- Stop volunteering extra work. Just provide what’s asked—no more, no less.
- Stop trying to do the right thing, even if leadership preach “honesty, integrity and accountability.” Use phrases like: “Happy to support the chosen direction”.
- Don’t speak up DIRECTLY against leaders’ choices. Instead summaries discussions like “Per our discussion, option A was chosen despite X, Y, Z risks. Please let me know if there’s any misunderstandings on my part.”
- ALWAYS be civil. Don’t try to prove someone wrong or expect leadership to acknowledge your voice.
- The five “Don’ts”:
• Don’t become the lone moral hero
• Don’t assume logic will win
• Don’t over-explain bad news
• Don’t expect stated company values to protect you
• Don’t put your name on things that is not your own work or idea. If your boss changes your content - remove your name.
16 replies (most recent on top)
Actively Look for your next opportunity and use this time as a paid job search. When the layoff comes toast champaign as you get a big check and already have your next job that you were only negotiating details of your start date.
@1fg and with that, they won’t be backfilling any positions until almost a year later with lower salaries, and those left behind will be doing the work of 3-4 people, as some are now currently doing it for 2 people. The bank needs to net $100million a month next year, that will be difficult to do without offering new products, so quickest way to save money is by a reduction in workforce aka layoffs. You don’t cut severance in half if the goal was not to reduce your workforce substantially.
Michael Moran is going to strip the bank down to its bare bones this year, the first big hit will come after the bank reorg is announced in late January. Once he gets it to the minimum needed to keep the bank operating, he’ll resign, then it falls on Juan to hire a competent person to be bank president, as that person will be the one to either get USAA out of the OCC’s de@th grip or sell it off to the likes of JP Morgan, Citi, Truist etc
Want to minimize being laid off? Too late? Nothing you can do will prevent your name eventually ending up on a list. After that, your name is removed and you have a number assigned. Senior leaders and HRBP’s look at the list and your level, tenure, and salary.
SVP needs to reduce his/her workforce by 3%? They review the list and then make the decision from there.
@jd in 4 years box will be an AVP running marketing or some new important product rollout. Watch.
@jd well he seems to be thriving. So if you do, make sure you’re very patronizing to fellow employees.
Want to minimize your chances of being laid off? Start by not committing career su----e on your-voice in front of 36k employees.
@ez what's funny is I have never experienced a reorg that was correct. 20 years here, and the knuckle headed HRBPs get it wrong everytime. They have a functional area called Org Design who never get it right. You know why? They've never had a real job that contributes to the company. They are just expensive overhead. That's where AI should start taking over first. No need to have more than 250 people in HR for a company of our size.
I have never been so anxious about leaving a company like this. I never knew about the poor leadership and horrible HRBPs. I left a great company for this sinking ship. I am embarrassed. The way we ignore 2 million dollar errors and narcissistic behavior, along with poor leadership is beyond me. The layoff culture shocks the conscience and pits people against each other creating near violent conflict. The fact that we are a financial institution operating way over head, and Deloitte on our toes, because we know their history in destroying companies and culture. This is the USAA that I understand.
Only some layoffs are directly controlled or influenced by your leader (where this list is very helpful). Many layoffs are at the direction of two layers above or a combination of HR and EMG, where in actuality this list is a bit counter productive as you want to make sure your team and yourself is branded as delivering value.
In summary, be the Yes-man all the time and drink the Kool-Aid.
@OP exactly. If you’ve all ever wondered why one person was part of the layoffs and another wasn’t, read this list.
Speak to them like you’re chat gpt 3o. It will make you less of a target for layoffs if that’s how it’s decided that round. But this also playing the short game.
The long game is much more strategic, involves much more risk, doing skip levels, passively undermining your boss to their leader and coming with better solutions.
This is 100% on point. A team member legit got laid off while rolling out a productivity tool that went through every internal control and audit check. Obviously nobody uses the said tool because the product owner was laid off under reduction in force, but that proves OP’s point.
Well said but sad that it comes to this. "Stop trying to do the right thing"
@OP well said