I would like to hear stories from people who were laid off or quit State Street. Treat these as cautionary tales to keep future hires or current employees more informed.
When I joined State Street more than a decade ago; I noticed a lot of people around me looked stressed out and depressed. I heard stories of the company treating their employees terribly but I assumed that these employees were poor performers, got disgruntled, and lashed out at the company by spreading false rumors. I ignored it and tried to work smarter and harder than everyone else. When there were rumblings of possible layoffs during the 'Lean' years, I was certain that I was safe since I'd never complained about working endlessly carrying the workload of 6 people and managing people above me. I was able to get teams to work together and saved the company millions by sacrificing my personal time and health.
One day my boss invited me to a meeting and said my role was being eliminated. I was devastated. It made me think back to when I first joined the company and saw all the stressed-out and depressed workers. I became one of them! I came to find out later that my job was immediately outsourced to someone from India. The only thing that made me feel better was my Indian replacement couldn't perform my job and the people that made the decision didn't know what to do.
What I would have done differently:
- Not worked so hard to make people above me happy. There's a reason you get 0-2% raises and zero to low bonuses every year. The rewards are most likely going to someone else above you for all your hard work.
- Delay providing any accurate info that resembles SOPs, training documents, roles and responsibilities, workload balancing, etc. At State Street these are disguised to improve your job at the company. The data is collected, placed into fancy ppt decks, and presented to irresponsible decision-makers where you lose your job and they can collect their bonus.
- Don't brush off any bad behavior from people who are at a higher level than you. They're abusing their power. These people shouldn't be in leadership positions to begin with but somehow BS their way to the top.
- Collect as much evidence as possible of any unethical behavior at the company. When you can't tolerate the company anymore or have been informed of being laid off, contact a local employment law attorney. It doesn't hurt to talk to a professional to know what your options are.