Wayne had this golden opportunity to set USAA apart. When COVID-19 took the world by storm in March 2020, within 2-3 weeks, he managed to get 95% of the workforce set up for WFH, one of the first companies to get that done, as others soon followed USAA’s lead. Throughout 2020 & 2021, employee morale was at its highest, long hours didn’t matter; we were home, management was extremely supportive with letting us log in later and making up the time later in the week, especially when grocery stores went to reduced hours here in San Antonio. Wayne kept preaching “this is our new normal, a new way to work.” With that, we were able to recruit some of the best talent from other financial institutions because we offered remote work. Fast forward to Jan 2022, Wayne starts with “it’ll be nice to start getting everyone back in office on a volunteer basis.” Then each employee meeting, he kept planting the seed with coming back to office, then saying “other companies are now returning to office,” so like a follower, he has to go back on promises he made, and now on 9/5, RTO is in full effect, badge reports will now be checked to make sure everyone is coming in. Our remote hires from 2020-2021, good luck! I guarantee, within the next 12 months, y’all will either be asked to move near a regional office or take a severance payout. USAA’s only hope, especially now with the company on track to lose more this year than we did last year, is the board has enough, and this December we get an email titled “CEO transition,” just like we got in December 2019.
5 replies (most recent on top)
I know that the mayor meets with Wayne and other CEOS at least once a month to discuss 'economic impacts' on the city of San Antonio. I know a lot of this drive to return to office is stated from those meetings that was just mentioned. The corporate tax incentives . That was why they tried to move IT downtown before the pandemic
@lhx+1oi1ImVM
I don't disagree here and even on their latest FR Y-14 they had over -$500million in accounting "adjustments" from their previous year end filing. If anything an insurance and financial company that caters towards US service members should be held at an even higher standard than a regular bank and should face harder punishments for screwing over their members.
The mayor literally came to Wayne a year and a half ago and asked him to have employees come back because of the economic impact we were causing to the I-10 corridor. It’s not entirely his fault and I’m sure the company’s corporate tax breaks were threatened in that discussion.
@ygs+1oi1ImVM: yes, USAA “needed to get out of the Consent Order in a hurry” but hiring seasoned finance professionals was only part of it. The other part was, and for years has been doctoring the numbers that go to the Regulators. Sure, those seasoned professionals helped get a lot of things fixed, but the improvement wasn’t dramatic enough or fast enough, so Wayne and Paul and senior level people have been changing the numbers so they look better before giving them to Regulators. Any mid-level person who objected is no longer here. I guess that’s one way to do it….
This company lied to many seasoned professionals within the Finance industry to lure them over because they needed to get out of a consent order in a Hurry. The industry doesn't forget chit like that and workers won't anytime soon. As their balance sheet continues to look worse they will not be able to find any good workers to bail them out. Having USAA on your resume isn't seen as a net positive anymore.