Lately I'm seeing more and more of my colleagues losing their jobs. I talked to a few of them and they all told me that there were absolutely no signs that they would be laid off soon, for example empty table syndrome, subtle changes in superior's behavior and the like. I wonder if you could have guessed in any way that you would be on the dismissal list, judging by any of these small signs?
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The first for me was the BE. It caught me completely off guard which contradicts the process. I assumed it was the beginning of the end even though I was reassured my position was safe. They say one thing but their actions proved otherwise and so it was pretty obvious. Slowly over the next 6 months or so, many tasks were eliminated or handed over to others. Suddenly I had to ensure all procedures were documented and was asked to train a backup. So all in all, it was very obvious. Not sure if that was intended or if my manager wasn’t smart enough to hide it.
I knew when they started throwing things on me that I had no business doing. I started getting sarcastic remarks and looks from my manager who at one time treated me with dignity and respect until rating someone below expectations became an expectation. She suddenly started standing up at her desk all the time watching everyone. She was and still is very frightened for her own job. She gets away with a ton of stuff. My manager kept telling me to look for a new position meanwhile giving me below expectations reviews because “ it has to be someone”. I was told.
I knew when they started throwing things on me that I had no business doing. I started getting sarcastic remarks and looks from my manager who at one time treated me with dignity and respect until rating someone below expectations became an expectation. She suddenly started standing up at her desk all the time watching everyone. She was and still is very frightened for her own job. She gets away with a ton of stuff. My manager kept telling me to look for a new position meanwhile giving me below expectations reviews because “ it has to be someone”. I was told.
Got laid off on Monday (Apr 12). I grew suspicious when my vp first directed me last week to reschedule our SKIP meeting for early last week, canceled the rescheduled meeting for later last week, and then said to not schedule any more SKIP meetings until he told me to. I knew I was toast.
Play their game
When management sends a meeting invitation without an agenda, don't accept or decline. Reply asking the manager what is being discussed in the meeting. If the manager doesn't respond, then don't show up for the meeting. If the manager then sends you a note asking why you weren't in the meeting, reply with a copy of your original reply stating you didn't take action to accept or decline the invitation because there was no response from him/her indicating what was to be discussed.
Quit taking the high road and treat them with the same lack of dignity. The outcome won't change as you'll still be laid off, but hopefully a result is that HR and senior leadership begin taking notice of the poor management.
I was let go in January. For the first time ever in my career I received a BE rating during my annual review last year and the reasoning was total BS and made no sense at all. I knew at that point that the writing was on the wall. Later, I started to get random messages from my manager confirming what I was working on (like shouldn't they know?) and then a "check-up" meeting scheduled with no agenda.
For the majority of my time at BNY I really enjoyed what I worked on and the people I worked with. I was very disappointed it ended the way it did. I put a lot of time and energy into this company, but it is always about the bottom line and I was too expensive. Fortunately, I found a new job very quickly and got a really raise salary bump so I'm not complaining. It all worked out for me.
Good luck to anybody else that has been laid off.
As Kruschev famously said to Kennedy, “Quantity has its own quality”...
There aren't any white people in India.
What on earth does being white have to do with it the layoffs? Cause other races weren’t let ago who did a good job right? I’m so sick of everything in the world being racially motivated lately. Let’s call it what it really is. They’re greedy bastards. We’re all being screwed so they can save a lot of money by sending jobs overseas. This place doesn’t care about its employees or the customer anymore clearly. The word quality went out the window as soon as they saw opportunity to save a lot of money elsewhere. They’re greedy and it will come back to bite
When managers change and you start receiving BE for no definite reason.... then they dump extra work with quick deadlines to discourage you. You may teach someone certain tasks, but in the end, these managers just don’t care if the person taking up your work succeeds or fails. They just don’t care- they have cover.
And if you think diversity doesn’t have a hand in this all, when it eventually bite you, because it all comes around, remember these comments...
It's short-sighted to think you can hire someone in India for a quarter or a third of the salary or an American.
They won't have anywhere close to the same education.
They won't have anywhere close to the same infrastructure at home.
They won't have anywhere close to the same health.
THEN you have to factor in a full-time onshore person to supervise them.
Sure, there's an exception hear and there, but for the most part you'd have to hire 2 of them to do the work of 1 person from the US.
The person making the comment about "whites" being laid off in favor of Indians was being coarse and short-sighted to phrase something in racial terms that is actually economic in reality. If they had used Americans instead of whites it would have been much more accurate. I can attest that my department (in Pgh.) has farmed some of our tasks to BNY India, and I feel it's because of that why slots for some recent departures from our group were not re-filled. Does anyone not believe that if this company can fill staffing needs with personnel who are paid a quarter or a third in salary what Americans are paid that they won't hestitate to do so?
Beware the question "how do you actually do x"? If your manager starts asking you to train lower level staff on the tasks that you do, especially if no one else knows how to do them, rest assured you have been put on the list. That was the first sign that I had that my demise was imminent. I handled a specific task for four years then all of a sudden I heard "you are a single point of failure, start training some people on how to do that". Also, if you start seeing holes in communication - things that your manager usually would tell you, he/she was telling other people. Oh, and not being invited to meetings.
@1klb+1agkAt6F as if we don't have enough fearmongering, false information and backstabbing in this place and in general in american society today. You must be one of those trump conspiracy types. Shame on you.
@1klb+1agkAt6F - congratulations on the most insenstive and incorrect comment of the day
The number one giveaway that you'll be laid off is that your work for BNY Mellon.
The number two giveaway is that you're white.