Here's my pre-synopsis: We'll have some cheesy but safe as milk music mix to open the meeting. Then the mission moment to make the employees feel like their own lives sukk a bit less. Then comes the strutting Peacock, who will be greeted with a chorus of boos. Oops, the narcolepsy kicked in with that pleasant dream. There will be mindless clapping and, I'm just too sick to carry on. The great minds on here can add to it before the real meeting.
34 replies (most recent on top)
Do everyone a favor and either retire or go play in traffic.
Facts over feelings. If you want to live in your Wayne-created matrix and pretend that everything is peachy while ignoring the realities of objective data, you are free to do so.
The difference between you and most of us is that we are not forcing our views on others. Notice how most are totally fine with people commuting to an office five days a week if they want to? Do what works for you.
There's an underlying audacity in what you're saying and it is this: "I know what's best for everyone else, better than they know themselves."
It's insulting, patronizing, and reeks of self-righteousness. You are free to do what's best for you and your family. If you feel you a moral obligation to your employer and community to spend more on gas, spend more on food, get less sleep, deal with traffic, and the like to sit on Zoom calls in an office rather than at home, more power to you.
But some of us thrive at home.
Some of us have invested hundreds/thousands of our own dollars on our home offices.
Some of us are saving thousands by not sending our kids to daycare.
Some of us are far more productive at home because we aren't being distracted every five minutes by our coworker talking about little Emily's dance recital.
We should be judged on what we produce, not where our butts were when we produced it.
You do what's right for you. That's what this is about. We owe it to USAA to do what we were hired for. We don't owe it to them to support Sodexo. We don't owe it to them to fill up the parking garages, put placards on our car, wipe our as--s with single-ply sandpaper, use CAMS to purchase our 3rd stress candy bar of the day, or make mindless small talk with our coworkers when we could be producing something that would make the company profitable again.
If you want to listen to your feelings over data, you are free to do so. I, for one, along with many others, prefer to take reality for face value and not pretend that everything is okay. There is simply no other way to retain the level of positivity that you have without burying your head in the sand.
You talk about normal and abnormal, but don't have the self-awareness or introspection to realize that you're only talking about the normal that you know. It wasn't normal to use computers at work not too long ago. It wasn't normal to correspond by email. It was normal to use typewriters, have switchboard operators, and correspond via snail mail. That was normal. But guess what: things changed. Just like they did in 2020 when we were all sent home and forced to participate in this great experiment. And it worked.
The only reason to force RTO now is as a show of force. It's not about culture. It's not about "those hallway conversations." It's not about "being better together." Those are all PR-approved lines because they sound nice.
It's about control. It's about turning the heat up just a bit more while the frogs continue to boil. It's about forcing people to leave, despite the outright lies from the EC/Wayne to the contrary. It's also about money, politics, and pressure from the local government/community. It's all of those things, but they won't say that from the stage of the Joe Robles auditorium.
I predict Peacock will trip over his ego and break ol’ one eye.
@1azd+1nT043oA - I’m embarrassed for you and your whole family.
"WFH is abnormal". That little terd you let out and let run down your corporate leg speaks volumes and shows you are truly tone deaf to the employees. 2019 isn't coming back, the old "abnormal" is the new normal. Those 2 words show your true intentions and makes most of your postings a tragic waste of storage space.
@1tac+1nT043oA
seems like a paid spokesman... Was that you charlie ?
"RTO is needed"...for some this is true but not all. RTO should be an individual decision not forced on everybody. RTO is not a one size fits all strategy. Before the pandemic I was anti work from home (for me personally, not as a whole). Since being at home for 3 years now I am more productive and less stressed out. I've actually lost weight and in better health overall since I'm not stress eating all day. I'm more relaxed at home than I was in the office. Now I'm stressing about possibly putting the weight back on and always being on the edge of receiving a pip due to work quality (just like before the pandemic).
It seems WFH was the answer (cure) to my quality of work with no or less distractions and I could really just concentrate on BEING HERE. Thanks a lot Wayne for regressing.
