Communication Policy / Culture in Banking?

Previously my time in banking, there was a lot of rigid communication rules (unspoken ones). I had to be super cautious when reaching out beyond my team for information. And it wasn't just the department I worked, but its company wide cultural thing - from IT to Ops, to BD and Finance, IB... etc...

We all have a lot of ideas for improvement boiled around in our heads. Honestly, in my company no one really give a $hit about your ideas. Those who had too many innovative suggestions or was more open to new approaches were layoff fast. One of them ultimately became me earlier this year 2014.

You know more of these layoffs weren't crappy employees, they just see how conventional the status quo was, and opted to champion a cause to make changes.

Anyways, long story short, if you look around departments or groups. Most people just keep their mouth shut or hold on to that corporate facade. They remain silent due to lack of acknowledgment and support and difficulty accessing key decision makers - fearing backlash from work politics and unspoken cultural rules.

Just want to hear other stories where you guys want to pitch an operations / productivity suggestion and it was so difficult to navigate the politics of it all.

* maybe existing employees should post their detail stories in Glassdoor anonymously - and then maybe the leadership will listen