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CARLEtheCamry t1_jefcd83 wrote

It's "quiet firing" IMO. They want people to be unhappy so they voluntarily look for other jobs, and then no need for headlines about layoffs, no need for buyouts or unemployment. It's a shit strategy straight out of Poppa Elon's book.

BNY plans to lay off 1,500 > The company said it plans to invest in areas that include “early-in-career talent” and expects to ramp up its recruiting on college campuses this year.

So laying off longer-tenured employees and hiring kids straight out of college they can pay less.

And don't forget how they switched their 401k match so that they don't have to pay it out when they lay people off at Xmas.

My nephew is on his 3rd round of interviews with them currently. I couldn't warn him in time.

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James19991 t1_jefd2mm wrote

Isn't Gen Z less likely to want to work for a company that has in office requirements compared to one who doesn't though?

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CARLEtheCamry t1_jefek6r wrote

I agree, but that's not how these C-Suites see things.

Employees are a cost center. If they can improve short term profits by getting rid of a 50-year old employee making $95k with some kid out of college who will accept $45k, even short term, that's a win for them. And probably earning them a bonus.

I mean, look at the 401k thing. It's such a small thing in the big picture of compensation of a bank, what could possibly be the motivation behind it other than "As CFO I reduced expenses".

Saving pennies to lose dollars when they get hit with a cyber attack or something in the near future because they replaced the experienced people.

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James19991 t1_jefhb13 wrote

I see your point. The 401K thing is so perplexing. I have a feeling more companies will do the same unless the federal government steps in.

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CARLEtheCamry t1_jefjdvy wrote

Maybe it could be spun as causing too much administrative overhead to process a 401k match every pay period. Except... it's a bank. The literal business is processing financial transactions.

If the Simpsons was any good still, they would write this into a story for Mr. Burns.

BTW - I don't want it to seem like I've been saving this stuff up or am some kind of /r/antiwork radical. My nephew is in his early 20s and just starting his career in the same field as me and has been asking for advice. He just wrapped up his 3rd interview with BNY. I knew they had a bad rep (from current co-workers who came from BNY) but dug these articles up for him last week as citations for trying to steer him clear. I think he's going to take the position - but my advice is "don't stop looking for greener pastures" while working there.

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B0bb3r7 t1_jefqd9g wrote

You don't have to be r/antiwork to see that many business processes are sick.

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tesla3by3 t1_jefuidd wrote

Not only that BYNM actually has a business unit that processes 401k’s for other companies.

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James19991 t1_jefmpjs wrote

I don't think there's anything wrong with your advice of continuing to look at what's out there if they extend an offer to him. All of this feels like it's just to keep the commercial real estate market from collapsing.

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reesesmama OP t1_jege21u wrote

I started in my 20’s. It is a good place to get experience and build your resume. He can always hop over to PNC or another financial institution in the area if he decides it’s not a good fit!

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rangoon03 t1_jefxq8g wrote

Execs are probably banking on them hoping for any experience they can right out of school. But the grads will quickly learn to hate it when they have to report to the office just to sit on conference calls most of the day with their teammates in NY, NJ, and/or India. I used to work there a few years ago and still know some people there and supposedly their management can track badge swipes to see if you really report into the office if your manager isn't located in the local office. When I worked there, my manager was in NJ and only three of us on the team were located in Pittsburgh so we didn't show up in the office too much. I was in IT so different departments likely have different rules.

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reesesmama OP t1_jege9c6 wrote

This is true, they have a dashboard where employees are assigned a green, yellow or red status based on their monthly badge swipes to monitor who is returning to the office and who isn’t.

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ns20 t1_jefgztg wrote

The funny part about this is that there are so many departments struggling to keep their heads above water as it is. I left BNYM last year, but when the requirement was two days a week my org was very lenient about it (ie take early meetings from home, come in around 10:00, and duck out around 3:00-3:30 to finish from home and beat traffic).

Really felt like desperate attempts by our management team to retain the staff they had since attrition was through the roof.

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heisenburgscousin t1_jefo4to wrote

Wpxi reported the other day that Highmark has plans to announce changes to its Work From Anywhere policy this coming Monday as well. Haven’t seen or heard about it anywhere else though. These companies really are stuck in the past. I know several people they hired specifically as “100% work from anywhere”.

For them to just completely alter such a large part of the job like that just because there are layoffs everywhere and they have the power to do so is completely unethical. Many people took these jobs specifically because of that agreement, and now the companies are deciding to change it, employees don’t have much of an option because the job market is so screwed in tech right now.

