Thread regarding Edward Jones layoffs

@nx if they needed to find you…they could. You were accessing the system within the firewalls, right?

@g4 Awww poor baby. What made you feel entitled to that RTP? Need me to call the waaambulance for you? Trust me, we're glad you left and never looked back too!

@fk "The Suggs were never anonymous."

This is categorically false. I know the developer of the original system and the code. We absolutely could not track the sender. It sometimes led to some dire situations when people sent in threats that couldn't be traced. Even with that risk, JW was adamant about true anonymity, as he didn't believe people would be honest if they thought it could be traced.

But you're right that one of the main reasons of switching it was to greatly reduce volume. It was always very high and hard to manage and the thought was that if people knew they could be traced, they wouldn't submit as many negative suggs.

Penny has tanked the firm all while su-king out every dollar for herself she could. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself. Not only is Jones going to lose people, but now Penny has created a culture of corporate burnout, distrust, and dissatisfaction. Jones will never be able to rebound from this internally or externally. The culture of one team one family is gone.

Imagine pulling down $20M+ a year and worrying you might not have enough money for retirement. . . bless their hearts. Hope that MG projection is spot on!

I was hired at Edward Jones in 2017 and left in 2022. I started in the home office and transitioned to the Dorset location just before COVID hit. When the pandemic sent everyone home, I was already exploring new opportunities. I held my Series 7, 63, and 66 licenses, had just earned my finance degree, and applied for 13 internal roles I was more than qualified for—yet never received a single interview.

I was told I couldn’t jump from my entry-level role to a level 8 position, regardless of my credentials. The message was clear: Edward Jones valued tenure over talent. So I left. I accepted a role at a major tech company that relocated me out of state, and I’m still in tech today—earning the kind of salary Edward Jones told me I hadn’t “earned.”

Their business model wasn’t built to attract younger or more diverse clients. It thrived on a good-old-boy system that works until it doesn’t—until the older generation starts aging out and there’s no pipeline of new clients to sustain it.

I’ve been to Penny’s house a few times—valet parking, staff taking coats and serving hors d’oeuvres, a wine cellar that looked like something out of a movie. She didn’t like to pay good money, but she sure loved to spend it.

It’s tough hearing about layoffs at a hometown institution, especially when I know good people are affected. But truthfully, the company itself is facing the consequences of a system that refused to evolve. I saw the writing on the wall in 2022, and I’m grateful they didn’t recognize my potential—because if they had, I’d still be there, either getting laid off or watching my colleagues go through it.

@fv I'm not sure it matters. It's the same two-headed snake with those two either way. Many of the bad decisions and poor leadership they've been lockstep on.

@bq Yup, that is the norm at EJ now. Give the DEI FA hire the world. I saw it my region on the regular. There was a female FA that was with the firm for about 15 years, and she was the "career Level 4 FA". She inherited a Level 10 office in an RTP all so the retiring FA could get a 10% increase in his payout to check the DEI box. That is one of many examples I saw. The level of incompetence at the FA level overall was appalling. I am glad I only spent couple of years at EJ. I went to a major competitor and have never looked back.

@fk who was the ELT member? Suzan? Kristin?

@ca The Suggs were never anonymous. If they wanted you, they could find you. Especially if there was a legal or regulatory risk to the sugg. The new system just makes it easier.

But I will say that they’d hoped the volume of Suggs would dramatically reduce with this change to confidential.

And…😏 There’s a certain ELT member who asked if we even NEEDED a suggestion box and thought we could do away with the whole thing and save the pennies (relative) it took to implement the new system.

When I wrote the original post, I did not write it as commentary on female vs male leadership, etc. nor did I write it to empower bigoted commentary as one responder took on that opportunity. My post was purely facts and reality. While Jim Weddle wasn’t perfect and he was slow to adopt to industry norms at least he was a decent person who had both self and situational awareness. Se lacks these 3 leadership attributes. And I included her response to the 2020 post below.

To everyone - take care this week.

“ Thank you for being frank and upfront about how you feel right now.

Let me talk about direction first. We are intent on growing our impact and creating new value for our clients today and for those we want to serve in the future. Our entire industry is being called on to redefine itself – to affirm the good it can do for more investors, and because consumer and clients demand more. Their career longevity; longer lifespans; the decline of pensions and safety nets; how they want to pay for the value they receive; and the regulators' attention to ensuring investors are protected. It's all changing at a fast rate, technology is ever more pervasive and expected, and people expect businesses to be doing good things in the world at large.

This constant drum beat of change – to be able to meet the evolving needs of today and tomorrow – isn't new. And Edward Jones has been meeting that requirement to grow and change for 98 years. We're able to cast an ambitious vision for our future because we've seen it done before by our predecessors, and we have the people, the culture and structure to make it happen. And that includes you. It's not meant to be scary or to drive folks away. Quite the opposite: It's a continuation of who we are and the purpose we serve in the world in which we live. And we want you to be a part of it.

Here's what I know is true: our value to clients is in our relationships. We are going to leverage that key competitive advantage to become even better at serving clients across their complex set of needs, throughout their lives and for generations of their families.

You can expect to hear more details about the work we have ahead of us in the coming weeks and months. Right now, here are a few things we can all think about as we continue to evolve.
Keep thinking about how we can get better at understanding our clients, to keep learning and examining how we might move from one good way of serving clients to the many good ways we can serve them – serving each one more uniquely.
Be adaptable and ready to forge ahead into the unknown for the good of our clients and our partnership. We're going to continue to engage branch teams to test and learn, and work to become more agile and innovative. We are reorganizing the way the home office operates in order to better serve branch teams, as well as bring your ideas and knowledge to the teams implementing and delivering what you need.
And just as importantly, how do we continue to leverage the amazing strengths of our culture and partnership, but in a way that advances who we are, what we stand for and how we live out our purpose of making a difference for our clients, colleagues and communities? And how do we do that and also foster a place of belonging for all?
Now let me address your feeling of not being heard and transparency in the decision-making process. We must hear from you, all of you – including those who may have in the past felt their voice couldn't be heard. Veteran and newer financial advisors alike -- branch teams are closest to our clients and your perspective is integral for moving us forward, as well as improving our processes and tools.

Having branch team representation as a part of the leadership forums is one way we're ensuring we are making better decisions, together with home office teams, and creating more meaningful experiences for branches and our clients. Your perspective is going to be heard and acted upon.

So please stay engaged – we all have some really exciting opportunities to grow our impact. This is not an invitation for you to step aside, but rather one to step up and lead from the front.

--Penny”

Don't forget that in 2023/2024, they changed the Sugg Box to no longer allow anonymous submissions.

Historically, it was 100% anonymous.

Jim Weddle was adamant that it was anonymous so branch teams and associates could be extremely honest with feedback and not fear repercussions. How can we be better if we fear opposition?

As soon as current leadership switched it to "confidential," but not anonymous, I knew they no longer wanted real opinions--they want false praise and pandering.

Admittedly, the old Sugg Box was technically inefficient and had outgrown its original purpose (to gain feedback about technical enhancements), but knowing whatever you now submit might be used against you signaled the beginning of the end for the firm's culture and a shift into a "1984" big-brother-always-watching climate.

Even on this site, we are being watched, judged and fed "inspirational" messages from tone-deaf senior leaders.

Why is it not okay for us to be upset and have a place to vent as long as we continue showing up and doing good jobs?

Why is leadership so obsessed with controlling narratives (and our mindsets) versus focusing on making more thoughtful, strategic business decisions, holding themselves and others accountable, and enabling a psychologically safe environment (that they claim to do but actions say otherwise)?

There used to be a time when all those things were more valued (wasn't perfect, but nothing ever is) and this comment could be something you could send in as a Sugg but in the immortal words of JW--the audio is not matching the video of these senior leaders and it's much too risky to "act courageously," as we once were encouraged to do.

@b9 In operations my old area got outsourced and we trained oir replacements. It was a 2 to 1 ratio, roughly. 10 of us were displaced, 1 stayed behind as a Risk person to babysit the Cognizant contractors. 27 of them to do 9 person amount of work. Ops has now shed a few hundred associates and so has tech area. I'm guessing by the end of the year we have 2k offshore contractors. Or maybe more at this rate

@c5 Jim Weddles’s annual salary as follows:

2010 $8.75 million
2011 $9.81 million
2012 $11.1 million
2013 $12.9 million
2014 $13.9 million
2015 no record
2016 $11.2 million
2017 $11.4 million
He retired in 2018 at $11 million

@c5

I remember it being 9, 10, 11 in like 2011, 2012 and 2013.

