Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Tech companies have been pushing the WFH model for years and encouraging other companies to start doing this. I didn’t like WFH. Now that they had this pandemic and forced us to WFH, I learned how to function better WFH. Now they are trying to push us back into offices. I wish they would make up their minds. It would help if we had assigned seating at a minimum. Then you could get to know your neighbors. My neighbors change all the time if there are even any around.

So people believe we have better outcomes in the office. I wish there was a way we could actually measure productivity and outcomes using some sort of data. Hmmmm. Guess not, let’s just go with the gut feelings of the people who wrote something on the survey.

@1sio+1k5yUClH

Not letting these SOBs off that easy.

@1sio+1k5yUClH

What if it's a strong performer who comes in 3 times a week, and stays until lunch? What if it is someone who comes in 2 days a week? What if there are 3-5 people on the same team that come in the same amount of time? If it's one outlier, then sure, easy enough to fire that person. What if it's 10 in a group of 15? Or 30 people in a group of 45? They are banking on people caving. What happens if they don't?

We have two choices. Go in 3 days a week or find a new job. The first does not meet expectations because you refuse to come into the office will be sort of a warning. Continue to do your own thing and now come in you wont need to worry about the next review. You will receive a notice and if you don’t comply then you wont get a package you will be fired for non-compliance. I would say just find a remote job elsewhere the termination option will be enforced.

@1vwj+1k5yUClH

Absolutely, you don't need to track to the Nth degree and make threats if it's something anyone actually wants to do. This executive team has a real integrity issue, and you can't lead people if they don't trust you.

If people really loved coming into the office, why the need to track it? Based on having to track when we come and go from the office, it sure seems like the overwhelming majority of people actually don't like going into the office. Just a thought.

@1ciq+1k5yUClH

Yes!! I agree. They are acting as though we all have jobs where the office is best. They also don't quite seem to grasp that Charlie's experience in the office is vastly different than someone in neighborhood seating, or someone who goes to an empty office, or people going to the offices with sketchy people lurking outside, or people who went from no commute to a 2 hour commute one way.

In “Tech” there are simply so many groups fully unwilling to collaborate or cooperate that collocation will not help. I’m looking at you shytebages in NMC, DSS-san/nas and for sure those ‘tards in x86. Not to mention good ole head of automation Lee R.

Survey comment is a Fing lie, and demonstrably so. I don't respect any exec that's trying to feed me BS. Just speak the truth, they want to drive attrition and are bowing down to various city/state political hacks for tax reasons. It's a joke.

It's also a joke that a blanket policy across all job types makes any sense whatsoever. Maybe with the work they do at Tesla, ok, but for what we do it's counterproductive and a waste of time and money. Some groups at WF DO need active frequent collaboration and being in person may be better, but not all of us work in job where it's beneficial and thousands of us are not colocated with our peers/directs, nor can they be without forcing customers to relocate. It's madness that only makes sense if the objective is to drive attrition.

@1odk+1k5yUClH

My post wasn't clear. I too had a formal telecommuting agreement that was made null and void after almost a decade of working from home. That's why I'm not swayed by the notion we should be happy we "only have to go in 3 days a week." I didn't have to go in any days a week, so going in 3 days is not an improvement.

@gvv+1k5yUClH

Gonna have to disagree with you on one point: DF seems like a pompous a-s. I hope to never have to encounter him in person.

“Formal work from home agreement” from the comment below LOL that ridiculous agreement means absolutely nothing. I had that same agreement middle of 2021 before I left Wells. When we received notification from a company wide announcement from Schart on RTO, it stated that document would be void.

@mzz+1k5yUClH

If he ready every single comment, then I guarantee the comments did not talk about how wonderful the office is. Did they flip all of the answers on the surveys? Remember Charlie also talking about how the survey results showed improvement? It doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the survey, does it?

We got the same message in the Consumer Lending town hall, just worded a bit more gently. But basically, Charlie wants you in the office so you shall be in the office.
I guess I can sort of see the point in big hub offices (eg Charlotte) although even then I don’t see the floors full of energized collaborators 😀 But it’s pointless for those in non-hub locations. As has been mentioned countless times on this site.

