The “employee” relations team advocate for employees! When leaders on the “employee” relations side start resigning there should be cause for concern…
But when the TOP leaders/sorority made the department a glorified call center, versus a place employee’s feel they are being heard, this resignation, and many to follow will is only the beginning. SAD!!
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People leaders at USAA are given a blank check for how they want to treat their employees. Pray for a good manager. I had one but he left and then I was torn apart by the remaining managers - for fun. Subordinates are gifted to them like boxes of puppets that can be used up and traded out at their discretion. Needless to say that can result in some very sick scenarios. Since s-xual abuse generally requires RTO, the push for that on some fronts is not terribly surprising. But yes even with remote work they can inflict some pretty severe damage and seem to relish their ability to do so. I've worked in various environments including those where employees were not treated particularly well at times, but only at USAA have I been like "these people are truly sick and evil" because the behavior didn't seem to have any connection to business goals and instead was very personal in a scary & demented way. Unfortunately people do what they can get away with which can sadly be observed across all sectors and environments. That means, there are plenty of vile people who in a healthy environment (work, school, church, wherever) will regretfully hide away their real self and predilections because they know it won't be tolerated and they want to avoid the repercussions. I can see USAA becoming a magnet for predators because they know they have full reign over a continually replenished buffet of subordinates to abuse. So all these stories I have read about USAA, I really wish I could be surprised but from the experiences I've had there, I'm not.
HR didn’t do a damn thing for me, they did however threaten me with a lawsuit for stating I made a false claim of s-xual harassment and trying to ruin a man’s marriage and reputation!
My manager would say this to me …
“oh my my, looks like my Christmas gift came early.” “What runway did you just come from,” “let’s talk in the conference room so I can get a better look at my present.” “If you keep dressing like that, you’ll be making more than me very soon.” Or when i would walk to my desk, he would say “spicy walk there” or “my heart explodes with each step you take.”
I told HR all that, and nothing was ever done. This one July day , I went to lunch, walked to the bank lobby, had my resignation letter notarized, had it scanned and emailed to myself, walked back to my desk, sent my team a goodbye email, sent my resignation letter to my manager his boss and HR, walked by his desk, put my laptop and work phone on his desk, walked out the building and left my name tag on the turnstile.
Funny thing, a year later, he abruptly “retired,” a girl recorded the 1-1 sessions and he was making s-xual remarks to her.
I was a top performing employee in the call center and later as staff— I was an excellent people leader on staff side but took over team management from the prior leader of the team and the moment I disagreed (respectfully) with his way of doing something and told him I didn’t feel heard and that my way of leading- which may be different from - his was not being respected I went from a GLOWING performance review to less than 6 weeks later being put on a PIP. Not only that but the PIP was vague as to how success would even be measured so I did go to ER and voiced my concern on both items but really tried to focus on “hey if I’m doing this wrong and there’s something to improve I’m about it but based on how this is written how will we know if I’ve improved- there’s no objective measures” I expressed concern that it was set up in a way that would make it difficult to be successful (since again it didn’t really say what success looked like) and the response wasn’t “let’s get a more clear plan” it was a suggestion that I look at leaving my role and taking an alternate role. To this day between the leader and the ER individual I consider the entire experience one that showed the very worst of what USAA had to offer. The people I shared it with at the time were appalled and confused for me. I’ve been gone years now, love my company and I am an excellent senior people leader. I pity the leader that was so threatened by a woman who suggested merely that nothing was wrong with his leadership style but that she had her own that she would like the chance to approach the situation from that his solution was to try and resort to steps towards corrective action. He thought he had a “yes man” and the minute I wasn’t he wanted me gone and ER was willing to support him doing it.
Protect your peace, know who is and isn’t in your corner and go where you are valued.
HR is there to protect the company. Sometimes to protect the company they need to take the employee’s side because to do otherwise could open up the company to liability (as in cases of harassment, discrimination, etc.).
If you take something to employee relations, they may end up taking your side, but that’s only because the alternative would be potentially bad for the company. It’s not because they are benevolent. It’s not because they care about you. It’s because they recognize something about the situation that could negatively impact USAA. Everything you say to them will be documented thoroughly and can and will be used against you. Things like facilitated dialog are ways for the company to cover themselves and make sure they have a paper trail if things escalate.
If you have a genuine grievance that can’t be handled with your direct manager or their manager, you need to seriously consider if it’s worth pursuing it with ER. If you decide to go that route, you better have an open and shut case of something like discrimination against a protected class, something illegal, or something equally egregious. As much as USAA touts zero retaliation, if you flippantly go to ER and it could potentially interpreted as bad faith, you could be setting yourself up for failure. In many cases it’s going to be better to keep your head down and ride things out — or use it as an opportunity look for a new job.
It’s unfortunate, but if you are in a position where you have a bad/ill-intentioned manager who is also good at documenting things, it will ultimately come down to your word vs theirs. If ER can corroborate what your manager documented, guess who they’re going to side with? And even if they do side with you, now your relationship with your boss is forever damaged.
To be clear, this is true of most companies, not just USAA.
HR is not there for you, they are there to protect the company interests. Interestingly though, they don’t stand behind the managers who are tasked with sticking it to you, they are on their own and “personally” liable for their own missteps. Anything you tell an ER advisor can be used against you in a termination, make no mistake about it.
Don’t ever go to HR or ER, all they do is make the situations so much worse.
ER didn't advocate for me at all. They gaslighted me right out the damned door!