Serious question: has strong performance ever actually stopped a round of layoffs from happening? It seems like they happen no matter what.
3 replies (most recent on top)
I think growth could slow job cuts. U.S. Bank is fixated on the efficiency ratio. The Wells Fargo analyst always hounded Andy about how it kept creeping up when we were hiring for money laundering. The problem is that we are a much bigger bank and growth is harder to come by.
Banking is less and less customer facing. Almost everything can be done online. The rare live check can be deposited right away with a smartphone.
Anyone that fights RTO are easy to cull with call centres emerging in Argentina, Estonia, and resilient Manila all with T1 upgrades complete. Soon enough AI will soon handle most of the incoming calls and will handle more data functions without need of call centers and domestic IT departments. If you don't think so, ask any toll takers or receptionists if you can find one. Technology is rapidly advancing and you need to.find a path forward where you use your hands where AI is far from taking that over.
Not that I have seen in today’s environment. Many years ago when RKD was the CEO we handled headwinds differently. Cuts were not done by way of massive layoffs. In fact USB was known for not doing layoffs in downturns. But I think in most businesses now those days are gone. Things are changing so rapidly that as soon as you have your business model figured out, something will happen that will force a fast pivot and restructuring takes place.