Must have been a two-person survey taken only by Charlie and Scott. They completed it from their plush home offices, and then Skyped each other to say how much better we work when we're together.

No respect whatsoever for Flowers. He just lied to everyone in his organization by giving out survey results that don't exist. Somebody prove me wrong.

I now have no trust in DF after that meeting. It's not even remotely possible survey results said people liked anything about the office. If they are going to tie RTO to performance then they MUST be transparent about how we are tracked so we don't make a report each month.

They are trying to convince people that the standard is 5 days, but risk is being flexible by just requiring 3 days. The problem is that there were a lot of people who had official telecommuting agreements that allowed them to WFH 5 days a week. The other problem is that even for people who didn't have official agreements, they all were expected to effectively work from home when they were sent home to "flatten the curve."

Maybe someone could list the jobs where it truly is the case that they are "better together" by being in the office 3 days a week. Or maybe someone with a lot of time could start a list of all the Corporate Risk jobs, and then how being in-person for those particular jobs is better. Of course you would have to rule out any jobs where the people doing them aren't co-located. Or are they saying co-located people do better when they can see each other, and people who are not co-located do best in an office, even if they don't talk to anyone in the office?

At this point, I hope their sh---y treatment of employees (including RTO, but there are so many other things they do to purposely degrade morale and benefits) leads to so much turnover after bonus payout that high-profile consent orders cannot be closed and regulators are all over WF. The executives don't care about anything unless it is bad for them.

DF is the same guy who said in an org-wide email early in the RTO disaster that his wife was driving him back and forth from the office so he could adjust. Wow, what a man of the people. His life is like looking into a mirror.

How is mandating 3 days in office providing flexibility? Seems the complete opposite.

DF seems like a nice guy, but do any of the senior executives actually understand what the daily lives are like for most of the workers in the company? We aren't sitting in conference rooms generating ideas that are being put on a whiteboard. If we were, we would be out of jobs.

There are no jobs I want at my non-hub location. There are no people doing jobs I want at my non-hub location. There are no people I interact with in order to do my job at my non-hub location. There is no one I talk to at my non-hub location. Oh wait, I take that last one back. If I go in, and I see someone in a hallway, or a break room, I will say hi. This has only happened 3 times in the entire year, so I haven't seen any improvements in my effectiveness as an employee as a result from it.

I have tried the coffee pods. Our machine is a little finicky and thinks it's full even when it's empty, so sometimes the first pod gets wasted because it says it needs to be emptied, and then flips the new one down to the waste bin when you pull the waste bin out. I wouldn't say the coffee has helped bring me closer to anyone either though.

Being office-based may be what works best for social people, and people in certain jobs. I can be a social person too, but my building is mostly empty. More often than not, it's empty in my section. If it were busier, it would be people that I don't have any business need to interact with. The whole "better together" idea is not true for me.

So my traditional 1.5% annual raise is in jeopardy if I don't come into the office?

Also, managers, directors and higher ups are not coming into the office too.

They are tryin to scare managers into being more responsible but managers hate it.

Nobody wants to work from the office.

If they go with the performance-based option instead of the firing option, how many people will start going in?

I hate coming to the office.

It's waste of time.

I talk to nobody, it makes no sense.

All my interactions are with remote people.

@nqb+1k5yUClH

He said "all" survey respondents said there were better outcomes being in person. That must have been a question that was worded completely differently, or I didn't understand the question, because I definitely did not put that on mine.

If everyone likes coming into the office why would they need to track and monitor anyone with everyone already happily at the office? These ‘leaders’ are lunatics. If you’ve bothered showing up occasionally you’d know nobody is there so saying people like coming to the office is laughable.

What surveys and respondents are saying there are better outcomes from being in the office? Are they the opinions of imaginary elves? (CS is the real-life elf master as we clearly know.)

Translation: We really need you to support CRE and our tax breaks on it.