The 3/23/2023 Layoff date is a fact everyone! This round will be a significant one. Headcount will be cut by 4 digits “x,x-x”. Possibly even 5 digits “xx,x-x” this round.
Why do people seem to believe this rumor over other rumors? I have seen mostly positive replies and upvotes. I'm genuinely curious if there is something that I missed from official channels that supports this date? If there isn't, why is it so widely accepted as the next layoff date?
Why do you think they hurried up and settled up everyone’s 401Ks from those lawsuits? They wanted that out of the way…now a big hit - probably one that pays for itself with a write-off against profits - to permanently cut headcount. Charlie only got $24 Mil last year…he wants to be up there with Jamie Dimon at $89 Mil a year and THIS is how he gets there. $350 Mil in severance? Nothing to him.
there are other events prior to march.
@3rte+1ladYoN
Severance is paid out 60 days past notice. If there is a major layoff on 3/23, the severance expenses would be incurred in Q2 near the end of May.
@3rte+1ladYoN7 is right.
I have no inside info, but from the Jan 13th Q4 earnings call, “ $353 million of severance expense, primarily in home lending. While we've reduced headcount in this business throughout 2022, this charge includes the actions we plan to take in 2023 related to the mortgage announcement we made earlier this week.”
If they do spend all of this $353 million on severance, my mathematical brain doesn’t see too many ways to slice this. I believe this would mean at least 10,000 (or even more) displacements.
take another listen or look at the 4th Q earnings call. Significant reduction in head count to occur Q1 2023. no idea where the 3/23 date came from - not privy to management meetings. significant funds allocated to severance.
Is that when the people in Correspondent get their actual notices? Even though news sources indicated they were informed 1/11, they haven't actually received any sort of official notice. I feel badly for them. They know it is coming at some point, but don't know when.
Don't worry, I'm sure Charlie will take "full responsibility" and proceed not to take a salary or bonus hit. Heck, even if he did he wouldn't feel it.
This allusion to having RTO not count is absolutely laughable. You really don’t understand mass layoffs if you believe any metric is off the table. Everything is a calculation, front line managers won’t get the early heads up until late this month at best and all they will get is a request for a list of names or notification that they will lose X # of slots or %. The overall layoff can be defined as realignment of operating expenses while it is used to cut the aged, poor performers, non-RTO compliant, over compensated or those who just aren’t liked. All they need to do is mix up the pool to show there is no bias and done.
Not even vilifying them. This is how it is.
@1vdl+1ladYoN7 … have posted here numerous times … heard about this event back in Nov/Dec timeframe, so that’s 4 months. This layoff is 100 percent accurate and could be low five figures.
The weakest links will be displaced…….
Don’t count on it. People are scored on how they do in the interview. A poor performer who can talk a good game has a better chance than a top performer who freezes in an interview situation.
And then of course the game is rigged. In marketing the group director’s favorites have been known to get the questions ahead of time.
Weak links or not.
Yes, badge reporting has existed since at least 2018. It’s not due to RTO. But it also wasn’t systemic and monitored for accuracy. It was used to figure out seating capacity and who should have permanent seats vs hotdesking as CPG converted buildings to that model.
For RTO I saw the early iterations of attendance reporting last year. There were all sorts of errors and gaps and the reports stopped and started back up again a couple of times. It wasn’t until end of year that they were reasonably reliable.
Last year managers were told that they ‘could’ use office attendance as a factor (but not a knockout criteria) in performance rating, but it was not required. This was never published to employees.
January the message is different. It’s on teamworks for all to see. And managers have been told that they are accountable for their team’s attendance. So if someone’s not complying - the manager can either start the performance documentation/discipline process, or face a performance process of their own.
So, back to the original topic - mass layoff 3/23 - it would have been in the pipeline by November of last year, when RTO still wasn’t a performance-enforced mandate.
He’s not wrong though. Firing someone for cause takes time and documentation. Typically to fire someone for performance I’d think they’d put someone on some sort of PIP first. If you’re going to get fired with no severance, you’ll probably see it coming first. If you get blind-sided, you’re probably getting laid off with severance.
