I grew up at Bank of America - working there from my early 20s to early 40s. I drank the kool-aid, learned, promoted, and sacrificed my personal life for many years constantly delivering many millions in productivity savings. I watched the company change from one that values process excellence and efficiency to one that is so paranoid of regulatory and repetitional risk that re-work is the norm. From that perspective, layoffs make sense if the bank truly wants to re-focus. The fear of this created an excessively toxic work environment and the rise of poor leadership.
In my case, I received an Exceeds rating and large bonus for the first time in several years (Feb-2015). Two weeks later, my manager (the worst example of leadership I have ever encountered) let me know that my exceptional performance and high salary has made me a target for yearly staff reductions. I ignored the comment, believing that my performance would speak for itself as it always has. Throughout the next 7 months, I learned that a hostile work environment extends virtually. I was harassed constantly by my manager to the point in which both my health and personal life started to decline severely. I was vomiting nearly every morning and afraid to walk away from my laptop between the hours of 5AM and 5PM to use the restroom. She would send late night unprofessional threatening emails, secretly call Advice and Counsel with fake performance information that I had documentation to prove incorrect, tell my peers and I detailed lies about one another, blocked my job postings, the list goes on and on. She (my manger) even went so far as to suggest that I find a health reason to take a leave of absence to protect my employment status. It felt as if she was hunting for reasons to terminate for cause or encourage me to quit to save on year end severance package costs, not to mention protect her own job. With all of that being said, I was relieved when my position was eliminated last week. As a single mother I am scared out of my mind.
My thoughts go out to the hundreds of others in my position now searching for work. Hopefully we can take the skills we developed at BofA and add value in a positive environment.