#worklifebalance

Back in 2023 at an FI all hands in SMT, one of the heads of the BU said “Vanguard makes you come in 3 times a day, we’re MUCH better than them”. Roger Stiles also said in the end of 2022 that the approach for one week in office was fair.

I wonder if those gents remember when they said that lol.

To all the negative people over here.. just ask yourself: Is Hans better than Dan?
Answer is obviously No..
Atleast we are not hiring random people for DEI.. I saw former cooks/ gym instructors getting hired under some program. There was mafia in GTS ( some people are still here) .
I liked Hans for keeping everyone comfortable on a sinking ship without doing anything to help the ship..
I would rather be uncomfortable but save the ship.

People are complaining today as if any of this is new, but it isn’t. These same patterns have played out in every generation. Different names, different systems, same cycles. Jobs change, economies shift, uncertainty comes and goes. It happens throughout the lives of every generation. What changes is not the pattern itself, but how aware people are of it, and how they respond when it shows up again.

Follow the narrow path that leads to life.

Anyone know?

I ask out of place of genuine curiosity. It seems lots of people on my team are chronically out on leave. It's a revolving door of people getting pregnant, mailing it in 9 months before pregnancy, using your PTO, being out for 6 months on maternity leave, mailing it in the year after your baby, and repeating the cycle. Then others are FMLA/medical leave and seemingly work like 60% of year. There's no way 1/3 of my colleagues are getting surgeries or getting cancer diagnoses. Is there something I'm missing? Is the strategy to work yourself to a bloody pulp and go on mental health leave for weeks at a time?

I feel like this place is a state-supported jobs program for Minnesotan women.

Thanks to shares and bonus, my Box 5 comp went up over 50% last year. Yet, I still want to escape. wtf is wrong with me? Am I a spoiled little sh-t or what?

My CL says the job market is bad right now. I've been at Fidelity a long time and feel anxiety about my comfort zone being so narrow. Especially in light of the pending org changes. I don't have a graduate degree. I am young-ish and nearly saved $1mm nw thanks to this place. I am spending exorbitant time outside working hours to secure my financial future but the pressure is about to make me crack.

I feel like i would be totally lost if I quit or got layoff. But some days, I feel tempted to say phuket and make a scene at the office....

Let’s all boycott FLIK - why are we coming here more to line their pockets! Pack a lunch. Let’s all get on board.

Assigned city X to relocate. Asked for city Y. Accepted relo. Now regretting decision due to horror stories of commute and bad work life balance. I don’t think I can sustain city Y. What to do?

Going forward...

• 8 hours a day. max
• uninstalling BYOD
• if asked to travel the answer is No
• save your pizza parties and team building. if i'm not working, i'm going home

not good enough? bring on the PIP. Will gladly take it and the package when laid off. Not everyone will leave on their own without for free

I have survived so, so many layoff rounds now, and the pattern is always the same. As soon as the last person from the previous round clears out their desk, someone in leadership starts floating the idea of another round. Can we actually have some time to do some work without having to simultaneously worry about our jobs, please?

Every year we hire a bunch of people. Every year we fire a bunch of people. Can we just pick a plan and stick with it for once.

There is no reason this couldn’t have been handled with a single, clear email sent in the morning to everyone impacted. Something every competent organization manages to do without creating chaos.
Instead, we’re expected to sit around all day refreshing our inboxes for a pointless 15-minute meeting where no real discussion even happens. This is not just inefficient, it’s unnecessary mental strain and a waste of time for every single employee.

Perfectly said, @a9+1kq8f4etn.

I heard someone say this three years ago, but I didn't listen. I thought things might improve. Instead, they got worse. Now, I've been here five years too long. So let me say it to you now - if you can leave, leave. Take a pay cut if you have to. Move cities if you can. Just get out.

I quit. I got a comparable offer and I just wanted out. My only regret about leaving Fidelity is that I can only quit once. I'd do it every week if I could. Every day. That's how much I've grown to hate this place. I just hope somebody in my team gets to keep their job as a result. I doubt it, but who knows.

https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/activist-investor-backs-pearson-ceo-pay-rise-c2ds8j55d

This is really obtuse to give this joker a pay raise while employees suffer through no raises, compressed and lowered pay scales, artificially calculated demotions for profit.

The fleecing of workers is so obvious, but here we are.

This entire thing will fall apart before it even begins on the 4th if we don't start getting some sort of direction. For example, I have to get my kids on/off the bus in the morn/afternoon. Is 9-2 or 10-3 acceptable in-office time? Who knows! What I do know, is I won't be in the office 8 hours a day for 5 days a week and my job will still be done well and on time.

And the weird thing is, I'm relatively insulated. I have low expenses, and have built up oversize savings after several years working for a company doing layoffs all the time. I think even if I was somehow fired without severance, I'd probably be fine. But living with the constant uncertainty is ki-ling me. This kind of low-level, continuous underlying stress cannot be healthy. I don't know how people with kids or just less of a financial cushion are doing it.

