Thread regarding TIAA (TIAA-CREF) layoffs

Thank you. As a customer, I thought it was my fault. From two days to ten for a withdrawal because TIAA and Proof could not agree on a date. As I search for ways to warn other seniors, I see I'm not alone. Suggestions? Old school letters to the Editors? They need to watch South Park's AARP episode.

If u are so happy at TIAA why are u here? The thread clearly states6 the audience for this discussion.

So, You are so happy with the company that you spend your time ( work hours too) googling and commenting on threads that are not for you. A better place for u would be the brown nosing section on the tiaa sharepoint.

Long time ex-employee and I'm quite a few years removed from 27 years of age, LOL!

To the long winded post about listening to children whine, let me reply with a whole hearted BS.

What reaction could you expect when for 3 years there are no raises and yet the executives receive one? Didn't the CEO receive an $800k increase her salary (to over $19 million total) just a couple of years ago?

And spare me the BS about bonuses. Employees need increases in their pay check and not a measly 2%-3% increase in their bonus from the year before.

This company is a shadow of it's former self. And it's a darn shame, let me tell you.

“If any of you had ever worked for a company that actually did disrespect its employees,”

Whoever posted this is not a serious individual. I have never worked at a company that did more to protect the jobs and bonuses of incompetent and unscrupulous managers while at the same time foisting all responsibility for the success or failure of the company’s objectives onto frontline employees. I’ve never seen a company work harder to streamline their managers use of HR to “hunt” and setup employees to be terminated or hounded out for reasons unrelated to their performance.

The retirement package and benefits are the leavings of a once-great company that they have already started chipping away at. Don’t be fooled.

Those liabilities will be gone soon enough. Just cause you aren’t affected doesn’t mean it’s not a valid experience.

If the company didn't care about it's employees, you wouldn't see our very rich retirement package and pretty good benefits. You would see people leave because they pay us so little that we're at the bottom percentile for market pay.

This is like listening to children whine that their parents hate them because they require the kids to eat a balanced meal instead of ice cream all day.

If any of you had ever worked for a company that actually did disrespect its employees, you'd never be so brazen as to act like TIAA doesn't care about employees. You think caring in corporate life means work should be like Kindergarten when it actually means have people who make an effort to give employees a good experience, even if it's not perfect.

But we know the people posting here are the 27 year olds in TDOSS or else that crabby guy in RS who has been in the same role for 25 years and blames everyone else for his lack of initiative and promotion. In either case, you've never sniffed working for a "bad" company if you think this is what it is like.

Maybe it’s me but I didn’t get the impression that the poster was complaining, just expressing disappointment that TIAA wouldn’t work with them to remedy a bad situation after solutions were found. They obviously can afford the $3-4k/month ($36-48k/year) to travel; I know I’d be complaining if I had to spend that much for a job.

If we take what they said at face value, it appears to me they are the type of employee TIAA wants to have and keep happy. Managers and teammates worked hard to fight for them. That has to mean they are good at what they do OR they can brown nose like the best of them. Either quality works at this org.

It s-ucks…layoffs, calling people back closer to hub offices, etc…it could be anyone at anytime, myself included. I don’t lose sight of that.

You said “I'm being forced to pay to work at TIAA” and shortly after “And to answer why I do it? Because like others have said, most people just can't quit on a whim. Finding a job is tough, let alone in the currently tight labor market.”

Your inability to quit is not the company’s problem. No one is forcing you to work here. You’re choosing to make a 230 mile commute based on your circumstances.

You understand the job market is tight, you have your options to keep your job, and you made a choice. You’re complaining about the decisions you’ve made and its consequences.

Thank you for sharing. This is exactly the kind of thing that I was thinking of when I made this post. These are the real stories of the people that TIAA affect. If the company actually gave a sh-t about it’s people like they say they do (it’s a WE thing, the people pledge, numerous LinkedIn and instagram posts about how they value everyone’s contribution or some bullsh-t, flaunting various awards about how it’s a great place for everyone, and the list goes on) then this type of thing wouldn’t happen, or when it was found out, they’d DO THE RIGHT THING.

Its a fu--ing dog and pony show at our expense.

I've been reluctant to share my story but I just don't care anymore. So here goes...

