There’s been multiple layoffs in the past week where they are only informing associates internal to that particular org. Are they planning to inform the rest of the firm? Genuinely wondering.
26 replies (most recent on top)
@vs there’s a lot of us that don’t work in Global Distribution or Investments. Also a lot of us aren’t in London or Sydney. I’ll be happy with just burgers and beers at Greene Turtle with the crew.
@af they think they’re kings and queens with the power they wield. I’ve seen so many abuses and the lack of checks on the IT staff is a tragic comedy that will no doubt come to haunt TROW.
@t6 to be fair the company absolutely does provide a budget for each department/team to do something, though it is a more modest budget but still plenty to do something fun and nice (we used to have big department-wide parties that were nicer but those have disappeared post-COVID). It sounds like the other commenter’s manager decided the budget was too small and they should all self-fund something fancier, which is ridiculous. But that is not the norm as far as I’m aware, sounds like the person just has a particularly selfish and oblivious manager/department head.
@OP Get ready for more coming soon. Small scale but notable. This will carry on through '26. Most go unannounced, but some get widely known. Some are immediate, some take a short period to manifest. Twelve more months of this.
@d8 self funded Christmas parties are a joke. Either the company or the country head and/or team boss should be paying. I was at a company previously where the senior people all chipped in money for a divisional Christmas party. Sad to see T Rowe doesn’t put its money where its mouth is and “leaders” here are self-centred tools wearing a mask of kindness.
One of the few ways to find out is if people post here. However what I’m seeing is that a lot of people don’t know which teams are impacted. A lot of guessing and rumors.
@OP "Why are they doing “secret” layoffs?"
The obvious answer is, because they can.
@dp "Since it seems like this whole place is about to blow up, go under, or be purchased."
Would LOVE a purchase, since it would significantly increase my chances of a layoff with severance.
But that will only happen if top management (i.e., Rob) thinks he can get a fat premium on his stock holdings -- fat enough to offset the loss of his cozy pay package.
And, even though the stock has gone nowhere for the past five years, I'm still not sure it's cheap enough to draw a bid.
@f9 You give her far too much credit.
@ey I almost feel sorry for the COO...she hired RR who hired CLP, and now she is OUT and the other 2 got big promotions. It shows how dirty and cannibalistic "the top" is here. Now she is off by herself on the org chart with no reports and gone after years end. I feel now she may have been well-meaning, but incompetent. Perhaps she was not OK with the current state of things here after all. Regardless, this place makes me sick, and I look forward to leaving.
@ I think IQ tests and emotional intelligence tests, would be a better job perquisite than whatever we are currently using after the recent coo debacle. Just saying.
@dh Since it seems like this whole place is about to blow up, go under, or be purchased, I vote for an "Office Christmas Party" movie style Christmas party in Harbor Point, livestock optional!
@dk "Team Photo" what are we a kids' soccer team now :-D Your post made me LOL - and I needed it! How creepy - I hate random photos too. He at least should have made sure everyone was on board with the concept and picked a time so at least people could fix themselves up for the shot. Knowing my luck I'd be dragging into a photo after being on an overnight Critsit and having the change a tire in the rain on the way in!
@b6 I could have written this post. I am 100% the same - outside of my team and my immediate managers I have zero confidence in "decision makers" carving up the company and taking everything Mr. Price built and blowing it up. I am thankful that the previous culture still exists on my immediate team. I used to go to the AMAs to find out what is going on in the Firm. Then I only went to laugh. Now I find them triggering and skip. I am old enough to remember when Jen P would have them IN PERSON or in small groups online. That is what leaders do who really do plan on answering your questions.
@d8 it is totally god awful. My boss made us take a team photo and I felt violated. As if I want that photo anywhere. He don’t ask or anything, he just said gather round for a team photo and smile. He’s all for show and makes me throw up in my mouth.
@d8 self funded Christmas party?? Wtf is that?? Your team should have been given a modest but adequate budget to do something. Are you in the UK? I thought the UK Fixed Income team always threw a gigantic party for the whole office? That is not acceptable and I would not go, frankly. Say you have a family event. You don’t work for the company to pay them money! Come on now, drag up those European pro-labor roots and don’t give in!
@b0 I am begrudgingly going to a “self funded” one. It is quite expensive and it is making me anxious. I feel under pressure to attend to seem like a collaborative team player and a culture fit. I will limit myself to this event only. Why should I invest my time, money, and energy in a firm that doesn’t value its employees and might give me the boot tomorrow? Why prioritise them over friends, family, hobbies, rest? I resent being left out of pocket (what happened to no firm Christmas party = budget for smaller team event?) and giving up my evening for it - especially now that commute time/cost has gone up and my wages have stagnated. I wonder what bonuses and pay rises look like this year…
@af agreed. Privacy best practice is not observed consistently if at all.
@as I have also been with this company for several decades. i don’t even recognize it. my team and direct management still demonstrate the values and culture that kept me here but above them, no. i have never had such low confidence in leadership. the AMA meetings seem pointless and do little more than remind me of how bad it is and how little employees are valued.
@as That is some statement - worst ever. I have not been here nearly as long as you, but over the course of my career at various jobs I have never encountered such a mix of incompetence and pure indifference to people as I see here. It's like when a sports team manager orchestrates a terrible season so attendance plummets, and they can claim they need to move the team to another city due to lack of support. This started in the spring. You would think with all of the "AI" they claim they are using and all of these top minds they could have scraped together a layoff list by Fall and be done with it.
Is anyone going to any office Christmas gathering this year? I'm not.
@af Tell us about these data breaches or they didn't happen! Inquiring minds want to know.
I think the current management committtee we have is the worst we have ever had, and I have been at the firm for several decades. There is a cruelty and delusion to the way Sharps, Dee Sawyer, Ramon Richards, et al are “leading” and culture really does filter down from the top. T. Rowe used to be a company that took layoffs seriously, reluctantly, and with about as much thought and dignity as you can expect from a U.S. corporation (which is to say not much, but much better than most).
Now it seems there is no strategy to layoffs or communication thereof, which puts morale in the toilet. I truly don’t understand why they are being so cowardly about it when it gains them nothing. And the layoffs are not large enough, even taken together, to trigger a WARN notice, so it doesn’t seem to be the purpose to circumvent that.
It all just seems so disorganized and panicky.
@a4 newsflash - data breaches happen all the time here and IT d-mbos do currently purposely leak information to those that shouldn’t get it. This includes personal information.
I am working to get out of this place. It is toxic and unhealthy. I don't even want my retirement savings here. It could be gone in a minute once their new staff take over between ensuing data breaches or by opening up systems to 3rd party strangers "overseas". Who knows what kinds of background checks can be done on people in other countries.
The constant drip of secret layoffs is demoralizing. I do not understand the strategy.
@OP Something doesn't seem right. I am thinking of asking my State Delegate if there is any benefit to orchestrating layoffs so as not to have to show up on the WARN notice site. I have been places with layoffs and this seems sketchy.