Thread regarding Bank of America layoffs

Managers and employees are receiving emails identifying those who haven’t finished ID verification. The first wave must complete this by April 3 to keep their VPN access. I heard that once the ID verifications are done, the company will move forward with the new work-from-home policy.

This new requirement does NOT apply to everyone. If you have MyWork or workplace accommodations, you get to stay home!!! Woo hoo!

My understanding is this has been put on hold except possibly stopping/monitoring coffee badgers, which I wish people would stop doing.

I heard from someone in another area they were told 4 days in starting next week.

@1m0 - My guess is they don’t want to announce in March, as its employee appreciation month. So they ‘thank’ us then the following month put the sc--ws to us.

MY Boss let’s me do what I want, bunch of us don’t follow the rules in Fort Worth

@2zp sadly I think that’s the point. Easier to break the rules if you are unclear what they are in the first place.

Sounds like its just getting more stupid. If they want people in office, then keep it simple - in office all 5 days. Period. Instead, it's who sits where and who comes in when.... then you get in trouble for coffee badging...but yet nobody is clear on when coffee badging is actually considered coffee badging. Too much gray. Too much stupid.

@1m2 this is an interesting take and I can believe it. Right be COVID BM was all in on this virtue signaling of how the company was going to consider employees, and communities, as important as the stockholders are in his new social justice contract that they signed good like finding it on the web. Yea they've been as BAU as ever before. BM can go on CNBC and pretend like he doesn't have thousands of us in his sights, but he doesn't he doesn't have to go on record of making his head count as miserable as possible until they leave. Really don't like man, never have.

@1p - honey, I'm doing 5 jobs and have my team doing about 3 jobs each, due to people getting fed up and leaving this place, whom I am not permitted to replace as GHR and Boston Mafia want the headcount reduction.

So, I ask, how much are YOU doing?

#BlessYourHeart

@OP the need to reduce workforce is real and that is not changing. Instead of offering compensation, why not generate a quiet quitting environment? So far this bank has been very smart in avoiding being in the news in a negative way. For years they have been getting away with it. However, this change is not for all employees. The ones that are allowed to stay at home and have 2+ jobs will be excepted from this mess. I hope they get sued.

@1m6 is it delayed because they’re getting feedback from managers, or just general HR incompetence? Are they going to push back the 4/1 effective date at this point?

@1p7 The post appears to be a straightforward summary of the updated expectations. If the goal is a productive discussion, comments like this probably aren’t helping.

lowest common denominator always ruins it for everyone else, regardless of the topic

@OP If only you spent more time doing your job, this place wouldn’t be so messed up. Ever thought of that?

@1j6 the work place change is 100% for real. My manager told me. I just don’t know what it’s delayed.

@1m0 the communication about WPE has actually been delayed twice now. And the information being shared is 100% true.

What’s false are the layoff rumors. Moynihan has publicly been against layoffs since covid and that hasn’t changed. They manage headcount through attrition. Making things so miserable that people leave with only a very small percentage being approved for backfill.

The WPE changes were 100% real. Announcement was supposed to go out 03/06 but was delayed. At this point it seems it’s being delayed indefinitely, maybe they heard too much negative feedback about it. Can’t imagine most managers were happy about this change.

@1j6 although I agree the layoff posts are really just engagement farming probably by the mods, this workplace excellence change has legs. My manager participated this week in a managers meeting to discuss the pros and cons of this specific change. He said nothing is set in stone yet, but the change is probably happening at some point, Just no hard dates yet. Hopefully the coffee badging enforcement posts are just fake news. Otherwise, I'd be quite concerned

