Call me totally skeptical. But, I hope this is true. Wells Fargo, in their purchase of Wachovia, is offering a different model of “layoff first, manage later” that I have consistently seen in my reviews of mergers.
The chief executive of Wells Fargo made no promises about job losses Wednesday when he addressed a crowd of Wachovia Corp. employees, but said he would make every effort to retain workers amid the banks’ combination.
“As we move forward, my job will be to help all of you stay with the company,” John Stumpf told employees who packed the Wachovia Atrium in Charlotte. He said the company would work to “retain and retrain” workers in positions duplicated through the merger.
Notice the very short commentary on “retain and retrain workers in positions duplicated through the merger.”
Now, I have no unique inside sources in these companies, but could offer a plausible method of implementing this approach. Companies usually lose 10% of their employees through attrition every year. Especially large financial companies. Especially lately. So moving these “duplicated positions” into other positions as attrition happens could very easily work. Plus, it would make sense to retain the best and the brightest from both companies instead of driving them out of one company.
Anyone working at Wells Fargo or Wachovia seen evidence of this retain and retrain approach?
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Wells Fargo has a retain and retrain policy or program? I don’t think so my husband is going through that now and every position he has applied for that he meets the minimum requirements or most of the requirements he has been turned down for, and he has been with Wells Fargo for 12 years now. He has had very good reviews every year has even won awards for best practice suggestions. He is still being let go. So I haven’t seen any evidence of this retain or retrain program.
@Mary - Hence, “call me skeptical.”
It just continues to amaze me that the only answer to whatever is hurting corporate America is a layoff. So much for “management.”
I really hope the merge goes smoothly, but then again this is my second merge and this one just gives me a bad feeling. I currently work for Wachovia and former World Savings employee.
@Pratik - Thanks for the comment. The problem with these financial mergers right now is that everything is going bad fast. And continues to go bad. Consequently, you get 10,000 layoffs at the purchased company…and another 15,000 at the buying company. In a “normal” environment, you’d have significant layoffs of duplicate functions at the purchased company (like big layoffs at WaMu) and few at JPMorgan Chase.
But, it’s not working out that way. In the financial market, no one is safe. So save your money, make sure you continue to perform on the job and watch what happens around you.