Thread regarding Bank of America layoffs

It’s easy, let’s do it:

1. redistribute the wealth generated by the worker more evenly aka pay the worker more. There is no reason a ceo needs to be paid a salary 500x higher than the average salary.
2. allow wfh, simply put, it works. It works for the people, it works for the environment, it works for overhead expenses.
3. be proactive and not reactive. Be actual innovators and leaders. Make real change in the world, environmentally, socially, structurally.
4. hire better people and provide better training.
5. improve digital capabilities

That’s just for starters, typing on my phone, right after watching the CF that was the bachelor tonight. BM should be able to do better than this.

I am already making things better,. Unfortunately for you I work for a competitor.

This:
Take action on everything we've been telling you in the Employee Survey for the past 5+ years, instead of just "reading" the comments.

That would be a good start.

I had to laugh at this. I actually checked 3 or 4 years of "Employee survey results," and found very similar verbiage regurgitated again and again. "you said you want more opportunity for this" "you said that." It's very similar / same stuff again and again!

You'd think after sending an email for 3 years about the things we mentioned in the survey, they might actually do something about it.

Ha!

So far, there are a dozen posts accepting the challenge of the OP and offering legitimate solutions, and from the OP we get crickets in rebuttal. Typical sycophant in the big office. It is just like a typical town hall. "Ask, and we will address your concerns...unless they are real ones that require actual responses. We will skip those..."

Layoff every employee in the united states. Shift all their work to India. Take the money from the cost savings and buyback the stock. Cash out my stock options and quit.

Easy....stop being a hypocrite and charity starts with the CEO. So here goes....

1. stop pretending to be leading the way to a GREEN new economy while forcing automobiles back onto the road
2. stop telling the press about all the "enhanced cleaning" at offices while the folks going back in know that the desks are covered with dust (i.e. nothing has been cleaned)

And stop telling us about sanitation stations provided when they are out of hand sanitizer and wipes.

3. stop telling us we work better from the office while also telling us that we made record profits while working from home.
4. stop telling us action will be taken from the employee survey when what you mean it that you'll berate us until we answer the questions better.
5. stop inundating us with process rather than understanding and fixing the real issues.
6. if you want to to "bring our whole selves to work" then stop telling us to all want and act and accept the same things. Stop treating the entire employee population like we have to be extroverts to succeed.
7. .and hey. if you want me to fill a back back for a kid to start school...that's great..it's a good cause, but show me where you have personally done that for....say 800K kids so your contribution is comparable to mine.

I could go on...but the point is that for every single thing that comes out of the BM's mouths (both of them) that sounds positive, the bank actually does something that screws the employees to offset it.

Yes yes yes to all the above and don’t forget the banks push for sustainability. Why throw a bunch of money around to be more green only to put cars back in the roads. Counterproductive, no? THE FUTURE IS WFH. Agree eventually the bank will fail without getting on board that train. Sadly, they have the power to drive but the only kind of green they are really interested in is made of paper. Anything else is for show.

I was hired to produce, let me do so. On most projects I have more PMs versus people who are doing implementations. If someone screws up an implementation, investigate and act in a realistic plan, not MORE processes. If you have questions about a project, ask the person who knows what is happening. Do not trust the word of those who do not attended enough meetings to have accurate information.

Finally, if someone on a multi year effort brings the same issues up year after year for five years, maybe a problem does exist.

Here’s an idea! How about they tell us what’s up with our desk assignments, or if they packed and moved our items (and how to request our box)?! And what happened to “spacing out cubes”!?

5
Tons of people from another building have reached out to me daily for badge access and I don’t have a clue how they got my name and don’t have the ability to grant access (not to mention they’re in a different building)!? Why is nobody taking responsibility for the logistics as folks RTO?!? They’re literally telling me they’ll just go home and keep working there until it’s all figured out and I don’t blame them!

If this is a reflection of anyone in HR or a band 1-4 leader role, than it certainly explains why things are going so terribly wrong here.. key phrases:

1. “If you by some miracle got a chance to change things..” - uh, news flash, employees are not mo--ns and can certainly contribute great ideas, right?!?

