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Bank of America Corp.'s layoff of up to 10,000 mid- and senior-level employees is expected to hit especially hard in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, where the cutbacks are hurting already deteriorating morale, insiders say.
The falling morale is occurring even as the Charlotte, N.C., bank is depending on its California troops to complete the integration of its California operations into the computers and systems of the former NationsBank Corp. NationsBank acquired San Francisco-based BankAmerica Corp. in September 1999 to create the new Bank of America.
Although the bank has reflagged California branches with new Bank of America signage, much work remains to be done behind the scenes. Completion of the conversion of California operations to the new Bank of America platform has been postponed twice to control costs and help the bank meet financial targets.
In making the July 28 announcement, Bank of America Chairman and CEO Hugh McColl said the cuts will -boost efficiency, improve customer service and allow the bank to invest in higher-growth operations. Bank officials also said the layoffs - coming on top of 24,000 job cuts already made mice the merger - will take place across the franchise.
"The job reductions will not be correlated in any one region or business line," said a Bank of America spokesman, in San Francisco. "We don't have any local information."
Those words do little to quell the concerns of some industry observers and Bank of America employees who anticipate the Bay Area will take a big hit.
"The Bay Area is expected to be among the region's most effected in this latest round of layoffs because of the significant concentration of employees hem," a Bank of America employee said. Out of 151,000 employees nationwide, 16,000 work in the Bay Area.
Others echo that assessment.
"It's not economical to have a large cluster of employees in the most expensive region in America," said John Wilson, a managing director at executive...