Why are people falling for these troll posts? Every few weeks, someone starts a thread about supposed layoffs or changes to the work‑from‑home policy that never actually happen. The rumored changes don’t make practical sense, our open workspace simply doesn’t have the capacity to implement such adjustments. Maybe it would work for those department with assigned sitting.
If everyone (openwork space) were required to come in for non-consecutive or consecutive days, there wouldn’t be enough desks to accommodate them all, some employees would have to turn around and go home. That would result in wasted unpaid commute time, fuel costs, and potential inefficiencies for client service/processing teams. Such plans would be unworkable in most time‑sensitive departments. The best policy is what they have at the moment, any days of the week (M-F) as long as you do 3 days in the office.
Additionally, if management were to enforce unrealistic attendance requirements without sufficient capacity or justification, it could even expose the company to legal risk. Employees could argue that such a policy functions as a de facto termination tactic, especially now when the bank is openly trying to cut costs.

@14x - the reason is State and Municipal Tax Credits being offered to large employers who bring employees back into the office to Revitalize America's Cities.

There is only one company now that operates the building badge system. They send an Aggregated Data Report on each of their corporate clients to the state govts. The companies themselves also self-report the data to get the Tax Credit. If they two data points match, then the corporations are awarded the tax credit.

In the absence of any real growth at this company (in a very long time) and with only so many Accounting somersaults that they can do each quarter, these Tax Credits have become incredibly invaluable.

Don't be naive. Let's not kid ourselves that all the verbiage of coming into to the office to "build culture", "share ideas", "mentor juniors", blah blah blah.

Follow the money. THERE is your answer for this a$$inine Draconian mandate.

@1cx+1kjzj8z4q

We might wish there were legal protections against office mandates, but there aren't.

Companies can legally require you to be in the office every single day you aren't on vacation or sick leave—just look at JPMorgan’s shift to a 5-day week. If BM pulls a 'Jamie Dimon,' you really only have a few moves: su-k it up and comply, refuse and eventually get fired, quit/retire, or try to secure a medical exemption.

@1aj considering the world we’re living in now (Iran), and it being public knowledge that US banks are on Iran’s terrorism hit list - it would be asinine of Bank of AMERICA to start forcing their staff to come together in centralized and publicized locations. Absolute irresponsible of them to make that adjustment right now. Especially in high value locations like NYC, DC, Chicago, LA, etc…

@1aj I hope they are looking at the legality of counting holidays and vacation as wfh days.

@1aj good! one can only hope there are some voices of reason involved that are pushing back on ridiculous idea.

@1a3 our HR rep told my peers and I that the announcement is on hold, yet again. This is actually the second time they have delayed it. HR is clueless. No explanation provided why. No current ETA provided either.

Very demoralizing after an above and beyond effort during the pandemic and this is the "reward"?

@1a2 approx 01:23:45 seconds Eastern, all LOB's

Anyone know what time the announcement is and if it’s all lobs?

Can’t help but wonder what will be next after tomorrow’s ‘official’ announcement to the huddled masses…

@qe They could track VPN usage 10-15 years ago. It isn’t hard.

GRM here and was provided guidance by leadership today to confirm all the above.

I can confirm the non-consecutive WFH policy is going to formally be announced soon. My manager and director were informed and communicated to us this week that its coming and the reason for the policy change was for real estate usage metrics/planning. Need to be above a certain percentage utilization across each week for whatever reason.

Its likely a combination of that, but also hunger + squid games to force attrition (which they wouldn't admit to). Anything to fester discomfort and frustration.

@143 the whole new schem

@146 for this reason I would be surprised if they plan to roll this out company wide. it would create a royal cluster**.

Ops in NY is still doing 3/2 and not going to 4/1. Probably has to do with the fact there simply aren't enough desks. They've always - ridiculously so - considered any type of day off (sick/personal, vacation, bank holiday) as a WFH day.

Is this for all LOBS like gps? I’m on PTO and haven’t heard anything from my team.

@13p what portion of this needs training? IS it the work from home piece? For the non consecutive days in office?

is there any change to the 4 out of 6 weeks compliance?

@129 yes, they will send out training for it. Start time is 4/16