Wells Fargo employees are speaking out following the unnoticed death of their co-worker, Denise Prudhomme. Last month, the corporate banking consultant, 60, died while in her cubicle in a Wells Fargo office in Tempe, Ariz. She was not found for four days.
Now, the union is demanding that the banking branch address the conditions and culture that enabled the tragedy. On Monday, a statement signed by more than 200 Wells Fargo Workers United-CWA members and bank workers was distributed to leadership nationwide.
This pushback comes amid a broader reckoning across the workforce and in the financial sector. It’s also unprecedented.The union noted in a statement this type of organization is a “first of its kind at a major bank in the United States.”
“Saddened and outraged,” by the incident, the union said it is mobilizing. In its statement, the group called out the jarring contrast exposed by Prudhomme’s death.
“Wells Fargo monitors our every move and keystroke using remote, electronic technologies— purportedly to evaluate our productivity—and will fire us if we are caught not making enough keystrokes on our computers; however, Denise went unnoticed at her desk for four days,” the statement reads. This surreal lack of awareness “sheds light on the reality of what it means to be a worker at Wells Fargo,” added the union.
The employees’ are seeking the following; increased safety precautions that aren’t punitive or stress-inducing, a reassessment of the return to office policy, and a “true voice at work so we can have a seat at the table.”
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague, Denise Prudhomme,” a Wells Fargo spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune. “Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones, and we have been in touch to ensure they are well supported during this difficult time. For any employees with specific concerns, we encourage them to continually share their feedback, as this helps us build a stronger company.”
The day Prudhomme was found
Denise, a different Wells Fargo employee based in Phoenix who did not give her last name, said she was on the same floor when the “unfortunate event took place.” Denise alleged management initially didn’t address the death of her coworker. When news spread, a boss organized a Teams meeting for the following morning.
Supervisors “confirmed there was a deceased individual found but said it was no one on our team [and] to proceed with business as usual….There will be information sent out to you if you need someone to talk to in the building,” said Denise, according to testimony included in the union’s press release. Wells Fargo did not have an immediate response to these claims. It said employees’ concerns reported within the past year did not align with allegations from the union.
Rikki, too, worked on the same floor as Prudhomme. They echoed Denise’s story of higher-ups minimizing the incident. They alleged the day following the announcement, management held an emergency meeting and told employees it was “business as usual and to get back to work.”
“We had to stay in the building that day and could still smell the body and all the chemicals they used to clean up,” said Rikki. “I ended up getting sick and had to go home for the day,” they added, explaining that the following morning they woke up to a text saying employees could work at home the rest of the week
At the call center in Tempe, another employee, Jose, said the way managers disregarded Prudhomme’s death didn’t sit right with him. “I don’t like that management tried to brush it off only because she was not in our department,” he said. “When I went back to the office a week and a half later, I still smelled a funky odor coming from the air vents that made my stomach upset.”
According to Wells Fargo, after Prudhomme’s death the bank managers needed to get in contact with her family before communicating with her co-workers at the facility where she died. Wells Fargo said it is committed to employee safety and wellness and is encouraging employees to continue to provide feedback and seek available counseling.
The problem with Wells Fargo’s return-to-office policy
Part of the issue is Wells Fargo’s “arbitrary” return to office policy that summoned back even workers who were remote pre-pandemic, the union claimed. The banking branch has implemented RTO policies even if no team members live nearby, creating situations where employees are going into empty offices when their team members and supervisors live in other states, for example.
“Like so many of us who work in corporate offices or call centers, our team members and direct supervisors are frequently located in other states hundreds, or thousands, of miles away. Denise was the only person on her team in Tempe,” the statement reads.
Asserting that the RTO policy isn’t always fair, Rikki noted that their team was never given an option as to where they had to work. Instead of going to the office 15 minutes down the road, Rikki has been commuting to Tempe, an hour away. Despite going through medical accommodations to get their transfer approved, “they keep telling me there are no seats available,” said Rikki.
“The office is a ghost town, always has been,” said Mike, located in Chandler, Ariz, speaking of the Tempe office. “There’s no need to have employees in low touch point roles in office period,” he continued.
Scharf himself was appointed as a remote employee, working out of New York City instead of the bank’s California headquarters. “In connection with your position, you will not be required to relocate or engage in travel that would result in a change to your current state of residence,” states Scharf’s 2019 offer letter, per SEC filings.
The company maintains a “hub city” policy, said the union, which forces “thousands of employees to uproot their families or lose their jobs at an unspecified date.” Wells Fargo said that it expects to keep growing in Arizona, where the bank has more than 13,000 employees. The company added that it believes in-person collaboration is key to success.
Still, some employees claimed the culture wasn’t helping any when it came to Prudhomme.
Working at Wells Fargo for eight years, Meghan, an employee in Tempe, Ariz, said she went back to school after “not getting raises [and making] lateral moves.” When she finally got promoted she claimed her “increase was capped for being internal.” Describing 50+ hour weeks with school involved, she emphasized: “It is things like this that killed Denise.”
“I feel like I’m dying every day right now and I’ve stated this to my manager multiple times with it being disregarded until their boss complained I haven’t been working the same hours as I was before,” she said. “You’re either killing yourself or you’re not enough.”
