This week I had to travel between three office locations. I’ve never seen morale so low across the organization. I found employees to be shockingly unrestrained in their criticism of management. WF has a real problem brewing, and I hope they are prepared for the inevitable fallout.
Just know that if you’re feeling squeezed by the new mandates, you are not alone.
I was layed off in 2024. Prior to that I was really f’d with by stooopid Managers (they are not all like that btw) it caused me severe stress. I actually wrote an email to Charlie saying this is going to backfire on you big time, youre creating an angry hostile crowd of people etc. Of course no response but Im glad I did it. Said the same thing on Loudspeaker, and submitted for inclusion at one of Sauls meetings where he gets up there and bloviates about how much they care about customers and employees - ba-f.
I have worked for Wells Fargo in contract roles and in perm roles for over 12 years. Not once did I ever have to be in the office to work for eight hours a day. As long as I was there most of the day I usually got to flex an hour or two in the afternoon or morning. I was always able to avoid traffic and have that flexibility. The trade-off was that I did have to work some weekends and off hours. I was willing to do that because they were flexible with me. I was flexible with them. Now they’re so rigid with 8 hours that people are not willing to be flexible and go above and beyond anymore. You can’t have it both ways expect people to work on weekends and pitch in and be a team player and be flexible but yet not being flexible on the other end. I think there are a lot of roles in this company where you have to work extra time at night or on the weekend or even early morning if you’re lucky enough to not have one of those roles good for you!
This is exactly what they want. They want you to quit. They don't want to pay severence. The job market su-ks, they are in control right now, and they are using that to make life miserable to reduce headcount. It's not rocket science.
I’ve been with Wells Fargo for nine years, and during that time I’ve seen many changes, both good and bad. Unfortunately, team morale is at an all-time low right now. Our team has always been remote, which has worked well for many of us, especially those with medical issues or other personal circumstances. The recent RTO push has added significant stress and uncertainty to a group that’s already feeling overworked and underpaid compared to similar roles at other companies.
Leadership feels disconnected from the realities of our day-to-day work. We rarely see meaningful advocacy on our behalf, and communication often comes across as vague or scripted rather than transparent and supportive. This lack of genuine leadership and direction has left many employees feeling unvalued and unheard.
It’s also discouraging that internal growth opportunities are so limited. Promotion from within is rare, and that has led to a culture where many employees are just doing the minimum to get by — not out of laziness, but because there’s little incentive to go above and beyond for a company that doesn’t seem to reward hard work or loyalty.
The ongoing layoffs, coupled with news of multimillion-dollar executive bonuses, make it hard to believe that employee well-being is truly a priority. Many of us can’t help but think about how those funds could be used to save jobs or relieve the workload that’s burning people out.
In short, employees need to feel valued, heard, and supported — not just told that we are. We need leadership that understands what we do, advocates for fair treatment and pay, and recognizes that morale is directly tied to how people are treated, not just how often we’re reminded of company goals.
Morale does seem to have taken yet another dip. When RTO started I think people weren't thrilled, but were generally ok with it in some ways. Some of us thought it was stupid b/c we drive into an office only to get on teams meetings and not actually work with anybody in our city. Started as 1 day, then 3. My office was not super full and by early/mid afternoon a ghost town. You'd have conversations here and there with strangers just to get an idea of who you were actually sitting with-- all different orgs in my case. Nobody in my CIO even. Coffee badgers sc--wed a lot of this up frankly. FFS, at least make an effort.
Layoffs on a regular basis and the tuesday question of: am I on the chopping block today? Ok, I survived. Who do I know that's gone now. and of course reaching out to that person you were working with in another org only to find out they're zz'd. Ok, WTF now-- they were dealing with xyz and now I have to re-explain to whoever the f**k is replacing them- if anybody. I literally had somebody in an org we were working with that disappears. I ask they're leader who is replacing them-- answer I got was basically figure it out, your on your own. Wait, so you mf'ers are putting me on the hook for compliance to these policies and there's no sign off, check, agreement that we're ok? Ok, fine. Don't come back to us later when we did our best and you mf'ers start to pick at it.
