Wells Fargo continues to be a textbook for the public to see how greed, lack of regulations, and zero accountability lead to unethical and criminal behavior. After settling with the federal government for $185 million and admitting to fraudulently creating millions of fake accounts, Wells Fargo had hoped to quietly move forward with making money the old-fashioned way—cheating everybody else out of it. Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, in scapegoating non-executive suite workers over the years, they built up some pretty bad juju. Tales of unreasonable expectations and business practices in the sales divisions that ended up perpetuating the fraud are numerous. Now, effective immediately, CEO John Stumpf has resigned.
"While I have been deeply committed and focused on managing the company through this period, I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside," Mr Stumpf said.
Stumpf deserves this. Here’s Nathan Todd Davis speaking at a California State Assembly hearing. This is what he had to say about his time working for Wells Fargo.
"I've been harassed, intimidated, written up and denied bathroom breaks," said Davis, who drove 350 miles from his home in Lodi, California, to speak at the hearing.
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"The sales culture of Wells Fargo needs to be picked apart," he said, standing at the podium but looking to his right to address Galasso. Davis estimated that almost two-thirds of Wells Fargo employees "cheat the system" due to unreasonable sales pressure.
After a decade at Wells Fargo, Davis said he was fired in June 2016 for being "90 seconds late to work." The real problem, he said, was that he never "made it to management because I don't cheat."
Wells Fargo released a statement saying how they love their employees and try to make them “feel valued, rewarded and recognized.” With more and more and more employees coming forward telling similar stories, it is hard to believe that Wells Fargo’s statement is true. Before we attack the messenger for being “disgruntled” we should remember that one of these two parties has admitted to billions and billions of dollars worth of fraud, and one was just a guy that was fired. The Labor Department has said it is re-reviewing all whistleblower complaints in its files concerning Wells Fargo. They’ve also set up this page for current and former employees of Wells Fargo in order to make sure these men and women know their rights and what the laws are.