20070131 BB&T Bank staff reductions to affect positions in region

BB&T Bank staff reductions to affect positions in region

1/31/2007 Carroll County Times - Ryan Marshall

Mr. Marshall is a new reporter with the Carroll County Times. His beat is the City of Westminster and business.

We’re looking forward to Mr. Ryan’s work.

Meanwhile, this quick note caught the attention of many of us who really appreciated the service, sense of community and family that once existed with the Carroll County Bank and Trust before it was swallowed-up by BB&T.

At this point, who knows how many jobs have been lost for Carroll County and how much economy has been lost for our community from the sale of Carroll County Bank and Trust to BB&T.

Decisions are no longer local. Local vendors and suppliers are no longer used. Jobs have been lost and that means that many more products, goods and services not purchased in Carroll County and so much in the way of taxes for which the community no longer benefits.

Not to mention the fact that it was loss of a “concentration in capital” which is no longer available with which community non-profits would benefit.

We were told that shareholders would benefit and yet the price of the stock is about the same as when the bank was purchased in 1999. Besides, the position of many of us was that if a shareholder did not like the performance of the Carroll County Bank and Trust Company stock – they should sell it. Meanwhile many of us were perfectly happy with the bank, the performance of the stock and appreciated the sense of community it contributed to Carroll County.

That is all gone.

To be clear, many of the folks who are still – or currently with BB&T are great folks. None of us begrudge them… everyone has to work somewhere.

We just morn yet another lose in our community to “progress;” a term of which many of us have come to accept as a classic contemporary oxymoron. What “progress” means is that someone is peeing on your leg and telling you it is raining.

Meanwhile, Mr. Marshall wrote:

Staff reductions by BB&T Bank will affect two positions in Carroll County and 15 positions in the Baltimore region overall, a company spokesman said.

Twelve of the 15 employees have taken other jobs within the company, spokesman Bob Denham said. Two of the three remaining positions are in Carroll County, Denham said.

More than 700 positions will be cut throughout the company, he said. The positions affected cover 11 states and Washington, D.C.

Some of the positions to be cut are currently empty, Denham said.

The company instituted a hiring freeze in November, he said.

Four hundred seventy-six active employees are affected by the cuts company-wide, he said.

The company has already relocated 165 of those employees to other positions within the company, Denham said.

Ryan Marshall

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2007/01/31/features/marketplace/market1.31-01.txt