I joined in 2022. How much did the previous MP Jim Weddle make throughout his years?

@bt Ted and friends never intended for the company CEO to make $29 million a year. The fact that PooPoo agreed to take that amount of money tells us all we need to know about the "culture" and "history" - it's just a sales pitch, nothing more.

@bh and @OP are both correct. I came to IS in 2019; I immediately fell in love with the history and the culture, but I was shocked at the state of the technology and work culture. I can’t speak to whether other divisions were similarly outdated and dysfunctional. Change and growth were needed, but that does not justify or excuse the explosive rate of hiring, the drastic rate of change, or the regime change brought about by bringing in c-suite folks from other institutions who absolutely do not share our values. Whether driven by greed or incompetence, PP (or whoever is actually pulling the strings) lost faith in the vision of our founders and decided we needed to become just like every other financial institution, i.e. driven by greed, mired in sociopathic corporate-logic and corporate-speak, indifferent to the impact on employees or the local community. Edward Jones could have grown and fixed its problems without all of this.

One of my favorite facts about Ted Jones was that on the occasions he went to NYC to deal with the other big wigs in the financial industry, he would make a point of using a bandana as a handkerchief to indicate he wasn’t one of them. He didn’t give two sh-ts about impressing them or being included. He cared about small town Americans, he cared about his employees, he cared about Missouri. We talk about how PP and DC and the GPs are driven by greed … I actually think it’s equally if not more likely they are driven by wanting to be included in the cool kids club in NYC and Aspen. All that ‘aw shucks’ energy is phony - being part of the glittering powerful elite is too intoxicating to pass up. That’s where all this talk of “winning” comes from - it has zero to do with Ted’s vision or what’s best for our clients or our community.

It’s just heartbreaking to see the legacy of a truly visionary founder be squandered by mids.

@OP blames DEI but everyone is totally fine handing your incompetent arrogant adult children a huge book of business.

@bn a qualified male applicant was passed on so a female could be hired as an advisor. she went to a Chamber mixer, and it was her mother introducing her to people and suggesting they exchange business cards... one year out, and only the clients in her book know who she is. so, EJ gave her $75 million so she wouldn't fail...

@bh You are both correct. The firm 100% had issues when she took over. But, instead of actually trying to put the kitchen fire out correctly, she managed to burn the entire house down and blame it on the fire department...who she called after the house was a pile of ashes.

They let go seasoned advisors and keep inept advisors who do little to no work

This is the best summary of events I've seen on this page. Well done OP, and everything is backed by facts. I told my coworker yesterday that this place will be a case study for business schools in the future. This will be after our favorite new yorker takes over in 2028 and gives us the final ki-l shot.

@OP what about before 2019? As an “outsider” who came here with experience at EDJ’s competitors, I was stunned by how far behind the company’s technology was. And a company of Jones’ size relying on a “phone a friend” infrastructure was a house of cards collapsing under the weight of the higher volumes of FAs and clients it was trying to support. That didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of a long history of complacency and leadership with its head in the sand. Penny inherited a tough situation.

Keir Gumbs joined us in 2023, a former Uber executive. Vital to know if you know the tumultuous history inside Uber. Seems he was brought here with a clear objective from PooPoo.

@OP EXCELLENT post. This is the case study for how EDJ went under and ceased to exist. Makes me very sad and angry to read, but WELL DONE!

@OP Great work pulling all of this together. There were a few things in here that I forgot. This clearly shows how awful the thought leadership and change management has been these last several years. So sad.

I'd like to know how many offshore contractors we have. Since ER was announced ~1500 have been added

a synopsis of the results of an epic DEI hire as corporate leadership. She was right when she told a group of GP's, soon after taking the position, "I'm not sure I can do this."

@b4 Sometimes the truth isn't nice.

Wow! That's impressive that you have that much detail.

I'd like to add that associates in the Digital division were also given severance packages right before Operations and Service started receiving severance packages.

20% of Home Office GPs have been hired since 2019. 15% of Home Office GPs were hired in a 3 year period between 2021 and 2023.

Half of the current ELT has been hired since 2020. You can't expect the culture to remain the same when half of the firm's leadership has been there for less than 5 years. They probably haven't even taken the time to learn the firm's history and the little things like why our logo is in two different fonts. I wonder how long before everything is rebranded and our logo and colors change to something more flashy.

I wasn't going to read all that but it turned out to be a good post.