State Street to cut as many as 1,800 jobs

Actually, they already started these last month.

is there an end in sight?

Didn't State Street receive nearly $2-3 Billion in Federal assistance? Given with the intent of making loans (which they do not do), ensuring clients that they are a sound/stable firm and to spur the economy by keeping employees employed (so they can spend their earnings). Maybe provisions to receiving Federal money should have included employee retention.

Yikes, we are in for some tough times this month. I wonder which MA employer is next to lay off? EMC? Staples? Bose? Q408 and Q109 are going to be rough.

At this rate, by the end of 2009, unemployment will be at 50%

Whee! We have finance firms, so our economy will be relatively untouched during the downturn other states are experiencing.

This recession analysis stuff is easy!

Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most about this whole situation is State Street's commitment to charity. Don't get me wrong...I am all for giving to charity as much as possible...but when you have to lay off people who depend on their salaries maybe it is time to rethink how much you give to charity. My husband works at State Street...we have two kids and a lot of financial worries..it pisses me off and scares me.

This was without a doubt the worst kept secret in recent weeks around StateStreet. There are far too many high paid SVP's and EVPs hanging around who do little to nothing; if Logue sticks to his promise and keeps the layoffs at that level, I doubt customers will notice any difference. Sucks for those folks but I guess they will just have to sell off a few cars, boats and houses to make ends meet.

Nothing is easy, everything is hard.

Mass has a high cost of living, unemployment rises, so does crime.
We need to brace for the impact, it's coming like a freight train and won't stop.

Thanks G-Dub.

CEO LOGUE was just recently featured on boston.com as one of the top 10 highest paid CEO's in MA.......

I agree. The SVP's and EVP's are overpaid anyway. The company is too top heavy. Definately the worst kept secret though. Everyone knew it was coming.
Wasnt Logue the #1 paid boston executive????

Has anyone heard the severance details? it comes to about $250,000 per person!

StateStreetSerf... true. I heard stronger rumors confirming this early in the week. I think it just is horrible for the many hard working employees below the SVP grade. Undoubtedly a large percentage of these middle managers will be AVP and VP level.

State Street could cut $Millions more and customers wouldn't notice a thing.
I hate Recessions as much as anyone, but they do serve the purpose of cleansing Capitalism of excess waste.

As a 9 year employee of Investors Bank & Trust Company, I can honestly say getting absorbed by this group of sharks has been a demoralizing experience. I must confess to being mildly amused at the SSC's sponsorship of The Nutcracker ballet, while simultaneously whacking 1,800 employees three weeks before Christmas - they also took 2 billion for the feds, did they not? Bah, humbug! Merry, merry, Mr. Logue. Perhaps we should ask Mr. Logue why he cares more about a ballet than he does his employees. There will be no raises or promotions in 09. Rather than regurgitate SSC's press release, perhaps the Globe couldincludethemoraloutragethisnonsense so richly deserves.

does anyone know what depts will be cut???

The banks took the Fed's cash to prop up their balance sheets and are laying-off employees to pay the interest.

God, I hope the auto companies don't fall for this scam.

Wellington Management LLP had a layoff on Monday. 10 percent of its workforce or 200 people let go. Its crazy omg.

the top two tiers of the company should agree to work for $1 like the auto execs did to cut expenses until the economy rebounds - or will they have to give up their botox and vacation homessss?

This is why I never give to anything corporate at the office. I read the writing on the wall and knew what this place was about in '03. Everything is about the bottom line for the stockholders, which tends to be the REST OF THE INDUSTRY. I just want to see if some of the other "expansion regions" of State Street are forced to lay off people.
I agree that they throw a lot of money at frivolous things. You want a laugh google State Street Blues and you will see how this company treats people

Good thing I'm a cheap employee. VP's are a dime a dozen at State Street. Time to cut a few loose.

Has anyone heard the severance details? it comes to about $250,000 per person!Posted by dontpickme December 3, 08 07:32 PM

350K divided by 1.8K = 194K/person. Not to nit-pick, but a years benefits typically runs 50% of payroll or in this case about 1/3 of the total. So, avg. pay about 129K/year. If you're not at 100+K these days for a professional in Boston, "you're not making it"
If most are "senior", severance could be 6-9 mos. plus options/investment payouts. Not a bad haul for someone facing 1-2 years of unemployment.