2. And the sarcasm in “all your brilliant ideas..” - as if folks don’t have brilliant ideas? Interesting.. then why bring us back to the office to “collaborate face to face”? Seems like a waste of time for all considering our ideas aren’t valued anyways.

Associates have loads of reasonable suggestions, ideas, and concerns— they’ve just been blatantly ignored.

This is not rocket science or you need to be some kind of a genius to figure out. The two years record profits didn’t come by chance or that something incredible happened in the last two years. What happened is people were forced to work from home because of Covid and in that time they came to the realization that they were happier for it so they worked harder and that caused productivity to go through the roof. Parents realized they were able to juggle parenting and work a lot more efficiently. They became better parents working from home. Their kids and families were happier for it. They were happier for it. They didn’t have to spend an additional three hours a day waking up early and commuting. It’s a no brainer! Work from home is better for people because it gives them a true work life balance. If the bank did a survey, I can almost guarantee 90% plus will choose full time wfh. If Covid taught us anything is that life is short and the more time we get with loved ones, the happier we are and happy people produce more. As long as other companies continues to embrace wfh people will continue to go for those opportunities and eventually the bank will find itself in a position where they get people that are not skilled to do the job and in the long run this will eventually affect their bottom line because productivity will fall. Everything has a price, it’s just a matter of time before it all reveals itself. Whether you know this or not, the bank is losing people in record numbers. Replacing skilled labor while remaining competitive will eventually become a challenge. WFH is and will become the new norm because Covid has taught many companies that it is possible to get the job done, make a profit while keeping their employees happy. It’s a win win for both so why change it. The bank shouldn’t look for employees/customers to drive or embrace innovation when they can’t and is not willing to embrace innovation themselves. Allowing employees to wfh is embracing that norms can change and it’s not a bad thing when change happens. We go through constant changes at the bank with reorgs and we’re expected to embrace it so maybe it’s time for corporations to embrace changes themselves and not be so set in their old ways.

This is not BM first rodeo. He’s been a CEO for a very long time now. Highly doubt this is the first crisis he’s experienced. While unprecedented, in times of crisis you expect a leader to lead. Leadership at the bank has been an epic failure yet there are so many communications talking about the record profits the bank has made in the last two years. First it was Covid where our lives were abruptly disrupted and we were told to go wfh. After two full years of working from home, not a consideration of how going back five days a week would affect our emotional and mental state. How parents would function with child care still very challenging. Compounded with rising cost due to inflation and now record high gas prices. Most people at the bank already make very little. Every town hall feels like the people we’re listening to lives in another dimension. It feels like they’re not in touch with our reality. As a single mom, my paycheck stretched thin pre Covid. Now it’s worse. Between the normal bills, high food and gas cost this is starting to feel very depressing.

Take action on everything we've been telling you in the Employee Survey for the past 5+ years, instead of just "reading" the comments.

That would be a good start.

As the CEO how do you keep happy those who love the in-office culture life is work employee v. the individual contributor where WFH is unquestionably the most productive posture. To truly support diversity one needs to lead by treating everyone as individuals with their own beliefs, life experiences, and needs. To force personal, anecdotal, and emotional beliefs on what they think works best against the individual is akin to the same line of thinking as believing everyone needs to be or orient themselves a certain way from an equal opportunity perspective.

Understand that RTO doesn't have to be "one size fits all". Depending on your stage in life, you might have different preferences and that's OK. Treat employees like the adults they are, not kids in daycare and let us decide full RTO, Hybrid or full Remote. The vast majority of parents with children under the age of 12 NEED hybrid or we're all going to leave for a remote job at a competitor.

No one said the CEO's job is easy, however, he is paid in one year more than I will make in my entire working career! Most make <100k but lets use 100k X 40 years of work you'd make 4 million your whole career. He makes way more than that in ONE year.

You are never going to make everyone happy all the time. With that being said WFH is overwhelming being requested and ignored. The numbers speak for themselves. The voices of the majority of the associate's should be heard. Additionally, it would help, not hurt the bottom line by dumping leases or selling off buildings.

Agree with previous reply.

You don’t change what works. Record profits two consecutive years says employees are happy and are doing there job successfully from home.