In the spirit of Jerry Maguire and because I’m leaving soon…here are my thoughts, make of them what you will.
“There is a cruel wind blowing through our business. We all feel it, and if we don’t, perhaps we’ve forgotten how to feel.” - Jerry Maguire’s letter, written by director Cameron Crowe
Sure, it’s a fictitious letter from a movie, but that line rings true for all of Wells Fargo at this moment in time. I’ve seen a lot in my many years here, but I’ve never seen cruelty like I see today.
We all understand that layoffs are a cruel part of business, but far too many of us are willing to excuse the cruelty of layoffs here because of the severance packages being offered. “I’d love a package!” we tell each other, as if that’s an appropriate response to what a displaced employee might be going through. That person who is questioning their worth, who didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, who is fearful of what lies ahead, who wonders what they did or what they could have done differently to avoid this situation? That person might not love the package they were offered.
We have to stop pretending that the way layoffs are being conducted is ok because some of us would be fine with being laid off. Nothing is transparent. Not the timing. Not who. Not even why. How many rounds of layoffs are even left? It’s all hidden and the only way we find out someone is gone is by seeing a “zz” in front of their name minutes before we’re supposed to be meeting with that person. When I asked why layoffs were being conducted this way I was told there was some HR sensitivity that prevented greater transparency. To that I call B.S. It’s cowardice. This company is currently led by insecure narcissists who don’t want their decisions questioned. There’s a Zen saying that “How you do anything is how you do everything,” and the way layoffs are being conducted is a good indication of the way everything is done at Wells these days.
Being secretive about layoffs is bad, but what comes next in some ways is even worse. The one thing management seems positively giddy to announce - they’ve hired a new manager from outside of the company! So and so with X years of experience is here to save us all! That manager likely has some previous working relationship with the manager who hired them, but they try not to advertise that. Better to make you think that person got the job on their own merits. The cronyism doesn’t end there though, because then that manager creates a few highly paid positions under them and hires lackeys from their old company to come over to Wells and work for them here. We all see it and we all know it’s happening. We’re told that these new people are being hired because they have the skills we all lack, but experience shows they don’t actually know more than us, they just act that way.
Which brings me to my next point…
When you’re on a call with one of these new people and they begin condescending or bullying you or one of your legacy Wells co-workers on a call (you know it happens), stand up for each other. It can be as simple as saying “I don’t appreciate your tone.” We need to stop letting their cruelty to us become our cruelty to each other. My biggest regret over the last couple years at Wells is that way too often I allowed the external hire management bullies in my department to make me feel like I was inferior to them or stupid because I didn’t know the strategy that they had worked out between themselves and not communicated down the chain. And way too often I said nothing when someone else on a call was the target of bullying by these insecure ego maniacs. When you say nothing you embolden their cruelty. Don’t be silent. Stand up for each other.
We need to stop pretending that external consultants and external management hires are fixing the problems at Wells. These people have lit more fires than they’ve put out.
In the best scenarios, they’ve implemented short-sighted cost savings strategies in silos without talking to other groups or thinking through the long term consequences of their decisions. Taking away corporate cell phones seems like a savvy, money saving move until you realize that cell phone was actually a fairly cheap way to keep your workforce engaged and connected. That device was also the cornerstone of a couple other tech strategies. So now you have to try to get your disengaged, pi---d off, workforce to use their personal phones. And when that fails who will they blame? Not themselves of course. They’re perfect. They’ll blame you for not being willing to adapt to change.
In the worst scenarios they’ve chosen vendor products that they have financial interest in. Setting the company on a long term path for future expenses for their own personal gain. Again, we all see it and we all know it’s happening, but no one says anything. It’s “management’s discretion.” Cool. Then disclose your relationships to the vendor so everything is above board when those contracts are signed.
Wells Fargo used to be a trusted American brand. I used to be proud to work for this company, but the scandals keep coming and they’re not going to go away until every employee holds every other employee up to the highest ethical standards regardless of their position. Ask the hard questions of your managers and executive leadership - these are the ones that start with “Why.” Why was so and so laid off?” Why was so and so hired instead of promoting internally?” “Why are we doing x instead of y? Is this a decision good for everyone?” Why. Why. Why.
If Wells is going to be a great company again, it’s not going to happen because a bunch of people who aren’t loyal to the brand showed up to fix everything. It’s going to be because whoever is left cared enough to restore this company to what it was. If you care enough to stay that is. I don’t have the fight in me anymore, but maybe you do?