I got the okay to relocate for my partner's job to a non-hub city and I could be remote. We started the process of selling our house i.e. under contract for sale only for TIAA/HR to change their view on remote work. We couldn't back out of the sale without exposing ourselves to a massive liability (forced performance on sale). My manager and their manager tried numerous times for an exception on their own with our group's HR business leader only to be told that my L3 leader would need to make an exception. Unfortunately, my L3 leader told me "you're not worth the political capital necessary to make this happen. Sorry". I tried to find other solutions, the most easy and logical would be officing out of a wealth management office in the new city that had an empty desk. With the support of my manager, and the new city wealth mgmt regional manager, we attempted to make it happen only to be told by HR that only hub-locations were allowed for corporate employees, which is interesting given certain EC members are clearly NOT wealth mgmt employees but yet office out of WM offices in Cali and Arizona...

I was told I would need to commute to a hub city at my own expense, the nearest being +230 miles away. I asked if I could utilize any corporate discounts for lodging/air fare and was told that since this wasn't "official" business travel I couldn't use any TIAA negotiated rates, even if paying for it out of pocket. Long story short, I'm forced to commute weekly to a hub city, spending between $900-1200/week to get my 3 swipes or face disciplinary action (assume firing but who knows?).

I'm being forced to pay to work at TIAA and I haven't received a raise in the past few performance cycles. Instead of going into the office to collab and connect, I commute to be lonely and sit on Zooms with colleagues across the country as the office I commute to is ALWAYS empty. Adding insult to injury, one of the "faces of TIAA" that was plastered all over the intranet, is a remote worker that lives 50 miles away from "my" corporate hub.

And before some boomer/sycophant comes in and calls bullsh-t - there's more to the story - there isn't. It's literally that simple (and I have a paper trail to prove it). And to answer why I do it? Because like others have said, most people just can't quit on a whim. Finding a job is tough, let alone in the currently tight labor market. I'm fortunate that my team and colleagues that know of my situation are extremely supportive of my unique situation so I guess I have that going for me BUT TIAA as a whole, especially HR, can eat a bag of di-ks.

I'd really like to know where the notion of TIAA's bonus "being great" comes from. Have you simps ever worked anywhere else in your career besides this festering blister of a "financial services" firm?

There is so much bloat here it's laughable. Unfortunately, the people that are in leadership positions are mo--ns and only surround themselves with "yes people". It's all about self-preservation - nothing more, nothing less.

So the answer to why u stay here and be miserable is that the bonus is good and there aren't other jobs out there. Good employees see that as a sign to work hard to keep making a good bonus when the alternative is unemployment. On this board though it's whine about low pay but then say you're paid well and say how bad the job market is but then say how awful tiaa is. If it's that bad and your just staying for the money, then I think we have an answer to who has no morals or scruples at this company.

To all the people asking why stay here when we are miserable?

It seems like you never actually talked to your parents about their work life. You have to do what you have to do to pay the bills and keep the home running. No job is perfect, no company either but a job is a job and is hard to come by for many these days.

It’s a steady paycheck and probably the best bonus and benefits out there. Times are tough financially for all.. Most other internal jobs perhaps on better teams/areas are Frisco or India… Most companies su-k. Corporate work su-ks. Around 600 or so of us are waiting for severance for not moving to Texas.

And most importantly the job market is in the toilet and getting worse by the day.

I really didn’t want to get political here but you sheepel made me dot it. The economy and job market is far worse than it could ever be and will continue to be worse than possibly the Great Depression with special thanks to the orange clown and the Doge id--t.

I have worked at tiaa for about 6 years now and it’s okay not the greatest and not the worst. I don’t understand the people that are so unhappy and miserable why not leave and find something better so that u are happy. Tiaa owes me nothing and I owe them nothing. It’s a job.

Yes. Exactly. When a company is not acting in ethical and mature ways, yet heavily markets themselves as having an unshakeable commitment to acting in ethical and mature ways.....it is the epitome of cognitive dissonance....which leads to whistleblowers, settlements, bad publicity and exposure. Sometimes when the management won't be the adult in the room, some guy on the frontline has to go over their heads just to be the adult in the room.

Do you all know how hard it is to find a job right now? I’m not still here for lack of trying to be elsewhere.

TIAA su-ks, my manager was a complete a--hole and driving into an office 3 days a week to sit and listen to people talk endlessly on zoom calls and then make excuses about their work was complete BS.

The whole thing was completely mind numbing every single day.

But the pay and benefits were good. The rest was complete BS.