I'm sure I'll get some trolls in the replies but just curious if anyone can relate.

Pay is below market, raises don't exist, and talent gets zero recognition. With all the layoffs, individual contributors are doing management work on top of their own jobs. Meanwhile everything keeps getting offshored. There's literally nothing positive about this place.

Does anyone know when ICs from lead down will get the layoff email invite ?

Based on Friday it sounded they they were going top/down and focusing on Sr. Dir. is today still targeting upper leadership or free for all ?

Don’t care either way and I will be more relieved if I get laid off at this point.

Seven years of clients screaming at me over things I didn't control. Seven years of managers watching my screen. I walked out three weeks ago and I'm still exhausted.

Can we go back to those times? I'll even take a round here and there, but this constant threat of more cuts is absolutely exhausting.

Working for decades at Ford and living though the slow decline from the most profitable car company in the world to a second-tier floundering truck company gives me perspective on how to use Ford for my benefit. If you work at Ford and are not an LL5 by 35 you’re too old to be promote, stop trying. Stop doing all the additional duties, stop working night, weekends and during lunch. Ford pays for eight hours a day, five days a week, given them their time, do your job, nothing more, nothing less. Take every vacation day and every personal day, max your Ford matching, let Ford pay to upgrade your skills. Take advantage of every Ford benefit, never leave a single dollar of Mr. Ford’s money on the table. Ford is a paycheck, your cash cow to allow you do to other things Use your time to make yourself smarter and richer, learn to invest actively. If you can average a 15% return on your investments, you double your money every five years. After 25 years of investing my ETF returns are significantly more than my Ford yearly income. Also look at getting a side hustle and double up on a monthly check. Do something you like that makes a few bucks; every dollar counts. Remember, Ford is just a tool to pay your bills, use the tool to create your future.

As of this passed Saturday, many branches nationally have officially expanded to closing at 2pm. I heard there are a couple more phases before EOY for the rest of those Saturday branches to do the same. We now have TCR’s making us more effective, however getting harder and harder to find staff. Some of branches nationally have closed drive-thru, some areas have not.

At what point do we put the employees first???? For overall workload and retention.

Any one have any ideas what the next step of the way our branches operate takes place ?

Interviewing @Elevance... What are your thoughts on it? What are the pros and cons, and are there any hidden downsides to watch out for? It sounds almost too good to be true.

Wait and see if you're chosen to stay.

I used to read about people separating from the company and they talked of how better their health was after leaving. I never believed them. I've been gone 1.5 years and just had my blood work done. My numbers were the best they've been in 5 years indicating less stress and a better overall health balance. So...now I see it. It is true. Getting out could be the best thing that ever happens to you. I didn't see it at the time, but I sure do see it now.

Heard rumors that HR is attempting to come up with a system to ensure everyone is spending 8 hours in the office.

Anyone else can confirm this?

Until now it seems they screen for badging in the office. This of course completely leaves out all the evening / weekend calls and booting up vpn on the laptop to resolve issues (sometimes for several hours), not to mention when you need to be in the house for the occasional service but can definitely work from home very efficiently.

I'm actually grateful for that.

Why even ask this question and upvote it, what did you think they’d say, 4 hours? The real question was are they tracking hours in order for it to count as an office day.

No raises for thousands but keep millions for GK and her creepy MC? Cutting more and more benefits all the time? Worst RTO in the industry that shows they don’t care about families and work life balance? Failed corporate real estate strategy that creates enormous costs for people to commute multiple hours each way and thousands of them didn’t get raises? Shipping jobs out of America? Laying off thousands? Etc. This is the worst senior leadership team in the business.

I'm really not trying to rant here, I'm actually asking. Does anyone feel productive when they come in? My office days are pure chaos. People talking about sports, playing on their phone, solving puzzles together. Random coworkers keep stopping by my desk to chat. I spend half my energy just trying to tune it all out so I can do my job. At home I get ten times the work done. How is any of this helping us collaborate?

I can say with full confidence these have been the worst three years of my career.

We used to have job security. No matter what, I knew I had some stability. I could buy a house or a car because I felt safe. Now my mortgage feels like a noose around my neck since I can't tell anymore if I'll have my job from day to day. It's really sad how much things have changed for the worse.

That's all I wanted to say.

I'm a level 7 individual contributor in tech in my early fifties. With four kids soon all in college and a late start (last year) on active retirement investment, I plan to work till age 65. I actually enjoy my work and my team at Fidelity.

Assuming I wont' be laid off, is it a realistic expectation to work till that age, as an individual contributor or should I transition into one of those "leadership" roles to stay on longer?

My group is small and kind of isolated from the rest of the company. And nobody here wants to leave. The pay is good, we don't work crazy hours, and leadership keeps telling us we're safe. Whether that's true or not is not certain, but it's enough to make people want to stay.

Planning to move to a hub to save job with single salary. Which one offers low commute and best work life balance and not get fired in a year of moving?

Especially if you hate it here. Leave this place to those of us who like working here. Everybody will be happier.