Wells Fargo – “Wachovia was decent, Wells is horrible”

Pros

The only positive item to working for Wells Fargo was the team that I worked with. They were a good group of people, but as far as the company I can't think of anything positive to say. Maybe the stagecoach was a nice logo, but that is about all.

Cons

The main downside was the micromanagement by our leaders. Everyone on the platform (sales) side had at least 3 different reports to fill out manually for every sales transaction you did. We spent so much time on useless reports, tracker sheets and multiple conference calls, there was very little time to be proactive and call customers or prospects. For example, on Thursday and Friday, which are typically busy days, we had 5 (yes 5) conference calls per day...not to mention we still had the daily reports and tracker sheets to fill out and send in. As far as banks are concerned, it is a complete joke. There is no real banking going on, just chasing your tail all day long. The only thing Wells wants you to do is to cram unwanted products down your customers' throats. We saw a lot of good clients leave the bank due to Wells Fargo way of doing business. The rates on loans and deposits are the worst in town by far. We would brace ourself when giving our rates to customers because we would always and I mean always have the worst rates. I worked for Wachovia for over 5 years and 1 year for Wells Fargo and the difference in the culture of the companies is huge. Wachovia had some focus on the customer and the employee, but Wells Fargo is the Wal-Mart of banks, they do not care about their clients or employees. They chase after low end customers, tie them down with a lot of products that make it difficult to change banks and then treat them like dirt. The only difference between Wal-mart and Wells is the blue vests the employees wear. After the we started taking on some of the Wells Fargo banking model we had a lot of high end clients leave the bank in droves. After quiting Wells and working for another bank, it is refreshing to actually have lending authority, management that allows you to do your job and a fair paycheck. If you want to be micromanaged, have no lending authority, be treated like dirt and get underpaid then Wells Fargo is for you.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to keep talent, then you have to treat them better. All the top performers have left the bank because of the way they are treated. That leaves the slackers and then who do you have in management....clueless slackers. I was in a leadership class for top performing employees. There were 34 of us in the class from across the state, one year later 41% had quit the bank because they did not like the direction it was heading. My main advice would be to look at the cost it takes to replace someone vs. hiring in someone else....especially when the one that left was a big producer. Also, it may be a good idea to start to think about keeping the customers happy as well...but I know none of this will happen.