Or do you really think that the management is doing everything possible to get rid of certain employees? I want to believe that these stories are exaggerated, but there a quite a few people who have told me that they are exposed to enormous pressure and they think the reason behind it is that the company is trying to get rid of them.
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Wayne, Tamla — make sure you don’t miss this thread either.
Honestly, I believe it. We had five quit in the last two months. The pressure has been crazy and there have been unrealistic goals. One of them I think complained about work life balance because they were made to work on their vacation because they weren’t going to make their SLO.
Another thing that is going on while people are getting laid on or leaving is that the workload is not decreasing one bit; in fact it's actually increasing in some areas. The big push is that "they" want several areas in IT to implement some sort of logging and want it sooner than later. You think they're hiring additional people for this upcoming work? Come on, get real! The work hours are getting crazy stupid, then add upcoming forced RTO, low morale and increased attrition to that and you have an Oppenheimer detonation in the making. Think we should call this bo-b "Lil' Wayne".
Ding ding ding.
Long term EMG here. People are continuing to assume positive intent despite the Peacock regime making unambiguously clear that they do not care about employees. Those days are gone, and they are certainly not coming back under Wayne. It's a big reason for why I'm retiring.
Wayne is a pathetic excuse for a "leader" who is using every HR trick in the book to reduce payroll:
- Layoffs.
- Benefit reductions.
- Targeted performance management efforts.
- RTO. (It is a blatant lie when certain leaders say that attrition wasn't a desired outcome of the decision to RTO and its timing.)
- So much more.
He's doing everything in his power to cover up the fact that after 30+ years at this company, he learned nothing about how to effectively lead. His MO is to move into an area, decimate its budget (thereby increasing profits in the short term), then leave/get promoted. Wayne is a large reason for why the company is in the shape it's in. His myopic decision making in P&C is a large part of why it wasn't profitable. He was the president of P&C before becoming CEO and could have set the business up for success by optimizing pricing, being innovate, or shuffling people around into better roles. But he chose the easy way out by reducing payroll and slashing budgets. Now, as CEO, he's living with the consequence of his past poor leadership. And in response, he's doing the only thing he knows how to do: cut budgets.
Wayne has been an executive for many, many years. He holds more responsibility for the current state of the company than almost any other singular person. And the thing is, none of this is up for debate; none of this is subjective. He is a failure of a CEO by every single quantifiable metric.
Financials? Failure.
The company has its first loss in 100 years and Wayne blames everything/everyone but himself. Why was P&C unprofitable, Wayne? Weren't you just in charge a couple years ago? Were "market conditions" responsible when P&C was profitable?
Member sentiment? Failure.
Remember when member satisfaction was in the high 80s/low 90s? Now we're shooting for the low 70s and are still missing the mark. Wayne can blame the economy, inflation, or whatever else he wants, but the fact is that he hasn't given the members anything to be satisfied about.
Employee morale? Failure.
The latest numbers show that employee satisfaction is in the low-mid 40s. Let that sink in. USAA used to be one of the best places to work in the country, now more than half of employees are unhappy to be here. That falls 100% on Wayne and his CHROs.
Quality products/services? Failure.
Point to a single product or service that sets USAA apart from the competition. Go ahead, I'll wait. Once we got rid of the 2.5% cash back card, that was it — we didn't offer anything that other companies didn't.
I was fortunate to have a long and fruitful career with USAA. I saw the company in its prime and in some of its lowest points. But nothing compares to this. Wayne's poor leadership, shortsightedness, and narcissism has made the company almost unbearable to work at. For those still in denial about how bad it is under Wayne, I'd say to wake up and smell the roses, but at this point, the roses have already died.
When the company has another loss, Wayne will yet again look for more people to cut. The company is headed the way of Sears, K-Mart, and other once-great American companies that lost their way. Once you install a leader who only knows how to cut expenses, the company is doomed. Companies only last when they innovate or set themselves apart in some way. As of now, under Wayne, USAA is doing neither of those things.
Put it this way:
- If your PIP comes out of the blue with ridiculous "conditions" and "expectations", it is false and designed to discourage you and get you fired. It's a con job.
- If your team lead works so hard that he no longer remembers what he did in the morning, let alone the day before, cannot sleep (due to anxiety), and yet still has no idea what "management" thinks of his work, it's a con job. They will work you until you break.
- If you are fired in spite of doing even more than what was requested of you and in prior years would have gotten you a high rating, then it's a con job.
Yes, employees are being targeted. The company lost $1.3B (the first annual loss since 1923) and has lost $12B+ in value. Do you honestly think they are going to do the right thing and give people layoff packages?
Consider the anxiety of the people in the middle, and I’m talking about your boss. They are given direction regarding the distribution of ratings on a team if not specific ratings for specific individuals. They are frequently unaware of their own status or the status of the work group itself. Even when they are aware they can’t be honest or share anything about it for weeks at a time until the shoe drops. Desk files, and that includes your PIPs and supervisory notes, become “attorney/client privileged”, cannot be copied, and are collected as employees are “racked and stacked”. Your bosses are further informed and warned of their personal liability in any legal disputes as if the company hasn’t already mitigated its exposure under “at will employment, conditions of severance benefits (if applicable) and arbitration language. Basically, the company isn’t loyal to its management team either and HR isn’t on their side any more than they are on your side. So if you think you have reasons to be anxious, consider your bosses and their bosses too as they are the ones between a rock and a hard place. It’s no wonder that so many of the good ones are retiring early or moving on.
Mind sharing what their reason was?
As a person fired after 16 years without EVER being placed on even a PIP, I was def targeted! I was fired for the D-MBEST reason!
They are definitely targeting people
They've been given their orders...otherwise, they're in the same boat. The reality of YEARS of bad decisions coming to roost in real time. Inside the building, people are not your friends, inside those walls, it's all business and they will do anything to keep their job. It's nothing personal, just remember DTA and be prepared to always defend yourself from someone who thinks you're an overachiever due to your work ethic and is always trying to point a finger your way
Why not both?
Wayne’s new toxic work environment is 100% designed to force attrition. It’s cheaper than layoffs and doesn’t have To be reported.