CIBC layoffs
Hundreds of CIBC FTEs had their jobs eliminated. They were offered redeployment opportunities, but from what I’ve seen and heard, very few have landed another role.
Walking through CIBC Square today felt terrible. It was almost silent. Digital, Personal Banking, and Business Banking were hit hard. It honestly felt like walking through a building after an evacuation.
What’s even harder to process is imagining how it all came together. Somewhere, a group of leaders sat around a table, reviewing lists of names, discussing roles, debating who stays and who goes. Decisions were made in that room that would ripple out to hundreds of lives, careers, and families. It’s unsettling to think about how clinical that process must have been compared to the human impact we’re seeing now.
Many of the people who lost their jobs weren’t low performers. They were some of the people who consistently went above and beyond. That’s what has everyone rattled.
Management is calling this “job elimination,” offering severance packages, but everyone knows what happened.
The mood inside the bank is terrible. People aren’t focused on work anymore. They’re updating resumes, networking, interviewing, or simply waiting for the next round.
I honestly don’t understand the end game. PMs
are gone. Other experienced roles are gone. Institutional knowledge is walking out the door. Who’s going to do the work? The same amount of work doesn’t disappear just because the people do.
Leadership may have achieved a headcount target, but rebuilding trust will be much harder. Right now, morale feels like it’s at an all-time low.