Pros

* great training provided.
* help you get licensed series 6, series 63, series 65 and NC Life & Health Insurance
*Multi-skilled i.e you handle investments , mortgage refinancing, consumer loans, small business loans

Cons

* A whole lot of micro-management
* since Wells fargo acquiring , the job has been diminished.it is more about pushing check cards, small savings accts, and online banking

Advice to Senior Management

less micro-management
focus on customer service
put value in employees that have taken time to further education

Pros

No work on Sundays (yet)
Health plans available with options for vision and dental
Your paycheck will never bounce
Meet lots of new people in your community
Work close to home
Matching contributions on 401k (up to 6% of salary)

Cons

Branch hours increase every year, spreading your 40 hours over 6 days a week. Saturdays and holidays are no longer safe. Holidays being taken away include President's Day, Good Friday, and Columbus Day with more to come. Retail banks feel they need to compete with TD Bank, known for their incredibly long hours. Extended hours mean working parents will have a difficult time balancing responsibilities at work and at home.

Increasing pressure to "sell" financial solutions with little to no incentives paid. Incentives are calculated using a deliberately confusing formula. Areas that have nothing to do with sales may also have a negative effect on payouts. For example, if your customer service scores that particular month aren't perfect "7s" your sales payout will be dramaticly cut. Bad scores will hurt your incentive payout for many months.

Credits for sales and referrals are difficult to obtain and often go unrecorded because the new customer opens the account at a different branch or online. Office politics and favoritism are factors.

Increasing armed robberies in NJ. Most branches no longer have "bandit barriers."

Holidays (known as Paid Time Off or PTO) are approved by seniority. Newer employees don't always get popular holidays because senior co-workers have priority or the holiday is a "blackout" date like Black Friday. This is especially true if your branch is understaffed.

Advice to Senior Management

At present, you are in a race to the bottom, signing as many checking accounts as possible to increase revenue from fees. Differentiate yourself from your competitors. Focus on the quality of your banking services and the wealth of your clients instead of the quantity of cookie-cutter accounts you sell.

Pros

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Wachovia. Most of the leadership was strong from what I could tell, albeit sometimes removed from the employees a bit. It was a personable place. Rally enjoyed the vast majority of co workers.

Cons

Not realy a con, just upset that misjudgement by leadership caused the collapse of a 100+ year old company. It was avoidable as other similer financial institutions were more prudent. Most of leadership was like many- quarter by quarter and did not have a balanced view to include investing organically. Lots of talk, but lacked stick with it ness.

Advice to Senior Management

Alas, almost all management has been replaced or left when Wells Fargo took over. While it was a nice sentiment 'retain and retrain' by John Strumpf, it is not the case. Also, the reports that Wells only displaced 500 or so out of Charlotte are misleading and inaccurate. Due to required reporting standards, as long as a company displaces less than a certain amount per location per week, then they do not have to report it. From the people I know still there, it is more like thousands. With that said, I am sure John and their leadership are good people. I do wish them much success.

Pros

The pros of working for Wachovia include:
*good benefits package
*good amount of PTO
*benefits/PTO offered to part time employees

Cons

The cons of working for Wachovia:
*crappy pay, with very little consideration given for extensive experience
*takes a year to be able to transfer
*the HR people are great and helpful, until you're hired. then they're rude and unhelpful
*full-time training required for two weeks, even for part-time employees

Advice to Senior Management

Try to work with you're employees a little more, and MEAN it. Don't offer things up during an interview just to get an employee.

Pros

Immediate management and coworkers were very good and compitant

Cons

Senior management is doing very little other than lining their own pockets and instituting shady business practices to inflat the immediate bottom line at the expanse of long term strategy and financial health.

Advice to Senior Management

Pretty evident they got the message, because they failed and were taken over. The message is "get out",losse the greed, and let someone run the company that is interested in the company, stockholders, and employees!

Pros

Great benefits
Pay is great
Unbeatable customer service
Looked forward to going to work
Managers were motivating
Great work/life balance

Cons

All that just got flushed! Wells is in town, and the wagon won't stop until all of the top talent has left the building. The environment has become tense at best, and there is no motivation (well except you may lose your job if you don't hit goal). Wells Fargo thinks the wagon is the key... Hey wake up and smell the roses. The employees are the ones bringing in that business. If there were no employees, that red and gold sign wouldn't bring in anyone. And when you run off those employees, you will lose those clients if the employee heads to a competitor. All banks offer the same services and products. It is the people that make customers choose one bank over another, and location plays a big role as well. Sit on your ethics, because Wells just wants to ensure that the tick marks are achieved. The employees are a number and so are the customers. Many employees have tried to stick with the bank and keep a good attitude about the merger, but I see more and more distatste each day.

Advice to Senior Management

How about a little upfront honesty about what is going to happen. If you are going to demote or cut salaries just say so. If the sell is more important than the customer come out with it. It's all over your face anyway. Don't forget what makes companies great. It's not the lettering on the sign or the silly mascots. It's the PEOPLE. The people are the ones bringing the business in and making money for the company and the shareholders. Times are tough and you can't just quit, but there needs to be some understanding that the same goals met during good economic times are not possible now. Your good employees are the ones leaving, and you will be left with the worthless, unprofessional ones if you don't reassure and take care of the hard workers. And use ethics!!!! Everytime I turn around, Wells Fargo has another high ranking officer in the spotlight with Goober written all over his face. Get it together!!!

Pros

Wachovia was very committed to diversity and their commitment was more than just lip service. The benefits package was hard to beat, plenty of vacation time and work/life balance was never an issue.

Cons

As in many large companies, the structure can seem very bureaucratic and hiring sometimes seemed movtivated by politics alone. Ultimately the company was taken over due to an ill advise merger orchestrated by senior management.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to the Wells Fargo management team would be to consider how valuable the Wachovia processes and procedures are and to think twice before eliminating them.

Pros

The base salary is good and the opportunity to make money $$ off the incentives and the commission (for licensed employees) is great. My co-worker is making over $60k extra on bank incentives this year. There is also a lot of growth opportunity from this position.

Cons

Some store managers, while nice, are very incompetent. Wachovia does not have the same branch structure that other banks have and this tranlates into poorly trained and capable people serving at this position.

Advice to Senior Management

Please add more training to the in branch employees. There are too many tellers-FCM's that are not doing things right.

Pros

If you are at the right branch the pay is unbeatable. Reasonably flexible schedule. Advancement opportunities for top perfomers ( meaning those at the best branches ).

Cons

You have to sell your soul and your first born. Leave your ethicsAbsolutely unreasonable goals and expectations. Self important management and "leadership".

Advice to Senior Management

Be more realistic. Actually practice, on a consistant basis, the ethics that you preach. Your boss isnt always right and its ok to point that out sometimes.

Pros

Good benefits and nice people to work with overall

Cons

Need stronger management within department

Advice to Senior Management

Don't show favoritism and be accountable for your department instead of blaming individual people, you are ultimately responsible for your department.