Thread regarding Bank of New York Mellon Corp. layoffs

Conflicts among employees

When was the last time you had a conflict with colleagues?
I am not a confrontational person, but some colleagues are often in conflict and this makes me very uncomfortable when I am in the office. As far as I've noticed, a common reason for these conflicts is that those who have excellent performance are diligent and skilled, they can't accept that those who perform lower sometimes do better here.

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Post ID: @OP+1aTULy6c

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It was not done at BNY pre merger.

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Post ID: @7rua+1aTULy6c

Well, we were separate companies in 2001. It definitely was not done at BNY. BNY was a respected company and employer of choice. Everyone worked to help teammates and across LOBs. Management was supportive and knowledgeable. I would not be at all surprised to hear it confirmed that this was occurring at Mellon as they are cutthroat and ruined BNY employee morale and camaraderie

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Post ID: @6jfw+1aTULy6c

Well, we were separate companies in 2001. It definitely was not done at BNY. BNY was a respected company and employer of choice. Everyone worked to help teammates and across LOBs. Management was supportive and knowledgeable. I would not be at all surprised to hear it confirmed that this was occurring at BONY as they are cutthroat and ruined BNY employee morale and camaraderie

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Post ID: @6dds+1aTULy6c

I have experienced conflict and tension in certain departments and not others. It starts with leadership and whether supervisors need to constantly manage up rather than spending time developing their own staff and learning about what goes on within their own team.
Although there are definitely some downright horrible sups and managers as well that encourage this sort of thing!

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Post ID: @6uyb+1aTULy6c

I can't even get my colleagues to agree whether Capt. Kirk or Capt. Picard were better starship captains. However according to Starfleet history, Captains Kelly, Scharf and Gibbons lost their ships to the Klingons way back in the 21st century. However, they were able to save their own necks in escape pods.

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Post ID: @5vwr+1aTULy6c

In fact, I don't think we even had yearly reviews at BK before we bought Mellon.

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Post ID: @5etu+1aTULy6c

Same here, @4xsi+1aTULy6c. Before Charlie Potter your supervisor could give all their staff exceed expectations if they deserved it. Also before Charlie it was always underperformers who were let go but that's far from the case now.

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Post ID: @5yme+1aTULy6c

Started in 2001 at Mellon in Technology and HR gradually adopted it in business units afterwards. You probably didn’t notice as the initial cuts were invariably poor performers and the business lines targeted were often soon sold. But it never went away and is now used in a way that was never intended.

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Post ID: @4psc+1aTULy6c

Well, we were separate companies in 2001. It definitely was not done at Mellon. Mellon was a respected company and employer of choice. Everyone worked to help teammates and across LOBs. Management was supportive and knowledgeable. I would not be at all surprised to hear it confirmed that this was occurring at BONY as they are cutthroat and ruined Mellon employee morale and camaraderie

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Post ID: @4dbd+1aTULy6c

Someone said the forced rankings began at BNYM in 2001. I didn’t see it being implemented in the two departments in which I worked. When Charlie came in, my department suddenly started implementing it.

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Post ID: @4xsi+1aTULy6c

The forced rankings and “challenge your colleagues” creates conflicts. It is supposed to boost performance......

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Post ID: @3xwa+1aTULy6c

@xmb+1aTULy6c

Forced rankings, along with eliminating the lowest 20%, began in 2001, 17 years before Charlie. A lot of us pointed out at the time that this would lead to cutting the meat after the fat was gone. It all came true a decade before Charlie. Not a fan, but not his fault.

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Post ID: @2nsk+1aTULy6c

They lay off PLENTY of people who meet expectations and keep plenty who don't.
My boss was laid off a few years ago and I was the only person on our team capable of doing his job. I don't mean I was the only one who knew how, I mean I was the only one capable.
We ended up bringing in an H-1B visa who was almost as good but probably much cheaper. My job was "eliminated" a few months ago and I was out the door. Even though I could do the job of many of my coworkers better than they can. There's no way their going to be able to handle the issues that come up from me not being there.

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Post ID: @1fiy+1aTULy6c

Please understand that our company uses a forced rankings system [something "Chainsaw Charlie" (Scharf) left us with]. Even if everyone on a team are strong performers, the manager is forced to identify a certain number of people as below expectations and to write performance reviews to reflect this. Then those identified as being below expectations are put on track to be included in the next layoff or fired. Maybe a replacement is hired, maybe not. Then the forced rankings system is implemented on the remaining team members next rating period. This strategy is more like something of a team out of "Survivor" (teams competing against each other as well as each team member competing against each other). And persons unfairly identified as being below expectations might be the ones you call "confrontational" (likely because they're very upset/frustrated at the injustice of it all). The strong performer getting good performance reviews this year could be unfairly targeted as next year's target to get the below expectations review. And it usually gets worse as you get older.

Most of the companies that were the pioneers in using forced rankings no longer use this practice. Wondering how long it will take for BNYM to realize that forced rankings don't work.

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Post ID: @xmb+1aTULy6c

Wouldn't say it's that cut and dry. There are some "superstars" that get in with their manager and they can do no wrong. There are others that aren't liked by their supervisor and no matter what they do, they'll never get excellent performance reviews. Then there are others that aren't as diligent and skilled, yet they aren't mentored to try to do better (only threatened). Would say a lot of that has to do with little or no management training provided by the company.

So you have the some "superstars" that are a supervisor's favorite that adopt their boss' mindset and look down on persons that aren't perceived to perform as well. You have frustration of those that perceive they can't ever do right or their boss really doesn't make a good faith effort to bring them along. So of course there will be confrontation.

Here's the funny thing: While lots of people at BNYM think they are better than others within the company, lots of our competitors think everyone at Bank of New York Mellon are losers.

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Post ID: @rep+1aTULy6c

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