Thread regarding Fidelity Investments layoffs

Your names will already be out there when Fidelity publicly ruins your reputation on brokercheck. Apparently if they use language like “allegations of” or “concerns of” because they don’t have to actually prove anything. They just fire people off the mere suspicion that something may have been wrong even if they have no hard facts or evidence to support their claims. This was a loophole they used to slash workforce. People there have gone to HR and complained of racial discrimination and others of s-xual harassment and absolutely nothing was done. So if acting off of mere suspicion is the standard used to terminate someone, why is that not not being applied to all issues raised to HR? The two individuals fired over s-xual harassment the article used Fidelity’s loose “allegations of” language. You think things like that aren’t going on company wide? That they found that info out right in the middle of a mass reduction in force? They are selective when deciding on who to discipline. HR is there to protect the firm. Not the people who work there.

If Fidelity has fired our co-workers justly for cause, then there is no story for the media. But if Fidelity has unjustly ruined all these careers and all these families just so they can thin the ranks without paying severance packages or negative PR, then this is WSJ front page stuff, not merely the Workplace column. Either way we have to question whether we want to continue to work for a firm that builds a file on any minor mistake of employees so it can fire them when convenient. Remember, media doesn't like to use "unnamed sources" on something like this so be prepared to have your name brought out in the public if you contact the media and this story goes anywhere.

Lauren Weber is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who covers workplace issues. She may be a good person to tell your story.

Several people have emailed their story with a link to this page to several media outlets. Screen shot your posts because some have been deleted.

The fitness program no longer includes returnable equipment purchases and only memberships and such. I expect the fitness program is on their radar. The investigator may ask about this too in your computer questioning.

As such do not answer any questions to the investigator even if they show you return documents. Don't admit anything. Ask if you can have a copy and call your lawyer when sent home.

This was a head count reduction program. Remember Fidelity profits are from grow in the market not organic. Out flows of money are elevated. The market is long over due for a bear market and RIFs are expensive. Fidelity may be trying to reduce head count with programs like this and their robotics program for the future.

My priority is finding a job for now. I will seek legal council after and post any finding in the future as folks come together.

From what I heard from a reliable source, back in July 2017, there was an entire I.T. Department at Fidelity within one of their corporate sites where the entire group used a single receipt to get reimbursement for the same computer. Fidelity decided to fire everyone in that department. Due to that action, Fidelity audited their reimbursement programs, and chose to fire anyone that returned something and received a reimbursement, no matter the situation (blanket stance). This includes computers, computer accessories, and gym equipment. It’s evolved into an all out witch hunt that is defaming good people and ruining the careers of many.

Yeah, Fidelity has been doing it rolling since July 2017. Most likely in an attempt to have the operation fly under the radar. If they fired hundreds of employees all at once, alarm bells would go off. So they go into their “War Room” (or Video Skype) and plot where and when they will strike. Internal investigators for Fidelity fly around to locations like the secret police, and when they call your number, no matter what you say, they put you on leave. Days later someone will call to fire you over the phone. Then you are marked for fraud on your U5 which triggers a FIRNA audit if you are licensed.

This started last July.

Are the majority of the firings based on the computer program or is it also the fitness one? It seems like this process may continue for awhile.

The post that was deleted specifically mentioned the name of Fidelity’s head counsel. Convenient.

These actions by the company are sad and disgraceful. I will be leaving more sooner than later. Jacksonville lost a lot of good people over an unjust witch hunt.

There was a very informative post this morning that is now gone from this forum...what's up with that?

If you haven’t already, you will receive an 8210 letter from FINRA. Fidelity is using FINRA to attack and preemptively defame and attempt to discredit people. If you don’t respond to the inquiry you’re barred. You don’t have he same rights you would have in court when dealing with a FINRA investigation so you’re at an inherent disadvantage even if you’re innocent. If you don’t speak you’re barred, and say something wrong when you do speak you could also get you barred. Look at the job requirements for a FINRA investigator. For individuals who hold the fate of your career in their ability to make sound judgement, the requirements aren’t exactly extensive. Seek legal advice.

I know about a dozen or so? Just based on my connections in the office.