All BS be thankful you have a job.

If pay were really that low for so many years, why are all these people complaining still here? If the company is that unethical, why are all these people complaining still here?

Asking legitimately- you're making it sound like it has been years of being underpaid to work for unethical people. Why on earth would so many people keep doing that??

I am so glad I got a package and I’m out. The could not longer stand the toxic back stabbing culture, the managers only looking out for themselves, the relentless micro management, the stupid decisions that do nothing to advance the organization. The cherry picking of incompetent unqualified people for leadership positions, the hypocrisy of Retire Inequality campaign, and the deliberate way they show they do not value employees when they hire from outside at 30% higher base salary. Let me not to forget to add the theft in the LTTP where it doesn’t even keep pace with the S&P 500 and peers in the industry are paid their bonuses minimum on a quarterly basis and some monthly.

How many years in a row will I get swindled out of a raise and a promotion? The count is now up to three.

Not only are they taking away our raises and shrinking our bonuses, they have been downgrading our rating so they have to pay out less. To add to that, they went with “unlimited” PTO and magically, any outstanding liabilities they had to pay employees when they are laid off disappeared.

On top of all of that, they have been taking away perks little by little over the years. Gym subsidy here, team outings or events there, chipping away at everything until the place that we work is devoid of all of the promises that were made to us, the. Little people who have been making this company great for over 100 years. I’ve seen more culture in the trash than they have at this company. Pathetic.

These actions and method of treating people directly contrasts with all of their “values” that they tour.

Lack of raises has been a common practice for TIAA for most of the past 10 to 15 years. It’s been a way to control recurring expenses. The mandate typically was not to give raises for anyone making over $100K, at least that was what I was told. I probably only received a raise in 3 of those 15 years. The bonuses were good so that kind of made up for it and kept me content. That was until extensive layoffs began to occur and you found that you were working twice the hours to make up the work for the people who were no longer there. At the same time bonuses across the board were decreasing, providing you now an effective hourly wage that was nearly half of what you had been making previously. That was when I saw the writing on the wall and was fortunate to take a voluntary separation package. I’m sure many others have gone through the same experience.

World’s least ethical leader. She’s out there taking vacations, collecting awards, and giving speeches that are all fake while not actually working. Those of us busting our chops are getting treated like garbage. Watch who you step on on the way up honey!

I’m so sick of all of their disingenuousness. They are laying off people left and right, closing entire cities down where we work, and then we are on all of these calls where they keep telling us that they are so excited about the future of the company and they can’t wait for all of the good things. Well excuse me for not being happy when I don’t have a future.

I’m tired of listening to these snakes tell me that the company values its people and is winning as one and we are the best part of the company. It’s all bull. This company is just like all of the rest of them, they don’t care about you. How are we pushing for everyone to have access to retirement funds when I’m going to have to cash mine out cause I can’t find a job.

These people have sc--wed me over so many times now but they don’t care cause they get bonuses for doing this. Well I have a family and this is really tough and it gets worse every day with nothing good in sight. This company is heartless and I wish everyone on the outside really knew how they are treating their employees, it would be a huge hit to their reputation if everyone could see how they are treating us and what we have to go through. How can clients expect the company to be there for them when they are showing the world how they treat people now.

How many years have employees not received a raise? That action in of itself is unethical.

I believe that ethical leadership is not just about words—it is about actions that align with the values an organization claims to uphold. Unfortunately, I have observed a concerning disconnect between TIAA’s stated commitment to integrity and the way year-end performance reviews are being used as a mechanism for continued headcount reductions.

Rather than serving as a fair and constructive tool for employee development, performance evaluations are increasingly being manipulated to create artificially negative assessments. This approach undermines the principles of transparency and fairness, damaging employee morale and eroding trust in leadership. If ethical behavior is truly a core value, then decision-making—especially when it affects people’s livelihoods—should be guided by honesty, accountability, and respect.

Performance management should reflect actual contributions and areas for growth, not be we-ponized to justify predetermined layoffs. Such practices not only harm those affected but also create a culture of fear and disengagement, ultimately weakening the organization as a whole.

I would love leadership to uphold the ethical standards they espouse, ensuring that performance evaluations are used as intended—to support, develop, and recognize employees, not as a covert means to facilitate workforce reductions. True integrity requires consistency between values and actions, and that is the leadership our employees deserve.