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Vogon_Poetess t1_jeg1qaj wrote

That WPXI story was confusing and seemed like it was missing some key info…like who is impacted by the change.

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B0bb3r7 t1_jeft0zb wrote

Please don't interpret this as defense of a big company. I think Highmark's change, at least as it was described in the media, was the most balanced WFH policy change that I've heard. It applies to VPs and above and is more of a work-from-someplace-other-than-home-three-days-a-week rather than a return-to-office. I would rather see more flexibility by an employer since WFH has been proven to work but this a less aggressive proposal than I've seen elsewhere.

u/Puzzleheaded-Equal70 linked a Pgh Business Times article in a previous post in this sub. I thought it described it pretty well. (It was much better than wpxi.)

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antalog t1_jeg2pbw wrote

It does not just apply to VPs and above. While those guys do have to go in 3 days a week, so do a lot of us because it's based on your department's leadership. And it's definitely work from the office or possibly one of the AHN hospitals if you have to work on something there. Not "Work-from-someplace-other-than-home." We were told explicitly that we need to be in the office more than half of the week.

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heisenburgscousin t1_jeguwh5 wrote

So they’re going to announce all employees have to return to office 3 days a week? What about people that are from out of state?

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heisenburgscousin t1_jefx703 wrote

Ah, I had heard about the VPs and up being required 3 days a week. I thought they were saying that had already been happening and they were going to make a new announcement on Monday (aka all other employees)

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yaya_bertha t1_jefklm7 wrote

I am pissed. My job does not require me to be in the office three times a week. I am thrilled to be leaving the company in August.

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Intelligent_Shape178 t1_jefsrkf wrote

I’m curious to hear about all downtown PGH employers who are choosing to restructure their WFH policy.

My employer is increasing required days in office gradually after having previously made it seem 100% remote for the bulk of employees was the new norm. The tune changed swiftly and its not sitting well from what I can observe.

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reesesmama OP t1_jegep01 wrote

That really stinks. I’m sorry!

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Intelligent_Shape178 t1_jegr5g2 wrote

It’s just senseless. Our office is tight on space and we wind up hosting most meetings on Zoom anyway because conference rooms are now offices.

I have observed that most executives in my company (late 40s-60s, mostly white, mostly males) seem to prefer their giant offices to their distracting home environment. Not to mention the weird “rag on my spouse” culture that comes with middle/late age Americans - this gets them out of the house.

But for someone like me who doesn’t have kids and I actually like my partner? It’s a waste of time and money to commute into town. And I’m less productive because now I have distractions! Because I also don’t have a spacious and isolated office! Just so our of touch.

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rangoon03 t1_jefy7dc wrote

Interesting considering they plan to cutback their presence at 500 Grant and move shop across the street to the CSC building (which they will upgrade apparently) on Ross St: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/02/21/bank-of-new-york-mellon-metlife-downtown.html

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Vogon_Poetess t1_jeg0sbe wrote

Which is funny because they spent a lot of money to redo floors at 500 Grant Street around 2018/2019.

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HomicidalHushPuppy t1_jeggw4v wrote

I saw some of those floors during Doors Open Pittsburgh, really nicely outfitted, at least from a style standpoint. I don't like the super-open layout (privacy/noise issues) but they look sharp.

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Vogon_Poetess t1_jegkq0h wrote

From what I understand the hot desking concept was particularly annoying.

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reesesmama OP t1_jegzy7v wrote

Our new floor is lovely and updated, just not enough desks lol

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reesesmama OP t1_jegd5j5 wrote

My department is moving from Grant to Ross in the next month or two. We have been told it will be “hotel” style seating- there are not enough desks for every person in the department, and no one will be assigned a personal desk. Essentially first come, first served. Someone brought up the issue of insufficient seating in a town hall meeting yesterday and the Chief Administrative Officer, Alejandro Perez, stated that there are “alternative seating options” like couches and conference rooms lol. So if you get there and there is no desk available (each has 2 monitors, a mouse, and keyboard) then you are out of luck and can sit on a couch or in a conference room on your laptop for the day.

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HomicidalHushPuppy t1_jegh0ss wrote

>and no one will be assigned a personal desk. Essentially first come, first served

So they learned absolutely nothing about good health practices from the pandemic...

[Not really surprised]

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Vogon_Poetess t1_jegl39w wrote

And learned nothing from experience. They had the “hot desking” on the renovated floors at Grant Street and from what I understand from a few people it was very much hated.