It very discouraging .... all these VPs / AVPs sit around and pretend to make some sort of impactful decision only to in the end position themselves to not have to make an actually decision.

you guys do understand that these cuts 325m divided by 1800 will equal to 195k right?! that is a freaking full year salary for these fat cats.

goldman started it. 10% is the norm. wellington is also one of the most well paid companies in Boston. They should know when the asset values go down 40%, their 40% margin goes off to nothing. Therefore you cut the incentives down to nothing, usually a 2 to 1 salary ratio, and fire 10% to boost investor confidence...because its the norm.

and for those who think the 2 billion will help...there are clauses for the 2 billion. it can only be used to fund "daily" activities, not capital or employee investments.

Bank Of NY / Mellon (with MA offices) is cutting 4.5% of their workers.... And they took $3Billion of fed $$ too...

If your congressman supported the bailout, please consider writing them a letter asking them what they think of this. I wrote to Rep. Ed Markey back during the fall and he defended his pro-bailout decision.

While you're at it, remember to ask where *your* bailout is.

"Maybe provisions to receiving Federal money should have included employee retention."

AIG is currently paying retention bonuses to employees. Maybe bankruptcy is the answer.

These impending layoffs of middle and senior managers are unfortunate..... but not surprising.

State Street is extremely overstaffed with far too many Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents -and the ever present Assistant Vice Presidents -that these titles are rendered virtually meaningless. Many of these individuals work far too little for the high salaries that they receive - when they're actually at work and not "telecommuting".

I don't understand how much they wll save in net, after the severance packages. Looks like not more than 50-75 millions. Why didn't they cut the pay by 25% of the top management and let them leave on their own if they like. That way they will save more money and cleansing will happen.

Took "temporary" 20% pay cut today, no in the financial sector, it's bad all over.

It's also noteworthy that State Street has stopped hiring replacements for open positions at the entry-level. These "frozen requisitions" have left teams under-staffed, compromising both quality and quantity of production. We're running on a skeleton crew at the ground level, and are frequently leaving clients under-serviced. Hopefully our top level management will react to the problem before our clients do.

I worked at State Street for 5 years before finally wising up. There is way too much dead weight there. At one point my manager there had exactly three people working for her. Though the best part is she reported to a supervisor to whom only my manager reported, and then this manager reported to someone to whom she was the person who reported. It was three layers of management who only had one person directly to them each. Eliminating two of those three would not have made an ounce of difference. So glad I got out, and changed careers completely

Statestreet has too many middle management positions because they have outsourced to India a decent chunk of the entry level positions. Many of the people facing layoffs are the middle managers of all those jobs that have gone to India. Statestreet likely would have laid off people even in a decent economy as they have been looking for "Lower Cost locations" for years now

didn't these guys just recently guide higher to the street?

I work at state street and I do notice how many AVP and SVP there are. I am extremely low in the pecking order so hope my job is ok.

If my math is correct If they are going to cut 1800 jobs and save 400 million a year that means the average person's salary they are going to cut is 222,000.

However I have heard that 2500 people are going to be laid off which means the average salary of each person laid off is 160,000.

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If the CEO were to give back half of his outrageously high pay for the last few years, there might be no need for layoffs. And didn't some high-ranking guy get booted for messing up and then got a huge severance package? Why can't I get rewarded for my mistakes?

AND..as reported on MSNBC...BNY/MELLON is also laying off 1,800(+) workers ...many in MA...

Too many people get promoted to VP and SVP in the past couple years. Back to the old days, it take many years of experience to climb up that level. I guess it is "easy come, easy go".

Worked at SSC for many years. SSC works their employees like slaves while middle and upper managers spend weeks on golf courses, make vendors pay for their health club fees and expensive out of state golf weekends on vendor's private jets. enough of that, I am glad this is happening to them. they deserve this for all the suffering and constant hours that they caused many employees. it's about time they get a taste of reality and what it takes to bust your a** to make a living each day while they ride the success of their employees who do all the work.

My father worked for state street in boston and against his wishes moved to amsterdam and worked in europe for this company. this is the 3rd time since the year 2000 my father has been laid off. Is there an end in sight. State Street promised my dad if he went over there to work he would have job security when he returned. What a great company, one without any honor or integrity. This is crazy, i know it looks good to lay people off when the economy is bad but enough is enough

Financial reckoning day is here folks... better batten down the hatches!

Whats most interesting is that we are so early in this decline and yet there is so much expression of fear. In all likelihood consistent monthly increases in Boston area unemployment will be with us for another 2 - 3 years... and that would just be a typical recessionary trend (90s bust model).

I think what we are seeing is that many households know that they are skating on thin ice... they are financially overextended and have been subjected to roughly 3 years of a constant reminder that the housing bubble is dead and gone... now that they see that their jobs are likely gone too... they are in panic mode!

EMC has been laying-off in numbers small enough to not garner attention, but often, over the last couple of weeks.