My group will be going down in headcount-all of us will have to interview for our jobs again soon. The weakest links will be displaced. I’m for this approach as there are clearly some folks not pulling their weight.
Yep. I can't imagine WF having the ability to be organized enough to pull something big off on such short notice from current meetings.
I have heard several sources from Director meetings unofficially share the current 'resource allocation' activities with potential impact - displacement, operations move the line, etc. would be most likely to occur in late Q2/early Q3. That timeline seems more akin to WF pace -- drawn out.
It didn't just become a thing in January. Reporting was set up before RTO started. They have a years worth of data on RTO compliance. And it is being used.
the layoff pipeline takes 4-5 months from initiation of the process to the actual notification. Anyone on this thread talking about decisions being made now for march, or using RTO compliance (which only became a 'thing' in January) is just a troll getting their jollies here.
@1hsc the government had to step in because of the shady originator practices. Lending on anything to anyone, quoting numbers with fees that suited their payout. Working with bank employees to get customer info and leads and ultimately helping to drive up fake accounts for the purpose of meeting quotas. I guess you forgot 2008. The packaging of bad mortgage debts into retirement investments started with these mortgage flunkies fudging numbers and lending to anyone who wanted to buy a house. They put us all here and hopefully they’re the first to go. They’re not needed. I refi’d a year ago and never talked to a person until the underwriting process. I was amazed at how much less frustration it was.
FRTO and FNYC. The sooner the Hudson Yards crowd is gone the sooner this company can recover.
@1ojf+1ladYoN7 : They are hoping people don’t meet the RTO requirement. That way, they have grounds for termination rather than a layoff. It’s a way to avoid paying severance. So, for all those who think that not meeting your RTO requirement equates to a layoff and severance, think again. Don’t give them the satisfaction of being able to fire you over some BS policy.
Can confirm 3/23. RTO numbers are being looked at closely and those who remain non-compliant will be a large share of those who are let go.
I just got off the phone with Charlie.
No more layoffs, ever! He said they're gonna make it work no matter what it takes. He said word will just have to get around that WF stock is a long-term stock.
He wants to merge WF with GM and relocate the HQ to Michigan. Many office workers will have the opportunity to become auto assemblers. His main interest is Buick, and possibly reviving the Oldsmobile brand.
Internationally, he has his eye on conflict diamonds, given that no one cares where the diamond comes from as long as price and quality are there.
More to come, I'm sure. Something about private prisons or something.
@glw you can thank the government for requiring a registered Mortgage Loan Originator to offer or negotiate any mortgage loan application. You can also thank the government (CFPB, Dodd-Frank, etc.) for the processes/employees required to ensure loans meet ability to repay standards and require loan-level certifications by employees on certain government-insured loans like FHA, VA, USDA. Without these regulations in place the greed of wall-street and bank executives led to the great recession. Now we have all this red tape, so many different roles touching a loan, redundant auditing, added technology expenses and reporting for compliance testing.
hopefully it's in mortgage. Why a person is even needed to originate one in this day and age is beyond me. Mortgage marketplaces are cleaning their lunch; can collect the info from the borrower and be localized in any language. Without the mortgage flunkies, this company could move forward into the future and be ready for the next wave of lending. LOL. You need a person to talk someone into a 30-year commitment, like it's 1950.
I can confirm and as a senior leader, we were asked to look at this through two different scenarios. Spans and layers were first, then managers with title and no staff. Second lens was non performers and transitions.
Marketing is hiring. Seriously - what’s up with that? Outside agencies do the consumer facing work. Yet marketing seems to always be adding people. To do what?
I’ve heard “a big event in March” from at least four execs on different calls, some going back to late last year, so it’s 100% accurate. Heard the # will be in the thousands.
how about the middle mgrs? some do not add any value
It used to be WF would try to keep their layoff numbers below the radar, because it doesn't look so good. Many huge corporations are slashing large numbers of staff recently, many of which have never been known to do so. Perhaps WF will take this opportunity to purge its ranks.
I expect the first to go will be useful people who do actual work and add value, those little people who are not well connected to leadership. Heaven forbid they dump the overpaid MBAs and all the other useless folks who talk the talk and haven't a clue.