Every single thing they tell you is laced with subtext, doublespeak, or blatant lies.
They talk about going green, yet force every employee within 60 miles to put out needless carbon emissions so those same employees can sit on the same Zoom calls they would at home.
They talk about building our culture, then lay off the entire Culture Enablement team.
They talk about running a healthy business, then give themselves enormous raises the first year the company has a loss.
They talk about bringing everyone together, then sit in their offices Mahogany Row with armed guards protecting them.
Every decision they make is calculated and vetted by Corporate Communications to save face and pull the wool over employees' eyes. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." It's no different than the politicians in Washington playing political theater.
And it starts at the top. Wayne spends over three decades of his life at one company, working his way up. He sees the changes in culture, good and bad, over the course of his career. He sees USAA at its peak: the highest bonuses, the highest levels of member satisfaction, and the highest levels of employee morale. He has been through all of it and has seen the "secret sauce" of what made USAA a cut above other companies. And as CEO, he spits in the face of that.
Every decision Wayne has made as CEO has been in direct opposition to what once made USAA great. To a certain extent, that should be expected: What made us successful in the past isn't necessarily what's going to make us successful in the future. That's the nature of business and working in the modern compliance and regulatory environment. We are now a highly-regulated company and with that will come certain drawbacks and less flexibility.
But do you know what _isn't_ a result of regulation?
- Giving themselves 100%+ raises
- Laying off culture enablement, availability, and other areas unrelated to regulatory requirements
- Hiring former executives from competitors who were fired and/or who have only worked at publicly-traded companies (and who bring with them myopic decision-making like focusing solely on quarterly profits)
- We-ponizing RTO and putting employees under the microscope by tracking badge ins and badge outs
- Forcing employees in other cities to commute to an office that none of their other coworkers work in
- Telling employees that they are permanent remote only to unilaterally renege on that promise and upend peoples' lives
- Spinning your decisions as something beneficial to employees then hiding in your office with your guards at the door
A good leader would stand in front of his/her employees and clearly and unambiguously explain why these decisions needed to be made. No script. No Corporate Comm vetting. 100% from the heart. If you aren't able to do that in good conscience, then the rationale for your decisions isn't strong enough.
A good leader would respond to questions in his Slack channel instead of pretending like he hasn't seen them or that we serfs aren't worthy of a response.
A good leader would forego raises and bonuses, reduce executive travel on private jets, and otherwise cut every bit of fat from the top down before laying off employees in the midst of recession and this tough job market.
A good leader would be the same person behind closed doors as they are in employee meetings.
Our current EC (Wayne and his direct reports) are none of those things. They will cut from the bottom up and put single mothers out of work if it means getting their bonuses. They will blatantly lie to employees about the reasons for remote work if it means they can get local city tax breaks. They will unapologetically break their own Core Values because, after all, what are we going to do? They hold all the cards. They call the shots.
Honesty would mean telling your employees in no uncertain terms why you are making these decisions.
Integrity would mean honoring your promises to employees who were granted remote or hired that way.
Loyalty would mean doing everything in your power to keep employees on the payroll.
Service is what we do. It's getting the company out of the compliance disasters that you as senior executives failed to prepare for. It's taking the call from to the gold star family who lost their house in a fire. It's being woken up at 3am because a critical application is offline and needs to be fixed. We've been holding up our end of the bargain for years, and exceptionally well, even while at home -- especially while at home.
It will be a great day in USAA history when this administration is gone. It can't come soon enough, either. Employees see it. Members see it. The only people who can't seem to see the root of the problem is the Board of Directors who are allowing their company to be driven into the ground while those in the driver's seat line their pockets.