I think the OP is confused. The people getting laid off are the workers who actually complete the work needed to move the Bank forward. Many/Most have been loyal to the company for many years, which means they are likely at the higher end of the pay scale as well as being over 45. However, we have watched the company hierarchy flatten repeatedly over the years, with very few changes in the attitudes of those at the L3/L4 level (only 2-3 layers below Charlie). The workers have been clamoring for change for years, begging for investments necessary to make big transformation changes. The message for the last 10 years has been to do more with less, and somehow laying off thousands is going to make that easier? It makes no sense. Employees are furious, not just because their day to day jobs are impacted, but because they are shareholders, too (401k match is in company stock) and everyone is tired of nonsense.
What is the business logic in getting rid of everyone who knows how things work in order to make those things work better? How does it make sense to layoff thousands who have been begging for modernization while the managers who have grown fat and lazy focusing on s---ing up instead of speaking up stay in place with their resistance to change being the driver of the current culture? What is the logic in taking away work from home benefits when you don't have enough seats for all your employees to come to the office? Why does it make sense to spend millions remodeling offices to an open office concept that has been scientifically PROVEN to REDUCE personal interactions and overall productivity, while at the same time laying off your knowledge workers and moving jobs to India and Poland? How will things get done more nimbly when no one understands the problems to be addresses?
How does the board stand by while Charlie claims to support diversity and inclusion in the same breath that he says work from home does not improve work life balance (single parents, especially women disagree) and that he had no idea until 2018 that black families in America, regardless of their wealth, had to have very difficult conversations with their teenage children about how to be black and LIVE in America? (I mean really, were you under a rock when #blacklivesmatter and #whileblack was trending? How in the world is anyone so clueless and behind the times given the support of the board of a very large and significant global institution?
None of this makes any business sense, and that is the sh-- sandhich both the victims and the survivors of the layoffs have to live with.