Were there a lot of people fired in Jax?

The issue is widespread enough to grab the attention of large legal firms. Fidelity is trying to keep this situation silent.

You are batsh*t crazy! You have created this fantasy in your mind. You are assuming I am legal counsel which is nothing short of ridiculous. I feel bad for you. But you are trying to stir something up that’s just not a widespread issue. I think I would focus more on what happened to you. If you’re innocent, prove it! You go to the media! If you’re guilty, lick your wounds and find a new career or convince a smaller financial services company to give you a second chance.

Are you saying there are lawyers working to counter Fidelity’s actions? If there is a class action or other action being taken, it would be helpful to team up here. Sounds like there are a lot of people this has affected.

I have heard that there are lawyers gathering steam as we speak. Not having a clear policy is the Achilles heal. Media outlets are digging already. This will blow up in the companies face and really damage their reputation if it’s uncovered by one of the higher ups that this was conspired after other job cutting measures didn’t work.

I highly recommend contacting the media to get there help sniffing this out.

There is just no way, with the scale of this issue, that everyone dismissed abused the incompetence of operations. Sure, there had to be some that did, but no way everyone involved. This same type of operational incompetence led to everybody being looked at like “a wallet thief.”

To the active Fidelity poster wanting to pay it back 3 years later. Yes you can, however you’d be better off going to fight a fire with dynamite in your pockets at this point. Not kiddening, you’ll be looked at like a villain and most likely fired. Your real options are to pray they don’t call you in or quit. Honest opinion.

Well I certainly don’t have my receipt from 3 years ago and would rather just pay back a couple hundred dollars than risk being fired for it (even if what they are doing is shady). Anyone know if you can preemptively pay it back?

This is more than a “learn from it” type thing buddy. It’s more like a go find a new career, trash your licenses, ruin your reputation type of thing. Give warnings, write ups and make employees repay. Don’t fire them and ruin their ability to work in financial services forever. It’s just way overreactive.

The bottom line folks is that certain employees tried to take advantage of Fidelity’’s operational incompetence and you got caught!!! Learn from it!

A lot of unknowns it seems here. Clear though that any mention of s-xual harassment and/or Fidelity having computer return receipts, spring the Fidelity troll to crying "fake news" with vulgarity.

The firm uses language like “allegations of” to protect against defamation. They don’t have proof that there is in fact wrongdoing in many of these cases. A previous commenter mentioned the s-xual harassment scandal that made the news. What’s the probability that came to light after a vbo, layoffs, computer reimbursement terminations and fitness reimbursement terminations? How long did they cover that information up until they found it useful to utilize?

This entire thread is bullsh*t. Move on! You are delusional.

Wow, it truly is a witch hunt. I will not use names, so you will have to do your own research, but there were two portfolio managers in Boston that worked at Fidelity that were let go from the firm last year because of s-xual harassment allegations. It was all over the internet and newspapers, it’s public knowledge. I went to go look them up in Brokercheck/SEC not too long ago, and I could not find one red flag on either of them. How messed up is that?

Some people that were fired had returned that specific computer and purchased another or something like that. They were likely wanting the receipt for the second purchase.

Why would Fidelity have needed the employee to locate the receipt? Fidelity has the receipt once the reimbursement is submitted because it has to be provided to start a reimbursement.

I know someone who provided pictures and statements. They Just couldn’t locate the receipt (almost two years later). Still terminated. They don’t care what proof you have. If they place you on leave, you aren’t coming back. VBO early 2017, layoffs mid 2017 then this witch hunt to cut workforce going forward. Your career in financial services is practically over if you were effected by this. Band together people.

My beef is how they obtained a copy of my return receipt from Apple. Almost guarantee you that they posed as me in order to obtain it. No company in their right mind especially Apple would release my personal info to a 3rd party. This would be a misrepresentation on fidelity part. Shame on them.

Maintain ownership and promptly are vague terms and open to interpretation. I maintained ownership for several weeks. Let’s face it. They could let people go for this potentially but don’t ruin our careers over this.