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reesesmama OP t1_jeghb8f wrote

Absolutely nothing. Sharing desks, keyboards, mouses …. I will be investing in lots of Clorox wipes!

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heisenburgscousin t1_jegwzou wrote

What a shit show lmao. How the fuck do you expect people to be productive sitting on a couch with a tiny laptop

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enoughstreet t1_jeh1vux wrote

I think there is a rift of some description between mellon ownership, maybe change in generation going to occur. And that’s part of it. Since the family foundation is leaving

I am strong mellon financial not bny mellon but I had a program with bny and I was routed into nyc branch not to Pitt.

I’m the end I am positive, my ex from college wanted me back for mellon help but got a recruiter get him and his best friend into ey. I don’t know what’s more of a joke.

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HomicidalHushPuppy t1_jefc3am wrote

Must be dependent on department/seniority. A family member of mine works from home for BNYM and would've called me bitching up an absolute storm by now if he had to do this.

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reesesmama OP t1_jegeevo wrote

I don’t think so. Seems to be applicable to everyone. We just got the email this afternoon & it goes into effect April 10th. If your family member isn’t affected, can you ask him if his department is hiring? Lol!

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C1291 t1_jegxj6v wrote

Our department has only heard this in hushed whispers so far we haven’t got the fuck you come into the office a 3rd day a week email yet

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Lost_Planchet-te t1_jefglb5 wrote

It's a shame they don't want experience. Maybe I should preemptively throw my resume in the trash.

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ns20 t1_jefisei wrote

No no they just don’t want expensive experience. If you’ll work for cheap come on down!

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hubbyofhoarder t1_jegea8f wrote

I work in cybersecurity and I got a recruiting message from a BNYM recruiter on LinkedIn. I responded by sending her the link on BNYM layoffs with a quote of the "early-in-career-talent" thing.

TBNT, bitch

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TazerMonkey1419 t1_jeg93rc wrote

Not happy about the new mandate.... For my department, only daylight has to come into the office, the offshifts are fully based at home.

I really feel bad for our guy out in New Jersey, he's the person on his entire floor.

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reesesmama OP t1_jegdiqd wrote

I’ve heard of quite a few people who will be made to come into an office to just sit alone. It is so silly!

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C1291 t1_jegx8gl wrote

My department is going to have that for one person on our team. She doesn’t know anyone else in the whole building. I understand why she’s so frustrated and already looking to get out

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reesesmama OP t1_jegzhe5 wrote

It’s so unnecessary. There’s no “collaboration” when you are sitting alone!

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C1291 t1_jegztcf wrote

Worst part is someone was in that branch as she was being hired. And instead of sticking around to help teach her for a couple weeks(took me 4) he took his retirement early and was gone. So she just learns how to do a million systems over scratchy laggy teams meetings

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XavierRex83 t1_jegqde1 wrote

I am so glad I got out of the last year.

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Open_Philosopher8020 t1_jefk92t wrote

Meanwhile, the lowest paid workers in our economy have to commute to work every day! What a shock!

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C1291 t1_jegy7m2 wrote

I have had a deal with my landlord to walk his dog every day for lunch and he gives me $10, and with going into the office more he’s probably just going to hire a dog sitter again and I’m fucked having to pay full rent again. Hell even on the two days I went in a week I at least considered that paying for my parking. Cause yinzer god forbid a billion dollar company provide us a deal on parking

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ziggyjoe212 t1_jeg3y30 wrote

My friend works there and has to come in once a week.

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Bluebluegreengold t1_jefjyli wrote

Can you still get unemployment if you’re fired?

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dvdazn9206 t1_jefouf8 wrote

Yes, if you’re fired through no fault of your own

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reesesmama OP t1_jegexqs wrote

I thought being fired was the only way to get unemployment? Honestly not familiar!

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whistlewhileyou t1_jeg212q wrote

I heard the actual policy still says the requirement is two days a week and the email that was distributed said “expected to be in the office three days”. Maybe the actual policy will change though.

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reesesmama OP t1_jegddjv wrote

Yes, the email says “starting the week of April 10, employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of three days per week.” Interested to see if the policy will change! I could be wrong but right now I think it says “2-3 days in office for flex employees”

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heisenburgscousin t1_jegx9d4 wrote

They gave you all 10 days notice?! Wtf. What about people that don’t live in the area?

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reesesmama OP t1_jegzn8d wrote

Yep. Luckily I only have myself to worry about, but what about child, pet, and elder care? When we initially returned to office, they promised a 30 day notice and followed through on that. Really surprised this time.

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