Work Experience at Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is an American international banking and financial services holding company headquartered in San Francisco, California. I worked for Wells for approximately 6 months in 2011. While working there I learned that Wells was a very competitive company and every single morning that I got there you had a branch manager that was just a super ball of energy, motivating employees and letting them know the goals they needed to meet today in order to be top of the district. Every customer I got at the window, the first thing I would have them do per policy was to swipe their bank card on the machine. From there, that customers complete bank information would pop on my screen, including any credit card offers/loan offers they were pre approved for. Per managers request, I was instructed to immediately call a banker to talk to them to try and get that person to open more banking services with Wells even if they didn't need them. I would then see the personal banker take them to their desk and he/she would try anything to get that person to open more services(car loans, house loans, credit cards, business accounts, other bank account services) with us. For the personal banker, their motivation was the compesation check he/her was going to get after opening many accounts for customers. 

Watching all this made me dislike working at Wells Fargo which is why I left after 6 months. Every single day we were asked to refer customers over to bankers even if it was obvious that the customers weren't interested in the offers they had on the system. The leaders would put a lot of pressure on the employees to meet quotas that they would do anything to meet them. Once, I remember my branch manager observing what I was doing while helping a customer and she saw that my customer had many offers on the system. She immediately whispered into my ear that she would handle my customer. My manager used her sexual appeal to her advantage and walked over to the other side of the counter and grabbed my customer by the hand and took him to her private office. I have no idea what she did or said to him, but she walked out of that office with filled out credit card applications. She was able to convince him to apply for the credit card offers he had on the system. 

I believe Wells Fargo was putting soo much pressure and stress on their employees that the employees were doing anything , even if it meant unethical practices, to meet quotas. Little after leaving the Wells, I saw this on the news, "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which fined Wells Fargo $100 million, reports that about 5,300 employees have been fired for signing customers up for fake accounts since 2011." (Wells Fargo Opened a Couple Million Fake Accounts, 2016)

At the time I was working there I saw more unethical behavior than anything. Even our top manager was part of it and other employees saw that. In our readings I read that the leaders should set the example and the followers would follow. However, in my case at that time the leaders were doing unethical practices and some employees were following. In our book, we were given the example about the leaders that were being rewarded for exceeding company goals and contributing greatly in the company using unethical practices. Other employees saw this and saw that he was being rewarded so they decided to do the same and followed the same unethical practices.

I'm sure that Wells is on a good track now since the scandal that took place. They know they will be under a microscope since they have a reputations now. I'm positive they have fixed their practices and made them ethical once again. Having the right behavior can only bring good things to a company. But, the example has to be set from the top of the pyramid and it has to trickle down to the lower ranks of the company. If a subordinate employee sees that a leader is doing the right thing and being rewarded, then that employee will do the same and follow like the other employees. People in general talk, when they see something shady going on among the organization they will spread the word throughout the community. Customers will also see and feel that you have good intentions and only mean good.

Levine, Matt. (2016, September 9). Wells Fargo Opened a Couple Million Fake Accounts). Retrieved on November 25, 2016, from https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts