If you poke around some of the other company layoff pages, almost none seem to be as active as this one. Bank of NY Mellon is pretty dismal, but still lacks the sheer volume. Citi folks don't seem happy either, but even less volume there. Why does Wells Fargo seem to have the most vocally unhappy workforce? Is that a sign of how bad it actually is?
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It's simple. Vast majority of companies don't have 24 straight qtrs of layoffs. This is 2008 stuck on loop here.
I can lick my own ball sack
I've been with Wells for 16 years. I worked for 2 other banks before that. The other banks have always s-cked. When i got to Wells the culture was different. At first I thought it was lazy. But what it was - was decent leadership (in the middle if not the top) and the backstabbing and try to climb over others while not absent wasn't blatantly rewarded. Sh-tty people didnt get rewarded. The dissatisfaction, the anger - the moping and yes outright whining here comes from people who know it doesn't have to be the way it now is - it didn't use to be this way. We had much better and we have lost it. This place that use to be special - it is now like all the other banks workplaces just less honest about it. And that drives the activity here.
@cz They obviously had to plan it out. If you was here during the Sloan years, the board made the decision to reduce FTEs back then. The "location strategy" ticks a few boxes for them. Reduce the FTEs, Reduce the real estate footprint (get out of leases, when the buildings you own aren't at capacity) and increase I&P workforce. It was the perfect scapegoat.
Wells Fargo was INCREDIBLY overstaffed pre-pandemic and it got even worse for a while when the pandemic hit.
Don't get me wrong, I hate working for this company more than I ever thought possible. But it's no secret why there are constant layoffs.
Because they are the best at piiiissssing off their employees and scandals....thats what Wells is known for ....
@bq "Now you have execs from the other companies who move FAST."
LOFL
Is that why Location Strategy and Efficiency initiatives have taken 7 years and counting to get to where we are, rather than to the finish line?
Sure, give them the covid credit and it's down to 5 years. How, exactly, is that fast?
If these "execs" have the same capacity for self-realization and thoughtful analysis that you do, all the people complaining that this place is done, are correct.
Most of WF has been coddle like babies. Now, they are kicking and screaming that they have to work 40 hours and go to an office now
I generally agree with this. The problem is, housing employees at all isn't "best" and the people we got from these other banks are the incompetent reject class. There are ways to decrease a wasteful property portfolio. WF has proven that it's horrible at it.
@bw For such an evangelist of the Lying Machine you sure are bad at lying.
@bw Had his brain rotted by AI to the point that he's internalized its lying and inconsistencies
@bx I agree that word of mouth probably contributes. I postulate that the word of mouth is indicative of the overall health of the company. People wouldn't come here looking for validation and understanding of what they are experiencing if it wasn't bad to start with. It would be interesting to see if the level of engagement correlates to workplace happiness. I have to think it does, but hard to prove I guess. It just seems to be worse compared to the pages of other companies.
@bv I agree; what do you suppose is the common denominator for that?
@bv was vindicated within a minute of posting 😂 Incredible.
Lots of potential reasons.
Some of it could just be a self-perpetuating thing, as far as use of this site goes: if more people at a given company are active on this site, more of their coworkers hear about it through word of mouth, more people posting on here makes checking it more worthwhile, etc.
@ac here. Wow. I didn't know this was a rating contest. I just had a lovely 6 hour session with Claude creating a new product for my 600K/year business. I did not make the @ac Nailed it!!! | Well said…. And completely agree!! | @ac Mic drop! as AI slop guy in @bn claims. I wonder if he made these comments to set me up! I could pause and try to examine AI slop's mental health and status. But quite frankly I don't have enough time.
Lets get back to the original post. Why so many posts here? Well there is a lot of hurt here. There will remain a lot of hurt here unless we face the issues (and sometimes the people) that have perpetuated this hurt. From CS to the AI slop guy, perhaps your manager or 2 up. I hope all are discovering and forcing their boundaries, up skilling, learning AI (not just chat but agentic), and getting ready for their next position. Now AI slop guy will probably take this non-AI post and rate me without realizing this is bullying.
anyway... back to work.
@bt mental illness is the biggest theme of this board
Who cares if the user used AI to write the post. The overall message is what matters and it summarizes a lot of the recurring themes that continue to show up on this board.
@bp lol sure. Genuinely: you know other people aren't as easily fooled as you, right?
As someone who has worked at other banks in my career, I can give a simple answer. All the things that are happening here now the other institutions have already gone through it. I&P offshoring, CITI, BNY, MS was doing it 20+ yrs ago. None of the other banks had these bad locations plans, you know why? Because when merged /acquired other businesses they shut down and displaced the other locations FAST. They don’t wait to “see how it goes” they start the plan within months of the merger close. WF used to be the place where the stagnation kept people employed. Now you have execs from the other companies who move FAST. Doing what they know best.
@bn I don’t know why you think it’s fabrication and auto - fellation. Whether it was written by AI or not it’s still spot on. I can’t prove to you that’s it not any more than you can prove that is. But there’s enough diversity of posts here that I believe there are many users and lurkers.
The way he says "Nailed it!" to himself is just so pathetic too. Not as pathetic as using AI to communicate like a human being, but still.
@bb lmao he's now tweaking it to not be exactly 20 but it's still glaring. There's just no outwitting the awesome 80 point IQ of an AI Prompt Expert 😂
Gee I wonder if the AI slop comment posted at 5 AM, and the only one with exactly 20 upvotes, was made by the board lunatic
I believe it’s because if you’ve been here long enough, it’s shocking how much this place has changed over the past five years or so. Thus, the long-timers just can’t believe it and don’t understand the ‘logic’ of it.
That's the nature of being stuck in an abusive relationship. It comes to dominate a huge chuck of your mental/emotional bandwidth
Wells has more whiners... More !diots who cannot search the intranet or internal docs for answers to their questions... !diots who cannot even browse down a handful of items on this site to see their question was answered 2 days ago...
@ac Mic drop!
Because those “firms” saw their “leaders” jump over here. They are simply exhaling from the wrath they have already been through.
@ac Well said…. And completely agree!!
Because we are all living the Well Life
@ac Nailed it!!!
Wells Fargo is more active on this site because, compared with other banks, the workplace feels uniquely abusive and toxic.
This bank has a long history of abusive behavior toward customers, as seen in the account scandals, and that same mindset now shows up in how it treats employees. The so-called “efficiency program” has dragged on for more than five years with no clear end, unlike at other banks such as Citi, which at least define a layoff window and then move on.
On top of continuous cuts, Wells runs confusing and demoralizing policies: unclear location strategies, inconsistent return-to-office rules, rank-and-yank performance reviews, active P&I and H‑1B hiring even while employees are being let go, and people literally waiting in line to grab a temporary desk at the office. The overall signal is that leadership does not care about employees’ well-being or psychological safety.
That is why this board is so active. People come here to make sense of what feels like systemic abuse and a deeply toxic culture. In many ways, Wells Fargo has become a poster child for a psychologically unsafe workplace — and a bank that has not really learned from its past.