Thread regarding USAA layoffs

Conform or be cast out.

• Neil Peart

@qim+1o2KsbWh

Legal IS the worst, you’re right. I’m right behind you, out the door. Willing to take anything at this point that will cover my bills and give me health care.

@4esd+1o2KsbWh

Happened to me, too. Su-ks, doesn’t it? A friend in HR said they are NEVER to find retaliation, even if there is clear proof of it. The message to employees should be “Speak UP only if you will lie and say things are great”

I spoke out to a director and that’s when things changed. I was labeled by the director as being negative for raising concerns of how we were operating and treating employees. It was different after that and promotions became impossible. When you reach this point, the best career move is to leave.

I just remember filling out all “10’s” on the annual survey that the department would rest its laurels on. Honest feedback would get pushed back down to the lowest levels of management to fix it when their hands were tied to begin with. Directors and lower level looies had enough problems to deal with to begin with and the upper mid-level managers were clueless about the business to fix the problems they were creating on behalf of their handlers as they hid from the front line behind their closed office doors.

Wayne: Employees are meant to be seen (at least three days a week in office) and not heard. We don’t pay up for your opinions.

In comparison to other companies that I've worked for, USAA seems to be the company that truly does not want to hear feedback. There's the monthly Pulse survey that seems to go into a black hole, although they claim that employee feedback is important. Most of the innovative companies are open to employee feedback because that's how growth happens. Employees are the closest to the work and can truly identify opportunities for improvement. This is not the company I thought I was walking into.

While many have started to come off the high of the USAA kool-aid, there still many who bleed USAA and will believe everything that is told to them by Wayne and his stooges. Then at the Holiday parties later this year, those kool-aid drinkers will be posting things like “thank you USAA” “we don’t deserve this, thank you USAA,” etc … And with the company suffering it’s 1st loss in its 100 year history, Christmas/Holiday Parties are the last things money should be spent on! On top of all that, it takes major stones to give yourself a 157% pay raise after the company you lead, not only suffers its first ever loss, but lost $13billion if it’s net worth!

When I brought up issues back in 2013 about Reg E to my manager and director, they called me into a room, and I was asked “what is your job title?” So I told them, financial foundations associate, they agreed. Then the next thing I was told by the director, “now, you were hired to answer phones and sell products, not to deep dive into procedures, we’re USAA, we’re world class.” So I was labeled as a non team player and basically blacklisted, each time I put in for a rotation or statement of interest, I was denied within a few hours. Funny thing, Jan 2019, the CFPB mentioned a lot of my issues I presented back in 2013, guess I got the last laugh.

https://youtu.be/VZAn6x3yaYE

I responded to the periodic "employee experience survey" where I was brutally honest on feedback and suggestions because I assumed it was anonymous and my leadership team would not retaliate. Boy was I wrong. Since then, I did not respond to the surveys anymore and generally became a Yes-man to my leaders. This company is a toxic environment but hey, I still need to pay my bills.

Employees are expected to happily sit and take the blame for everything going wrong with the company while being micromanaged into the ground.

Critical opinion is heavily looked down upon (unless it’s towards yourself, of course, there’s always room for that) and you’re made out to be someone who is a threat to the culture if anything short of praise and sunshine comes out of you.

There is definitely a cult-like environment.

When I was first hired it was suggested that we not even look at the things being written on the post because it was “a place for negativity.”
Such a weird thing to tell newbies about a forum that’s supposed to be there to “help” employees feel heard.

All of that being said, there are absolutely koolaid drinkers who genuinely do live, breathe, and sleep USAA, too.

We were just recently told that the company is being forced to raise rates and deny PTO because of AUX usage.
What was more shocking to me than no one giving weird looks or speaking up to this utter bullcaca was that some employees were actually shaking their heads in agreement.

Upper management uses a classic distraction and exploitative tactic of placing blame for everything going wrong on anyone who isn’t working themselves into a meltdown for the benefit of the company and trying to pit diehard employees against them so that instead of attention being directed at the company’s faults, there is ongoing conflict/tension between the “little guys” to keep them distracted. And it works.

I was sold on collaboration and being a team player. So I kept trying to play, my counterparts just refused to engage, passive aggressive behavior was common. I decided to leave and left,

I’d rather be unemployed than associate with accompany clearly doesn’t care about the members or being compliant with the law.
What is sad, legal is the worst. Trying to fight the regulators in court rarely wins, ask Citi, Wells and Bac.
USAA leadership and the legal department are fools. Many should be banned from banking and disbarred.
Back stabbing ran rampant and nothing ever got addressed because everyone had to “agree”. Analysis paralysis, Sloppy solutions, the company should be ashamed, the members deserve so much more.

I can’t speak for other areas, but in Enterprise you are either part of the problem or the victim of retaliation. I am, and have been retaliated against for “healthy challenge.” Even the softest, most careful suggestion that perhaps things might be better done another way will get you downgraded on evaluation ratings, bonus %, and any other thing they can think of.

Every time I would question things , my concerns were downplayed to make me feel like what I was saying was insignificant. It just got to a point that I just felt like not speaking up anymore. Once that happened I planned my exit out of USAA.