Now with 3 days x 8 hours etc. Office has been pretty full, people can't find cubes. I hear A LOT of conversations right out in the open about how stupid this all is and how the f**k they're even going to measure people. Tons of cynicism, tons of thinking this is BS, tons of questioning how we're supposed to be flexible with our time and location when there's stringent in office 8 hour requirements. and beyond that, while for me it was crystal clear what we're supposed to do-- there are mixed messages FROM LEADERS in orgs that it isn't what has been communicated/stated on teamworks FFS.
Is there any question why morale su-ks?
The 99% of the working population that has always had to come to work to do their jobs thinks anyone whining about morale being low because a bunch of coddled babies who got hard bragging to everyone about how special they were because they got paid 150k a year to sit at home and play with themselves all day are ridiculous. Guess what? Nobody feels sorry for you and nobody cares. The rest of the country works far harder then you and makes far less. Try being grateful for what you have instead of whiny little #####es.
Sol G, is that you??
Which offices?
The morale is a reflection of bad leadership starting at the top. I personally think putting everyone through RCSA also has something to do with it.
Having to work with toxic risk teams affected other business areas.
Tanking morale is all HY knows how to do. They invest huge amounts of time and resources finding new ways to do it. Attrition is all that matters. People will leave. Think it'll be the top performers that always have a ton of options in the job market that stick around? Nope, they are the first ones out the door. The other people that bolt are the manager types that value their independence, being treated like an adult, and ability to innovate as they see fit. There's no future in that with the current executives, who seem to be inspired by an ultra centralized, almost Stalinist, approach to leadership. So even if you're a director, you're nothing but a glorified email forwarder. So again, the really innovative leader types will be the first to leave. What are we left with? Yes men. People counting the days to retirement. People that can't find anywhere else. This is not how you turn a company around or grow. Just the opposite.
@a4 I respect this take, but I don’t agree with it. I think WFH allowed a more flexible work/life balance for a lot of people with no commute, the ability to run small errands that normally consume evenings and weekends, the extra time to enjoy and grow the communities we live in.
Those face to face meetings, coffee breaks, beers after work - that stuff was all an attempt to build a community because we lacked the time to invest in the ones we occupy. Morale is low because we saw what could be and management snatched it out from under us. 2020-2022 were probably the closest that we will ever be the three European model of working to live rather than living to work.
@a4 COVID proved, definitively and objectively, that 90% of "office culture" was a literal waste of time, money, and resources. Not only was WF, but every other bank and large organization, able to successfully operate, but productivity soared. Yes, there are still some tasks or activities which benefit from in-person interactions, but other than direct customer-facing roles like tellers or retail bankers, the idea that forcing grown adults into reduced workspace to literally play "musical chairs" three times a week, for an eight hour minimum, is just asinine. The only rationale that makes any sense is to drive attrition, which is working very well. I imagine there will be an audible su-king sound starting the third week of February as anyone who managed to survive the next few months of layoffs and was able to find a job where they can be treated like a professional adult again hit the doors en masse.
@a4 Pre-covid, my entire team had telecommute arrangements, for years prior. No one on the C-suite was even thinking about remote workers, much less making them the central focus of their entire strategy.
Yeah, cause management fu--ing su-ks across the board. This is what happens when your strategy is to pit everyone against each other. But hey, headcount continues to decline and board and share holders are happy. They better have an exit plan to lock in those profits.
I think the old saying first something like "the beatings will continue until moral improves". unlike pre COVID we now have a microscope on us and no assigned cubes. there are some small things they can do to turn things around but they won't. this is all by design to drive attrition so they don't have to pay severance which is much higher than they anticipated.
I've only been here 2 years, and in that short time my morale has gone way downhill. I really resent being treated like a toddler with this in office cr-p (my area also has to submit daily activity reports..you hired me and now I have to prove why I should still be here). I've worked for many different companies and this place takes the cake.
It's been like that for a couple years.
I'll get strung up for this, but a lot of it has to do with nobody in the office. Pre COVID, we were all meeting in person, networking and maybe even going out for happy hour.
Now, it's every person for themselves and just watching the clock. Nobody really knows anyone else any more, no networking and there's been so many changes that we don't even know who does what any more