I understand this board is for discussing layoffs but layoffs don’t happen in a silo. A company’s culture and leadership decisions tell you a lot about who makes these calls and why. IMO Schwab’s leadership has shown a pattern of behavior worth considering if you’re worried about job security and layoffs.
It seems there’s been an erosion of integrity. A recent example is Schwab’s decision to platform TruthFi. In 2021 Schwab announced it was taking an apolitical stance, shutting down its PAC and stating it was best for clients, employees, and shareholders. In 2025, they quietly reversed course, choosing to platform TruthFi, a financial venture with highly political ties. This is not speculation—this information is publicly available and easily found via Google search.
At the same time, discussions about this shift keep disappearing from public forums. If leadership stands by this decision, why actively suppress conversations about it?
Schwab’s guiding principles are “Trust is Everything” and “Through Clients’ Eyes”—so why try to control what clients and employees see?
Meanwhile, at this point it appears leadership pushed return-to-office not for “collaboration” but as a tool for forced attrition. Promotions and bonuses seem to go to friends and insiders, while others get left behind. Leadership often appears more focused on managing up than actually supporting their teams.
Schwab is a profit-driven firm—which is fine, but IMO, they should stop professing trust and integrity matter when actively contradicting those values. The firm has made it clear that profit, control, and optics come first. Employees do not.
If layoffs happen, look at who’s making the decisions. What have they shown you about their priorities? Their lack of integrity isn’t about you, it’s just who they are or have become. Understanding that won’t save your job, but keeping it in mind might help soften the blow.