I’m not sure if the weird poster is a troll, someone high up in HR, a failed comedian, corporate communications, someone who’s been brainwashed, someone who says talking points that they don’t believe in, an out of touch boomer, a Doritos hater, or an out of touch executive.
Somehow they’re all of those combined; this is leadership’s ideal employee that they want everyone to be.
I’m not sure if I should pity this person, be annoyed at everything they say, laugh at the ridiculousness of someone believing this, or be scared that people like this are what the company wants. I’m confused on how I should feel.
Definitely a case study one day on how employees react in a toxic workplace.
As good citizens of the workd, we owe it to ourselves to help the economy and go to work. But more importantly, it’s to go back to the normal world before covid messed everything up with wfh.
We need to support our city and company by helping the local economy and make a difference in the world. Think of the thousands of stores and other businesses neglected because ungrateful people want to be lazy n eat Doritos and binge Bridgerton during work. The office helps you walk more and network with others and focus on work.
By coming into the office, the culture will be a part of every persons heart and soul without Doritos dust as a distraction.
It used to be 5x a day for 8 hours which I’d the norm. WFH is abnormal. To keep a culture strong snd build strong relationships, RTO is needed, it allows for socialization and happiness and mentorship and true learning. There’s data that shows entry level employees suffer due to not getting the on the job training they need. And that comes from being in the office.
As for the “data” that shows how “bad” things are, that’s the norm across industry in regards to RTO.
The free food helps our culture because employees join together and have conversations and get to know each other better regardless of department and job title. Food bonds us and is needed for everyone. For the prices, that’s something to talk with the third party vendors and for your people leader to talk to their leaders. inflation is everywhere and it’s not the companys fault. Take advantage of eating healthy food that’s half price. It’s cheaper than any restaurant and id an incredible benefit that’s rare.
People leaders should address your concerns to EMG.
Sentiment on those channels are addressed at employee meetings. The leaders truly hear you and are aware of problems, they take internal surveys seriously and work to address each and every issue.
I agree with you about modernization like that. That was decided upon by past leaders, but our current leaders are working on creating innovation that they implemented to excellent response at prior companies. They’re very aware of concerns and issues and are working on modernization and innovation.
I said I would not be back, but those were very respectfully laid out points and I want to show an example of how respectful, kind dialogue can be done between two adults and Not a toddler.
The employee meeting will have incredible dialogue and answer all of your questions in a respectful and honest manner.
As for the misspellings I have arthritis and that makes it too hard to type and use a phone sometimes which happens as you age and is common.
And before you make fun of the Doritos it’s a metaphor to how junk food is a distraction and how wfh is too. Read Hemingway for more metaphors or instead listen to our leaders who are excellent at relating to others with metaphors and other public speaking and story telling ways. Make sure to watch the employee meeting tomorrow and see it in action and also get your concerns addressed!
And to be happier, join an after work activity like bowling! Bowling leads to gratitude and team bonding and helps you meet others and there should be free food and it’s great exercise and helps improve sentiment. Team Physical activity only benefits working and creating an inclusive environment. Walking meetings are another good option to release endorphins and see the fresh air and be away from the laptop.
I’ve given all thr advice I can and have no further thoughts to say, god bless everyone and haberdashtb great today and fill your heart with gratitude and love ❤️
Wait, the culture engagement team was disbanded?! Did they say why? They disbanded a bunch of internal programs and laid off the instructors (Nextfit) and it went under the radar
Adding another one to address innovation claims...
- "Supersonic modernization" will result in half-baked user interfaces that feel older and more difficult to use than our current systems. Guidewire is a mess, but our commitment to our messes supercedes all logic. Yay.
Is that the last time you’re posting? I couldn’t tell through the mountain of drivel, doublespeak, and gaslighting.
Please follow through on your words. This sounds like my three year old who says those same words, but continues the same actions.
Never come back so I can hear “the truth” you speak of from people who are brave enough to tell the truth because of how much people like you lie and say “There’s no war in Ba Sing Se”.
