Thread regarding Bank of New York Mellon Corp. layoffs

Recs cancelled due to tech overruns.

I was told that recs we had approved & interviewed for were now cancelled, meaning the work these new teammates would have been doing will now have to be spread over the rest of us!!
Apparently too much $$$ were spent on tech, so they have to claw this back? Anyone else impacted or know the story??

by
| 65523 views | | 13 replies (last July 20, 2022) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1hAFGcAb

13 replies (most recent on top)

DP seems pretty useless and it didn't cut down on having to drop everything I'm doing to create adhoc reports for "management" at a drop of a hat.
GF was absolutely a success and reduced severe risks caused by neglect of our infrastructure.
NEXEN was also a success even if the only benefit was eliminating INFORM.
Neither GF nor NEXEN were executed perfectly but they were absolutely huge successes and necessities.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @eqpn+1hAFGcAb

Bnym says agile just to cover their a-s when they plan poorly. It’s a joke. Buzzword. Nothing more.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @dwtb+1hAFGcAb

@dgzl+1hAFGcAb

The capital spend on Nexen, Digital Pulse, and Greenfield was enormous. Especially for the meager, and in some cases outright nonexistent utility yield on these “assets”.

Spending that much capital is like a dr-g. It eventually catches up to you. In this case it’s in the form of depreciation expense long after the asset goes “in service” (again, this is dubious).

When I was an MD at BNYM, that depreciation expense mu---red my budget every year because it just kept growing due to increased capital spend in the form of “investment”. As a result, I had to reduce spend somewhere. Where do you think that spend reduction occurred?

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @diwc+1hAFGcAb

@cvlc, you keep saying that but we've had several digital projects delivered in the past few years.

Nexen, Digital Pulse, and Greenfield were all in the budget so no reqs were cancelled because of it. Recs should be at least delayed due to risks in the current economy. The fed seems to think raising interest rates is going to help with supply issues, labor issues and the war on energy.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @dgzl+1hAFGcAb

Nexen, Digital Pulse, and Greenfield! Depreciation expense coming around for years to come!

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @dibv+1hAFGcAb

@OP: “Apparently too much $$$ were spent on tech, so they have to claw this back? “

Yes, we poured money into Digital for 4 years. The 4 year Digital program should be delivering in September but it appears to have been a fail. Otherwise we would have seen a string of success announcements and dog and pony tech fair shows over the last 4 years, but instead only crickets.

The red flag to me was that Senior Management authorized the spend but never was able to articulate what they were buying or even any measurable deliverables at all. The red flag for me over the last 4 years has been no announcements or demos.

So, will they displace this team or will they “fail up” to become senior leaders?

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @cvlc+1hAFGcAb

The biggest thing that BK misses about agile is that it's not a technology initiative. Technology probably isn't even half the picture. But one of the issues with all projects I've been involved in has been lack of support by the business. And if we had issues with their support using traditional project management, it's no surprise that we have bigger issues using agile.
But back on topic, according to our earnings filings, tech spending is down.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @cgzm+1hAFGcAb

When any executive at BNYM says "agile", they mean "just work faster".

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @cygs+1hAFGcAb

@6sep+1hAFGcAb

Agile answer is “you’re right, it isn’t Agile”.

Remember though that at BNYM Agile was implemented as a welfare program for old school waterfall PMs from mainframe COBOL backgrounds, mostly women, mostly near retirement.

Nobody in tech management has the slightest idea of what agile is but they like the idea that underlings talk about how we’re Agile”. It’s been long enough that it would be embarrassing for them to ask now.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @cahr+1hAFGcAb

Big announcement about a 4 year project? Doesn't sound very agile to me...

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @6sep+1hAFGcAb

@5kgk+1hAFGcAb

Tech overruns are due to the 4 year digital program…. It’s called investment in technology.

This is really big stuff… both costly and transformative in nature. It’s a significant investment in becoming a Fintech. The 4 year announcements slated for September are going to be a game changer.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @6omw+1hAFGcAb

How can we all of a sudden have tech overruns? We're supposed to be agile which gives us what we're going to get every few weeks.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @5kgk+1hAFGcAb

In September the Digital team is slated to be unveiling all of the AI automation in their 4 year package of deliverables. I’m excited for that and those in Operations should be ecstatic. Dead end drudgery jobs will be gone and the best of them will be kept as knowledge workers.

It’s a very exciting time to be working here.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @5dod+1hAFGcAb

Post a reply

: