion. At least with a major round, you know when it's done. This can go on forever.

Oracle's been laying off consistently for years. Not all are major rounds, but it's been ongoing. This is just business as usual.

Most of the layoffs are not in the big rounds, but are happening in small, quiet batches. Combine that with demotions and people quitting, and we've lost so many without any fanfare. The total number of people gone has to be massive. It's a coward's way to downsize.

Hearing of several one-off layoffs. One person in a department vanishes. ESC. Seems like a week ago was a layoff week. Labs are adding people, ESC is tossing people. Discouraging. Frustrating. What are other people hearing? I can count 5 in the past 3 weeks across plants and corporate.

I keep hearing that the reason this company does layoffs is to help the stock price. But since they never do a formal press release announcing the layoffs, how can layoffs possibly affect the stock? I thought the whole point of laying people off a little at a time was so that the public doesn't find out.

A coworker claimed their boss recommended looking for a new role.
Can’t say the BU or team as that would create a problem for me.

Curious if others have experienced this?

Apparently, many Underperforming BUs facing stealth layoffs. Can others confirm it?

No announced LR, but it seems like there are personnel that are getting cut across different groups and divisions this month. Does anyone one else notice the headcount reductions? If so, what groups, divisions, etc. are getting targeted?

Just check the OUTLOOK, you will see many of your Leadership names will be missing and this will be seen thru until 3rd week of December

Are they quietly letting people go without saying anything publicly, trying to keep the layoffs under the radar and out of sight?

Every week someone new is gone, but no one says much. A couple retire, a few quit, and others just quietly vanish after those small layoffs. It’s strange walking in and realizing another familiar face is missing again. I think this slow drip is going to drag on for a while.

I'm slowly starting to see more and more Cisco employees update their LinkedIn, stating that they're open to work. Naturally, I'm curious if silent layoffs are happening and how big this one really is.

Do they really expect people to go work on effing Jurong Island and make that commute when a lot of Singaporeans don’t own a car and live on the other side of the island. It’s not so effing easy to move: They want you to quit. And they’ll conveniently have an Indian in Bangalore to replace us. F this company.

More layoffs happened

Watch out. More stealth layoffs in the pursuit of money. Iridium used to stand for something

ELT has decided to do another [stealth] layoff this November (no doubts on this)... Do we know exactly what teams are impacted? If you have no clue, dont troll.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I charge mileage and per diem as a remote employee when I come into the office. (I do not.) Then more recently I was asked the distance from my home to the nearest remote location. I asked if there was any plan to have us come into the office, and was told that right now, there is no plan. Has anyone else had this experience? Is this a tactic to get people to quit instead of commute?

We refuse to pretend everything is fine.

We work in a company where people vanish from the org chart without warning, while executives celebrate imaginary victories and spout empty slogans about growth and culture. They tell us to be all-in, to treat this like our future. And yet we can be discarded at any moment, without reason, without acknowledgment.

This is not a culture of excellence; it’s a culture of quiet fear.

You cannot demand total effort while offering zero stability.

You cannot preach loyalty while practicing disposability.

You cannot expect people to build their lives when the ground is constantly being pulled out from under them.

This system is psychologically poisonous.

It breeds anxiety, distrust, and a permanent state of fight-or-flight.

We smile through it, but we are exhausted.

We produce, but we do not thrive.

We comply, but we do not believe.

We refuse the gaslighting. We refuse the fake optimism. We refuse the expectation that we should sacrifice everything for companies that can erase us overnight.

We deserve honesty. We deserve stability. We deserve the basic dignity of being able to plan our lives without living in quiet te---r.

Enough.

I did not believe it before but I do now. In years past exxon would pip a variety of employees. I saw the old,young,men ,women,minorities and whites equally piped. Exxon took care to have a diversity in the piping. This year I at 54,another at 56,one at 63, another at 61 and last one at 64 years of age were nsied. We were all male one minority and the balance white. No women were nsied in our division. All of our performance issues were due to age,CL and high pay. I can say everyone of us out performed the younger employees in our groups. Well it is working because all the retirement eligible employees are leaving and I have to stay a year till 55. It has never been this apparent that exxon was targeting the old. One thing good about this is at least they did not nsi the vulnerable employees in their 40's. We oldies can afford to leave and will take one for the team. Remember youngsters you will be old one day too. What ever happens to us will someday happen to you so prepare for it. You have been warned.

We are in for another round of layoffs for August.
The company has been slowing spreading them out so they don’t have to legally inform shareholder and follow the WARN act.
They are also making a mandatory Return to Office FULL TIME for 5 days a week. Anyone who doesn’t comply will be fired without severance package.
The next wave I’m also hearing, is those that don’t live near an office will eventually be told they have to relocate to a state/ location where an office is or they will be fired/ let go. It’s a way for them to save more money not having to pay out for severance packages.
With the recent departure of Chris W, it’s only a matter of time the new Customer Experience Officer / Sales Officer Chance replaces every single sales manager with the Street and Fusion leadership.
There are rumors going around that all sales positions will lose benefits and go to 1099 commission only.

You have been warned.

Wishing you the best of luck. It’s starting to feel more and more like silent layoffs may be underway. Hoping for clarity soon. Take care, everyone.