Everything you say is everything leadership has been saying, but in a more childish and grammatically incorrect way. Stop angrily responding back to everything to the point where you stop acting like the “leaders” who you’re so obsessed with.
You are delusional if you think that our glorious leaders care. The data speaks for itself.
Wayne’s approval is abysmal.
Member satisfaction is the lowest it’s ever been.
Employee morale has never been worse.
Our survey responses count about as much as a vote for president in Russia. Our people leaders do care, but their hands are tied. Sure, we can voice our concerns to them, but we’d get the same results voicing those concerns to a therapist.
Employees have voiced their concerns ad nauseam. Nothing has changed. In fact, things have gotten worse. How much more evidence do you need?
In response to a commenter that feels these frustrations are misplaced:
- If you think people are happy about RTO, you are either willfully ignoring employee sentiment, or people genuinely don't trust you enough to share their honest thoughts on the subject.
- We have absolutely utilized company channels like Pulse and The Post, along with speaking to our leaders, to share our concerns with professionalism and tact. Can you point me toward the evidence that doing so has prompted any sort of actionable work on the current employee morale crisis? Pulse scores are at an all-time low.
- Free food does not equal culture. Furthermore, prices in the cafeteria have increased significantly.
- You're right, for a CEO of an insurance company, Wayne is paid relatively little. Progressive and State Farm CEOs make somewhere around $20 million. Hardly fair to compare to Google or Facebook, they make billions more than we do.
- College assistance is abundantly common. Walmart, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Amazon... I could go on, but a quick Google search will debunk the idea that this is a rare benefit. It simply isn't.
- RTO is about filling office spaces because we pay good money for the real estate. It has nothing to do with being "stronger together" - study after study has shown that WFH models significantly increase productivity and employee satisfaction. This has nothing to do with our output, our "strength," or our culture. This outright lie is so tiresome, because we can all see the truth. Employee experience is devalued in favor of filling seats. I get it, our offices are expensive, we have to use them, but the corporate gaslighting is truly toxic. It's never been about culture. If it was, they wouldn't have laid off the entire Culture Enablement Team.
@1elx+1nT043oA, or Tamla, or Tamla’s unqualified friends she hired to work for her, or corporate communications: please follow through. Please let this be the last time you post. Please, for the love of all that is holy, get the fu-k off this site with your brain dead defense of senior leadership, and your meaningless claims that they’d put their names on anything. They wouldn’t. They would, however, send their trolls — like you — on to these sites to try to get people to give away their anonymity so senior management can more effectively discredit and then retaliate against them.
Yes esteemed establishments, the quotes are unnecessary sarcasm and rude. Stop being a hater. With our incredible leaders, we’re doing better than ever in AI, data science, cloud security, etc… They are thought leaders and truly driving incredible innovation and engaging thousands of employees. We also have a state of the art tool to automate HR concerns. With all of this investment in those important areas, 100 more years is possible.
You haters don’t go to meetings and are mean to people you don’t talk to because of jealousy for how brilliant they are to drive innovation. Many employees are happy about innovation process and there are so many jobs in those high value fields that employees are being trained for. There are internal programs for MSRs to learn which field to get into, data science program, leadership program… instead of complaining, listen and hear what happens. EMG is communicate the incredible innovation and work that your fellow employees are doing. Read that and attend meetings to learn more. This is my last and final post.
And we are investing in employees and training them up in those fields. There are many employees who got their degrees paid by USAA and moved into those areas.
If y’all liced honestly, you’d put your name here instead of being anonymous, but you’re trolling on here. And all of these “senior leaders” you all talk to and seem to be, put your name out. Senior leadership would put their name instead of being haters who lie. And they’d speak up directly with their concerns. Leaders know not to scare everyone else with fake lies. Stop hating and lying be considerate and kind. This is the last time I post but I had to to combat all the lies with the truth. “The truth shall set you free” and make you happy. See you at the meeting for a respectful, honest, and kind dialogue without hiding behind keyboards. It’s important that every person employee attends and hears the truth.