It does state that overpayments must be promptly paid back to the company. I could see how some may have forgotten to do this, for it to go down as “fraud” is very extreme. Is it grounds to be fired without warning, no idea, that’s what attorneys are for. This was the Acclaris form and not used for Wage Works, there was no form to sign with Wage Works. For those fired under the Wage Works reimbursement, an attorney would have to subpoena the programs terms and conditions which where solely online. What a mess.

That form does not state any policy about returns. The claimant simply attests to maintaining ownership at the time the form is signed.

Let's face it, this is the tip of the iceberg. You're crazy if you don't think Fidelity has a file on all of us that they could activate if they want to kick us and our careers to the curb. Computer reimbursement program is the hot topic today what will it be tomorrow???

Here is a link to the most detailed information that anyone at Fidelity received on this reimbursement program:

https://www.acclarisonline.com/common/computer_reimbursement.pdf

That’s it. When it went from Acclaris to Wage Works, they gave even less information because there was no physical form, reimbursements were submitted electronically once Fidelity switched to Wage Works. The content on Wage Works site was cut and pasted from this document. Fidelity has since taken down all information on Wage Works site that pertains to the computer reimbursement program.

Fidelity decided that anyone that used this program, that returned any item (you could reimburse for accessories too), and did not reverse the reimbursement, committed fraud and if licensed was marked as such on their U5 upon termination. To quote the resident counsel trolling this message board ‘this type of person would pick up a dropped wallet and say finders keepers’ - comments from an actual Fidelity troll. Great former employees, now perceived to be wallet theives, over a vague reimbursement program. This is really happening fokes, it’s beyond sad.

I'm sure a lawyer could subpoena the rules of the program. I don't remember reading anything about a participant having to keep the pc for a specific time frame after purchasing. If a lawyer takes the case, their information could technically be shared here for all those affected.

Following and will continue to follow. I could definitely provide a very unique piece to this puzzle, if escalated. I would not back down from the continual interrogation, it got personal. This is a huge mess in how it was handled from the start, and has been acknowledged as such by Fidelity upper management. It will truly (NPI) be interesting to see how this plays out if the right ears are listening.

Sign me up for the class action, absolutely. It forced me out of the industry. Someone should contact the Wall Street Journal or forward them this thread so the public knows what’s going on. Let the public know how Fidelity does business internally, the real Fidelity and not the facade. I have no idea how many people have been let go over this, but it seems like a lot of good people were disgarded like trash. In my long time at Fidelity, I saw horrendous actions by people of authority get rewarded. This rolling computer reimbursement “scandal” is a witch hunt. We all need to get together and do something about it.

I am a Fidelity employee and I just learned about this today as a highly esteemed colleague was let go for this same thing. There is no way this is legal. Wrongful termination is, in fact, hard to prove HOWEVER, a company as large as Fidelity has a very large handbook for how write-ups, terminations, etc. are to be handled. Generally speaking, there is almost nothing you can do to get fired at work aside from falsifying work data. That being said, there is a witch-hunt going on here and it makes no sense. This needs to start by everyone gathering together for a class action defamation and wrongful termination suit. Even for an at-will job, you CANNOT fire someone for cause if that cause is not something which is a fireable offense or against established company policies. The moment you fire someone for cause and document it, as an employer, your ability to claim "at will employment" is down the toilet. Get together and find a lawyer to take this on, and save other employees from having this same thing done to them. 1. Its a privacy issue 2. its an issue with improper lack of guidelines being enforced after the fact 3. its an issue with improper escalation of discipline leading to termination 4. its demation if they are putting things on a U-4 they cannot prove (and you certainly can't prove something that was never against the rules of the program) 5. it calls into the question of ownership, this isn't a situation where Fidelity owns this computer just because they put a few dollars towards it for you, YOU still paid for most of it and YOU are still entitled to do whatever the hell you want with it at any time you want to. In order for them to fire you for this legally, they have to prove that they made you aware that them reimbursing you for a portion of the cost of something gave THEM control over what you DO with said property. Guess what, they can't legally do that even if they tried. The only way they'd have that legal right is if they reimbursed you for all of it and made you sign a contract stating you have to keep it for a certain period.