Now that RTO guidance was released, I see a lot of posts throughout the company of individuals asking about attrition, wondering why the company would go back on their word, all that good stuff.
Let's be clear about a few things:
- Wayne and the company do not care about your mental health.
- Wayne and the company are not worried about attrition. In fact, people leaving is almost certainly one of the desired outcomes of mandated RTO. It's a way to reduce headcount without paying severance.
- They don't care that your commute will be an hour each way.
- They don't care about your childcare arrangements or lack thereof.
- They don't care that they promised you remote work in your job offer.
- They don't care that you'll lose out on sleep, put more wear and tear on your car, spend more on gas, or anything else of the sort.
- They don't have unbiased data that says employees are more productive in the office.
- They don't care that it's not fair or that it's illogical.
Employment at USAA is at will. You do not have to come into the office; you just have to come into the office if you want to remain an employee at USAA. Wayne could say tomorrow that all employees must wear clown makeup and your choices are to comply or leave. It's unfortunately that simple. This is a power play. It's not about culture, it's not about the members, and it's certainly not about "building relationships." All of that PR-approved verbiage/doublespeak.
This is about Wayne using his power as CEO to force his idea of what it means to be CEO to become a reality. Wayne had a vision for himself as CEO and what that meant. He saw himself walking through the hallways of the offices and being treated like a celebrity. He saw himself being the boss. He saw himself being respected for his authority and for being in charge. He's spent more than three decades of his life working towards this. Then, as soon as he became CEO, he had to send everyone home "for a few weeks." Those weeks turned into months, then those months turned into years. That vision that Wayne had for himself crumbled. Voluntary RTO has been available for years now and few wanted to do it because remote work is better in nearly every way for most people.
Voluntary RTO turned into "encouraged" hybrid. One day a week. Come on, it'll be nice to see your friends/coworkers. Still, no one showed up. Then RTO became highly encouraged. Still, no one showed up, not even managers. So now, the only option Wayne has left is to enforce RTO so he can get some semblance of that vision he had for himself. But he won't be respected. He won't be admired. He will go down as the most disliked CEO in USAA history, beating Bob Davis by a long shot. At least Bob Davis had the courage to tell you himself that he was going to fu-k you. Wayne hides behind his Corporate Communications puppets and relies on his direct reports to do his dirty work. He rehearses his politician answers and pretends to care, but his Patrick Bateman-esque expression shows that he could not care less.
Employee morale at USAA has never been lower. Employees with low morale are less productive. Less productive employees (and fewer of them due to layoffs and attrition) means worse financial performance and poorer member service. The Board of Directors will have very little patience for a CEO who leads the company into a situation of poor financial results, poor employee morale, under-staffing, and an unhappy membership.
So, great job, Wayne. You're getting what you want, but it will be at the expense of all of your employees.
It will be at the expense of employee morale, finances, and well-being.
It will be at the expense of the single mom who has been able to just get by on her salary because she could care for her kid at home.
It will be at the expense of the elder caregiver who now has to put their mother in a nursing home because they can't be around to care for her.
It will be at the expense of the disabled veteran employee who now has to commute two hours per day and suffer through their PTSD and agoraphobia so they can Zoom with their colleagues in another state.
So when you walk the building and see everyone's faces forcing a smile at you, think about those people. Think about the people whose lives you've upended just so you could revel in your self-importance. That's the culture now. That's what you've created. You have squeezed what little bit of employee morale remained to feed your own ego and narcissism. And you didn't even have the courage to deliver the message yourself.
You are a coward and a disgrace to USAA's once-great reputation and legacy of caring for employees.