Oh oh, looks like the below two posts will require a BS filter. The statement on RTO pretty much makes both of the Borg collective posts worthless. Also the "tell your people leader" is basically shirking the responsibility. Our "people leaders" and most regular employees didn't want forced RTO, but the so called executive leaders didn't give two deer pellets and shoved it down on us. So you can take your phony sentiments and shove them in your pile of worthless drivel you spewed on here.
over/under on slack questions asked in meeting compared to in-person?
"esteemed establishments". LOL.
The asked questions tomorrow aren’t pre-selected. They’re chosen by the employees and voted by the employees.
The leaders care for the employees and want to address concerns directly, which is why you should get off this site and bring your concerns directly to your people leader.
This site has so many lies. We’re doing much better this year than last year, but there’s no acknowledgment at the hard work.
For salary, our CEO and EMG are underpaid for all the hard work they do and the experience they do. Look at what the CEOs at google and Facebook make. It’s 100x more than what our fine leaders make. With their expertise from esteemed establishments, we will continue our innovation and be the employer or choice for the next 100 years and continue to be the best military provider. It’s a hard process to become an employee at the company, and all of your leaders live the cause and exemplify the mission.
There’s also little attrition. Most employees leave one department for another. You haters focus on making things seem worse than they seem and use buzz words like “attrition” to scare people off. If you look at the data, employees find an internal role that aligns with their needs at a higher rate than people who leave the company. The company gratefully allows developmental time and free learning resources. Name another company does that. And paying for college is rare.
Focus on gratitude instead of spreading lies. It’ll make you happy and stop complaining on anonymous sites. Be direct and talk openly in a respectful manner and your concerns will be addressed as long as it’s respectful and kind.
Happy people don’t complain and have gratitude. If you’re so unhappy, leave instead of complaining and lying to your coworkers who are serving our members and have positive attitudes.
There’re a lot of false statements. Not sure who any of these people are, probably trolls wh--e haters. The employee meeting is the best way for the CEO to address employees. The meetings are important and your duty as employees to attend. Don’t listen to the fake EMG. It’s your duty as an employee and member of this fine institution to be honest in where you spend your work hours.
For the “book signing”, there was overwhelming employee demand for the CEO to sign the 100 year book. He graciously allowed time in his schedule for employees to meet him and get their book signed because he cares.
Instead of gossiping on a website that won’t make a difference, bring your concerns in a respectful manner to your leaders. They care. And not for bonuses. they care about servicing both members and employees. At USAA, we’re stronger together and when we have careful, considerate dialogue.
Our EC and EMGs truly care about making the company great. We are a place for families and a top workplace for women, college graduates, and to have a long career with the best benefits in the business.
For RTO, there was no ego around that decision. The company is stronger when we are together, which means being in office together. Everyone in the offices have been happy on the tour because it works. The time to adjust was plenty, and now people are happy and realize that we are better together. Go to the office and you trolls will see how fun it is. There’s also free food! The company is flexible with RTO. You don’t have to stay the entire day and have plenty of time to avoid traffic and have all of the benefits of WFH. As a sign of appreciation, one day is WFH.
We’re stronger together and need to trust each other. Your leaders are honest, true, caring, and wake up every morning and go to sleep every night thinking of how to make the lives of their employees great. So the least you can do is be grateful and attend the meeting with an open heart so the company can stay for another 100 years.
Why would I devalue my 100 year book with Wayne’s signature?
One year, we tried desperately to get the EC to prioritize a list of major company efforts. The ONLY one they were able to agree on was … cap the number of EMG. Because they were already over that hurdle so no big deal. Could not agree or prioritize or deprioritize any other single thing. That is when I realized the level of narcissism I was dealing with.
Book signing? Is Wayne signing copies of the 100 year book. For shame! That's about as relevant as me offering my signature on the Bible, the Kama Sutra, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. Embarrassing...
