Can any areas consider themselves safe? Any positions? If you're among those who do believe that they’re untouchable by layoffs, why? We’ve seen so far that seniority means nothing, knowledge means nothing, experience means nothing. What is it that you have that you believe makes you safe?
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@f6+1jq1f8mh7
You sound like a real treasure. I am sure you have so many offers both inside & outside of USAA.
I aim to be as useless as possible and still continue to get paid for it. I'm sure it drives MAGAbillies at USAA crazy. Too bad those boomers are just as useless.
Member contact roles are usually safe - except mortgage
No area or role is safe. They could give 2 sh--s about any employee at any level (except for the ones with contracts they would have to pay out).
Can any area truly consider itself safe? Not really. But I would say that if your area meets the following criteria, you're in about the safest position you can be at this point in time. I'll break up the criteria by area/org and then by individual.
Team/Org Job Security:
- Your area is directly linked to a core business function (P&C, Life, Bank)
- Your area must exist due to regulations (e.g., risk and compliance, certain information security positions)
- Your job directly or indirectly increases revenue, decreases costs, or otherwise positively impacts the bottom line
- Your area is struggling to keep its head above water in terms of workload (while meeting the above criteria)
- Your area is still relevant to the company's long-term roadmap/strategy
If your area checks the boxes above, I think that at least for now, you're in one of the most "secure" areas possible.
For example, from the "org" perspective, someone I know was recently laid off who worked in an area that was responsible for procuring the furniture and decorations for the home office. The team was responsible for finding things like the chairs for the break rooms, paintings/art for the walls, things like that. That area was not crucial to USAA's success, is/was not difficult to outsource, wasn't directly tied to one of the core CoSAs, etc.
But it's not quite that simple, because then we get into the individual criteria. I think if you as an individual meet these criteria, then you are relatively safe (assuming you're on a team that meets the above).
Individual Job Security:
- Your skill set is highly specialized and hard to replace (including by contractors)
- Your salary isn't super high in terms of compa-ratio (i.e., you aren't paid significantly higher than your peers)
- You work in one of the offices and are actually showing up
- You are consistently meeting/exceeding expectations and have a good relationship with your leader
- You don't have a reputation for being negative, contrarian, or otherwise a pain to work with
- You're in a member contact role that doesn't have dramatic shifts in call volume (e.g., claims is probably safe but mortgage is less so)
For example, if you are a lead analyst in P&C who is paid significantly higher than your peers and EMG decides that it needs to cut a certain amount of people, even if you work in a critical area, your position may not be as secure as someone who's paid significantly less. The only saving grace may be that laying you off would be expensive both in terms of severance and recruiting a replacement.
The company is focused on streamlining, simplifying, and generally becoming as lean as possible. I don't suspect that will change under Juan. You have to ask yourself:
- Is my area directly tied to my CoSA's/USAA's strategy? If not, you likely aren't in a very secure position.
- Am I as an individual an outlier in any negative way? If so, you likely aren't in a very secure position.
The A$$ kisser Charlie became he had his head so far up Amalas a$$ that no one can find him to fire him!
Can any areas consider themselves safe?
NO
The CEO
The more useless someone is, the more “safe” they tend to be. (Hint: exe/mgmt that has led bank to its current state).