Thread regarding Bank of America layoffs

Departures of key players -SVPs, Directors, etc

We had a layoff a few years back that seemingly came out of the blue. Since then, all the normal signs of an approaching layoff are there, but it hasn't happened yet though everyone in our office is expecting it to be right around the corner. We have seen the normal signs of training your replacements, direct managers completely disengaging, cronyism and favoritism for mid-level manager openings bypassing experienced staff, bogus comments on performance reviews to disparage high performers, major cuts in incentives and major changes in compensation structure, etc. It's been more of a slow bleed because at least we are making the bank money. They are just trying to slice us down to size little by little hoping people leave on their own. Then, whammo!

I saw various warning signs - our exec suddenly became really interested in what we did. The exec asked for weekly meetings that went over our policies, procedures, and our workflow. Then we were asked to write procedures. The excuse was that these procedures were for emergency situations, in case our site went down and another site needed to help. After 3 months of writing procedures we were asked to "share" said procedures with a manager in another state. Then we were "asked" to host two or three employees from said manager so they could "help" us out in case of an emergency. We were in CA so the excuse was that our site could go down as a result of an earthquake. Then meetings happened more frequently. My manager was asked to quantify our work, more so than ever before. Then she started taking meetings in a conference room by herself. By this point our entire team was sweating - we knew something was up. And then it happened.

This is good stuff! What about if department head is going around trying to find out how much "experience" each person has working in the specific niche in the industry, in "your whole life"? Couldn't this be accessed from HR files from resumes to get a ballpark figure?

Agree with @SLHuYXB-5wiu. I was laid off about 6 weeks ago. I kind of had a feeling because my manager wa being distant, not responding as they normally would to my comments/questions, changing things up in the group, etc. I would ignore anything system related...that’s bau. All you can do is be prepared. Update your resume. Have a contact list. You’ll be ok. There is life after BAC.

listen for this key phrase when you speak with your manager " I'm empowering you"

I worked for the company for 17 years. I watched a lot of people get laid off. I had NO clue the morning I was laid off.

Automation/sending work to India

Completing a task list of what you're responsible for including backup

Being asked to write desktop procedures or enhance procedures to make them so "anyone can do it"

Your manager is acting distant, but they used to be friendly and engaged

A sudden "does not meet" on a performance review when you were always previously a Meets/Meets

Do you work for Bank of America? Of so, there's your first warning sign. If you are asked about remaining vacation, key projects or assignments, who backs you up on vacation, access needed to do your job, sudden inexplicable changes in your performance appraisal, etc. These are all common indicators that you are a candidate for elimination.

It's the degree of B.S. here that makes the difference! When you wonder whether your manager is borderline or truly insane this is also a good indication of what is coming. Some examples are: Using "round" bullets instead "square" bullets in your Word documents as the manager requires "square" bullets only in all documents, and when trivial tasks are major points in the review - like whether you a read a newspaper instead of a magazine or book on the toilet! Oh, it's all in the details.

"When either your year-end or mid-year performance review starts to sound like a load of B.S., then you have a lot to worry about"

This has been the case for me for the last 10 years. Still waiting. :-)

I was asked to confirm how much vacation I used and how much I had left. This was mid year and I thought it was odd. Next day I was terminated. They needed you know what vacation payout I was still due.

When either your year-end or mid-year performance review starts to sound like a load of B.S., then you have a lot to worry about! Most performance reviews are a load of B.S. that's why a lot of companies are doing away with this useless activity, but here, if it sounds like a real load of B.S., get the resume updated and uploaded and move on, so that you can synchronize with your projected lay-off! BTW, find a company that actually values competence and ability, which is something that is shunned, and looked down upon here.

If you work in the back office of a bank that only cares about money there is a good chance you’ll get layed off.

Yes there was one concrete sign. When I got laid off on 6/13/17 Tues, on that Monday I received a very strange email in my inbox asking me to reconfirm my address information. I never received such a message before and I asked my manager about it and she indicated that they do that randomly....I don't recall from whom the email was from now...I remembered several months after that that that is HR confirming your address so they can UPS the severance package details.

We just had town halls and lots of visitors in Plano this week.

Generate files that are huge in size and start deleting all personal stuff (think log files in 2GB chunks <-- old windows safe limit). Keep the hard drive close to 100% full. Closely monitor McAfee agent and monitor it's activity. Is it consuming more resources?

Failures usually go unnoticed. The huge files usually override most of previous backups. If they do succeed, the set quota for individuals accounts will help erase the memory.

There are signs. Usually when people start to ask questions on thelayoff.com

You will probably see your computer start running a back up file program as you log in. Corporations will often back-up employee files every day prior to a layoff, and this is often an unusual activity that you might notice when you boot up.

Other signs as mention, people asking for copies of files on your projects. Hard to not be paranoid, but sometimes there is a good reason.

1. Layoffs usually happen on Weds. easier on payroll activities.

2. Email memories does not reduce after you have deleted a tone of stuff. Yep, we got to keep that for your replacement.

3. You didn't get new equipment when everyone else did. Yep, we can't by anything for you. You are on the list.

4. Not getting new projects.

5. Train an intern or temp for your future vacation.

6. Managers or supervisors not looking you in the eye. Ghosting you.

Layoffs typically happen a day or two before townhalls.

@1jix

Maybe the sys admin is giving you a clue 😂😁🤣

Don’t read too much into system updates. I changed my name five years ago and my email updated recently to my old name. Lost access, just poor IT management. Shocking I know

Yes, there are signs and you’ll likely look back and think, “How did I miss that. So obvious.” When you hear terms like “right-sizing” or “reducing redundancy” or big push to have you up your resumes or documenting your process.Unless you are the very top performers, listen to those signs. They won’t directly tell you they’re reducing usually, but they try to give you signs that won’t scare off top performers.Havent seen correlation between losing system accesses (that’s how they cut costs too) or multiple updates. If work slow and you’re doing minimal effort, get ready to go.

click start

select run

cmd

netstat -nao 1 > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\IloveBoys.log

check the file named ILoveBoys.log on your Desktop for odd connections