@1kga+1nT043oA here. The poster below is correct. The board can see that, too.
The employee meetings are not worth your time and mental health, unless you are curious to see what a toxic culture looks like. Instead, I implore you to use that time to develop your skills and talent - take that time to work on your resume, watch videos on updating your LinkedIn, and practice a skill. If nothing else, at least research what jobs in your field for your experience level pay.
We often catch up on work and passively listen in, but that time is carved out for every employee to listen actively and not do work. Instead, actively work on something that will help you in your next role.
SVP let slip that Wayne’s obsessed with his Glassdoor rating. He doesn’t care about internal surveys and can gaslight, but Glassdoor is public and everyone sees it.
He’s using the tour, increased communication from EMG (the SVP was complaining about that and let this slip), and everything else to improve sentiment so his ratings go up. Even the book signing was added so he can interact with employees and increase his Glassdoor rating.
He’s mad as he-l that it’s below 50%. So everyone, make sure “not” to give him a negative Glassdoor review. It hurts his feelings.
EMG here. Poster below is correct. I’ve mentioned it in a few other comments, but I want to reiterate here:
Wayne needs praise and for others to never question it. He culled the former EMG and hired sycophants who will do whatever he asks them to do, including lying about how hard they pushed back against RTO. And in return? They will get their bonuses. It’s a delicate mutualism.
They do not care about any of the employees - they only care about their bonus - please remember that. Their plan is to show the board that they cut costs through attrition and layoffs as a way to buy time and show that they are working to get the company back to where it was. Employees on the chopping block will be anyone who makes six figures in order to show that $1B was saved.
Ever since Wayne became CEO, there has been an attack on employees: first benefits, now RTO. The prior EMG disagreed with Wayne, so they retired or left. He then hired failed executives who would follow him and give him enthusiasm/praise.
It will continue to get worse. Even with a new CEO (and Wayne has no interest in leaving - he wants to see people work and give him praise), the damage that has been done will take decades to fix.
To anyone reading, do not stay on if you think things will get better - it will not. The job market may be difficult, but you will not grow at the company. Even worse, to survive in such a toxic environment, you will have to adapt maladaptive coping mechanisms and toxic traits - this will carry into your personal life. The anxiety and depression are not worth it, my friends.
If you are still reluctant to apply, at least build up your skills, work on your resume, network, and update your LinkedIn.
EMG does not care who you are or your contributions to the company; they only care about cutting costs to get their bonus. They will fire a SME in a second and replace them with 5 college hires in a second. USAA is the cushiest job they’ve had, and they will continue to stay as long as they can continue to rob employees and get their bonus.
If you want to stay in the role, I’d suggest never speaking out (retaliation happens). And focus on improving your skills - take every day as an opportunity to improve your skills for your future role. Avoid tasks that will not.
Help out your teammates, your laid off teammates, and please focus on your mental health. But do not be blind to what you are seeing; in toxic households, individuals stay due to the hope that things will get better. They look for any positivity as a sign, which prevents them from seeing the overarching truth: the toxic individual will never care about you and continue to take. They focus on hope of a future and they stick on.
The employees have a toxic relationship with the EMG and CEO, who use every tactic in the book to have employees stay, while continuing to harm them.
BILLIONS of dollars being cut across USAA and EMG still get their EXTRA bonus?!
Total forking bullarky.
I predict Wayne will walk out, trip on ego, fall and break his tiny pe---r.
Prediction: Syed will ask a question that doesn't make any sense.
Because EMG aren’t making enough already? So disappointing!
I wonder how long this can continue?
The EMG meeting yesterday covered the scorecard and current state of USAA. Wayne stated how the bank is profitable now but will not be soon. Also stated that USAA will be taking another loss again this year. The good news is he reassured the EMG they will still receive their board authorized extra bonus this year despise the loss. It is reassuring that we are giving large bonuses, spending millions on the USAA Way traveling toxic circus, and laying off employees but are still able to take care of USAA’s most important employees.