Thread regarding Northwestern Mutual layoffs

This sounds like NYC tracksuit guy claiming he works in MKE.

the only thing that matters is the 15th and last. The company itself is a perpetual motion machine for the foreseeable future based on cashflow and interest rates. just stay engaged enough to collect again. no one on here is at a level where results would really matter.

Someone said it here earlier and I'll repeat what they said: The NYC and MKE battle is ridiculous because at the end of the day, we're all just working for a mid-tier financial services company that has a load of tech debt and not-the-best leadership.

I don’t care admitting it because I’m proud of the company and my team and sick of negative people who only marginally contribute think they can tear people down or incessantly complain.

It does explain a lot, I agree, because I’ve shown that every statement you made actually doesn’t make sense. You trash PX even though it’s fully adopted and has better experience feedback than PPA. It negates completely what you said about NYC not producing anything. You then incorrectly say AD is a product of NYC, then still say it’s cr-p even though it’s a product that came out of MKE.

So which is it? You complain that NYC su-ks, but then also trash MKE output. Do you just hate everyone around you and think they su-k? My guess is this is more of a you problem.

You are brave admitting you work on Advisor Desktop but that does explain a lot.

Wrong again, which makes me think you just don’t work here or are uninformed. Funny you bring up AD, because I actually work on the advisor desktop team as an engineer and have been there since the beginning. It was done by an outsourced California company first, then we brought it in-house. Our entire team is almost exclusively based in MKE and has been since the beginning.

You honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Again, please tell us what your major accomplishments are so we can compare to all these people you think don’t have talent.

PX is only "adopted" because PPA was turned off. If you left both options I can guarantee you that PPA would be the preferred product. The field are already complaining about PX FactFinder. Are NYC staff so arrogant they don't listen to the customers or their feedback? Advisor Desktop is another disaster that came from NYC. The top teams refused to use it so they tried to push it on everyone in the field and they still can't make a go of it.

You probably don’t work here anymore because PX is fully adopted by the field as of two years ago. That’s a pretty big accomplishment. What data are you citing that says the field hates it?

There’s also hundreds of employees that have been hired and work on a variety of initiatives for the company. I’m sorry that you think all of them are neither talented or knowledgeable. A statistical unlikelihood, for sure, but I get it that you have a high bar. I’m sure if we looked at your last 5 performance review ratings and listed out your major accomplishments we’d truly see what good looks like, right? Care to share?

If NYC is Fintech then what have they actually produced? You can't possibly be calling LearnVest a success by any means. It was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. There isn't a single person at the NYC campus that I would consider talented or remotely knowledgeable. PX is a POS and the lack of adoption among the field proves it.

If you had any hiring responsibility (which you clearly do not), you would see how hard it is to find anyone in MKE. It is preferred they are local, but they just don’t make it through the interview process. And these are MKE people interviewing, so not like there is bias at play. You have to also consider MKE isn’t that big and you don’t get that many candidates to start with.

The other answer to your question is what is known as talent clusters and where people with specific industry knowledge and interest tend to migrate. Boston is biotech, San Francisco is AI, and New York is… wait for it… fintech.

Companies setup shop in talent hubs not only for brand recognition, but also because they get access to a larger pool of people who actually want to work in a finance-related field and also have experience in it.

Now I know you’d love nothing more than NM to setup a multi-million dollar campus in Waukesha instead, but then they’d lose access to actual millions of people who want to work for a financial company and they would likely be branded as “not serious” about their future as a fintech company if they pulled out of NYC.

So there you go, a little business 101 so you don’t have to complain about it on the weekend later.

What talent exists in NYC that cannot be obtained elsewhere? LearnVest was a high school homework project at best and NM paid the price for that POS company. The talent at NM in NYC is subpar and has produced nothing other than substantial debt for the company. Please share with us why NM should continue to hold onto this skintag known as the NYC campus.

NM is the best of 4 recognizable companies that are headquartered in Milwaukee. Its reputation is extremely strong there. NM’s only competitive advantage over other companies in NYC is flexibility. Compensation is mediocre, benefits are horrible, and half the people who live in NY had barely heard of NM before they joined. The office in Brookfield is in the same building as Spotify, and Google is around the corner. The only way to attract or retain talent in New York at NM is to offer a hybrid schedule and a decent work life balance.

The promotion talk is so weird to me since every quarter when our department has a town hall they show how many people got promoted and it's always like 10-15 people or so. Maybe I've misunderstood something.

Sounds like we found the bellyachers in the comments below. Preoccupied with trivial stuff like what NYC vs MKE has, believing stories that a P1 who hasn’t got a promotion in 5 years is actually any good, and of course no general awareness for the economic condition in which their company operates. Only spend spend spend and get mad that you have to, gasp, delay promotions as you see hundreds of people get laid off around you.

You don’t get straight answers because you can’t handle them. If employees in any way showed that they could ask good questions and be professionals in the face of an answer that doesn’t directly benefit them (but does make sense for the company), then maybe our leaders would treat us more like adults. Instead it’s a race to the bottom of how much things can be sugarcoated or ignored because otherwise you throw tantrums.

I agree that the questions about sickness and coming to the office should be handled with a person's manager versus being brought up to SLT. Same with appointments - I just tell my team to communicate with me if they can't meet RTO for the week. However, there's an overwhelming fear that people who stay home while sick will be punished for not following the RTO policies, especially during cold season when sickness tends to peak. CM though has said over and over again that health is a priority, and in writing too where it can be cited if there are any issues.

I know of someone who has been a P1 for close to 5 years and is performing the duties of a P3 engineer, with their leaders blaming budget and such on why they aren't being promoted. I just had someone on our team promoted (I'm a people leader) and had to fight tooth and nail with HR and DG's cronies to get it approved because of the expense reduction campaign. I was told to even prepare for a possible conversation with CM and JS if it came down to it.

People on here and other places have said that if people did not want to commute to a busy downtown, they should not have taken a position in Milwaukee. I feel the same should apply to New York. You made the choice to take a job in NYC, and that means accepting the commute that comes with it from the place you chose to live. The policies should be equal. If you don't like NYC, I'm sure an arrangement could be made to move you to Milwaukee. Large cities are unsafe in general, and I feel rather than having cops sitting in the lobby doodling on their phones they should be outside patrolling, and perhaps that would have prevented that person's car from being stolen from 777.

The only thing unprofessional about the Weekend are the lies and deception given in the responses to very valid questions. Being told "best year ever" then turning around and laying people off is contradictory and the main reason for the mistrust that exists. Safety is a huge issue whether it is the safety of our health or safety from the violence that is rampant in Downtown Milwaukee. Inconsistencies in policies between Milwaukee and NYC should be called out. The frustration within NM has reached a breaking point and its becoming more visible. Everyone is sick and tired of hearing SARE, DEI, and all of the other BS from CM and JS.