Thread regarding Fidelity Investments layoffs

So true. Staying at Fidelity can be risky for skilled people. I remember relatively new hires asking about being stuck without opportunity to move. Talking about programmers and similar skills.

Very true. I worked for Fidelity as a software engineer/developer for 11 years between 1999 and 2010, when I was laid off. At that time I was in my late 50s. When my manager gave me the news he showed me the list of everyone who was being sacked, along with their ages. All were over 40 and most over 50, with a few in their 60s. He then asked me to sign a document waiving my right to sue over age discrimination and clearly stated that I would receive no severance pay unless I signed. So I did.

Because I signed the waiver, I remained eligible for unemployment compensation, and was able to collect full salary plus unemployment for 4 months, when I started at a new job.

But the big surprise to me was that my new job paid a lot better. By staying with Fidelity for all those years I managed to miss the enormous raises scored by non-Fidelity software engineers during the boom years of the 2000s.

I'm still kicking myself for wasting so much time with Fido. If you're still working there in software development after a year or two, start looking around. You can almost certainly do a lot better.

If Fido offers a package to leave, take it. You are on the short list to be RIF’d.

if majority of the employees are middle aged white men, every layoff will seem like it's targeting them. Say you have bag of 100 balls and 80 of those are white and 20 are other colors. You are asked to pull out 10 at random. How many of those 10 do you think will be white? Fidelity is one of the least diverse places I have worked at.

Bottom line, the Johnson family hates white men who have become old in their eyes . The most competent and loyal employees are the tenured white males over 50. Shame on the Johnson’s!!!

heard there were RIFs in Midwest location on tuesday, 7/9

The new trend is to outsource the jobs. Its happening in all insurance companies right now. A few years ago Humana offered severence packages to all employees over 60. I could see a lawsuit happening then. Seems those 60 and older are pressured to retire or are terminated for little to no reasons, my case: Keystroke error. They can fabricate issues to get rid of you.