Sorry employees - got to pay for the Pavilion at Fenway!

STT is loaded with fat cats - just look at their annual report.

Logue essentially inherited his position; its a pretty easy business model that the post Marsh Carter hacks have milked while screwing their employees whenever Wall Street needs some good news from them.

I work at SSB and frankly if the layoffs are done right, I think it will be good for the business. Just as long as they don't hit the clerical / service levels. There are a heck of a lot of chiefs for the indian population.

As for raises, I noticed they did not mention the bonus pool. Wonder what that will look like.

From what I understood of the loans, SSB was basically asked to PLEASE take the loan regardless of need, in order to reduce the stigma of asking for money that might keep some of the folks that need it from doing so.

Lastly, about the charities. Many of the charities are funded by the employees, and others, like the Nutcracker was probably arranged a year in advance. Most of the money was spent long ago, and they are now just at the point of reaping the public visibility benefits of being involved. I'm good with that. I think that as a company SSB has been very very good to the community, and I think that this is important to be maintained. There are high schools (for instance North Quincy High), and community centers and the United Way that depend on SSB's gracious gifts. In a recession, they need these gifts more than ever. As long as the gifts are balanced against the job losses, I think it is important to continue helping.

So when are we going to make it so money isn't everything? I say let's riot now.

I understand the anger at the top level 'fat cats', but not all AVP's fall into that category. My husband works for State Street and is an AVP...he works his ass off and rarely is home before 7 or 8pm at night. He also is not compensated as highly as some of these blog posters say. I just wanted to point out that some of these overgeneralizations are just that, overgeneralizations.

It is not just SVPs and high ups... my sister is an admin there and she got laid off yesterday... salary $36,000. Her 3 other friends who are all admins got laid off as well. They each got 2 1/2 months severence, all their vacation time paid and they each still got their chrismas bonuses.

Sounds like if you're going to be laid off, this is quite the generous company to get laid off from.

Okay, first of all I'm getting annoyed that people on this forum tend to label all the SVP's as "fat cats" who do nothing. My brother may be the hardest working guy I know, working 70 hours and up, and he is a SVP for State Street. He is losing his job and my heart goes out to him and every other person that gets laid off today. Before you put your hat in the ring and say it's abou time, and trust me I work in a private equity firm so I get it, think about how this could effect the people out there who have done an outstanding job!

Any one know the severance package details?

Does any one know the severance packages details for AVP's and VP's ??

I was laid off from State Street yesterday after working there for 4 years. I was not a manager (thank God!) so they are cutting anyone they can. I see it as a blessing in disguise. State Street is a horrible company that needs to send all of their new "kid" managers to some sort of management training.

As far as the compensation goes for the severance package...the numbers they gave do not add up anywhere close to $350 million. If they lay off people in the rank and file like myself who made no where near 190k then its all a bunch of lies and garbage. They should have laid off 3 of the 6 managers in my group. There were only 20 people in my group and 6 were client service managers. JOKE!!!!

I work at the SSB and I will never ever support of any of their programs. No United Way, NOTHING! I make peanuts. If they want money, they can ask the managers.

I am sure there are many people at SSB fearing for their job. My story is slightly different.

I am a State Street employee in EMEA who has been working as manager for just over 2 years.

Out of the 1600-1800 jobs, a third will be in EMEA/APAC. So we are looking at 500-600 jobs…or are we? My reporting line goes to Boston, but I am located in EMEA. Nobody has yet been able to tell me if that means I am part of the EMEA/APAC pool or the North American pool. Hmmm – anyhow, I am just looking to make sure the right person knows that I would like to be made redundant.

I have voiced to my managers (plural - as SSB is such a top-heavy company, it is never clear who actually has the say) that I volunteer to go. Unfortunately, nobody knows who actually makes the choice of who goes.

I hereby voice this here on boston.com, as I know that many high level SSB executives read the comments to the posts on State Street (only understandable after Ron’s salary / golden parachute exposure).

Reading stories like the ones above (example: 40), where a family suffers from SSB redundancy makes me sick when you actually have people that WANT to go. For christ sake, let them go.

So if you are a SSB executive who knows where I need to turn to, I would be very thankful for you help. Please email jabuhlili@yahoo.co.uk

SSB was once the best employer in Massachusetts. Before Logue SSB actually had executive management that cared about employees - and still managed to be grow - unlike Logue who could care less about employees. He is a poor example of leadership- that is why there are so many AVP's, VP's etc-most don't earn the titles - those titles are given out like candy -courtesy of Logue. He is going to be up the creek without his entourage - he may actually have to do some real work- like Edgerly and Carter did. He wont last long.