Nobody could tell it was a red Yeti until you said so.
You are now doxed.
Principal Financial-Remote work
- Thread starter pfgemployee
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You are now doxed.
Company I work for does annual surveys but I can't remember the last time they actually published the results. My guess is they are pretty bad especially anything relating to executive management so if anything is shared I'm sure it is cherry picked from something and anything really bad is not shared. I do have a pretty hands-off manager that lets me do my job without having him micromanage or nitpick anything I do. Probably helps that he once did the same job I do so he knows what that is like. Any survey questions regarding him I rate high as I want his results to look good but top level management can suck it as they are so out of tune on what goes on at the lowest levels of the company that they count on to make the company successful.
Even in my own job I've gradually seen the scope of communication and involvement decline because those up the chain driving the projects my role supports don't want to hear anything that would make them think there are problems as they need to feel they are getting successful results to justify what they are trying to do. And then when something does have big issues they use the line "well no one told us this was going on." Well when you stop including the folks you depend on to make your projects successful from meetings and other communication lines then don't be surprised when the same folks come baring bad news from time to time when they do get a platform to speak up. One project that I support has such a bad reputation from the people who use the product as it's not been rolled out well and management has basically directed us to "not agree with them or talk bad about it" even if their complaints and frustrations are justified. Essentially they want us be salespeople for a project that has been nothing but a mess trying to roll it out and they are taking the head in the sand approach with dealing with the issues of the people that have to use the product because it probably means they don't hit their aggressive rollout numbers they need to show in order to get a bonus probably.
After working 20+ years in the corporate world I kind of just have the mentality that you are just another number in the database and are disposable at any point. The company will still be there tomorrow if they let you go or if you have to take a day off so there is no point in thinking that your role is important because in the big picture it is not. There is no reason to allow your personal time to be taken away from you because the more they can get out of you they will keep taking more and it will leave you stressed out and missing out on more important things in life than work. Life is too short to be too career focused, enjoy life and don't allow "the man" to take that time away from you just so the well compensated execs can get a bigger bonus at the expense of your happiness.
Maybe it's because I only started drinking coffee in the past 2 years or so but I just don't get why folks go nuts over single serve pods. Drip is only marginally more work but is significantly cheaper when you talk cost per cup.
I almost worked at PFG in an junior actuarial role. Wells Fargo offered me for an analytics job before PFG sent me an offer, a lower quality job at WF paid 10K more than that actuarial job for PFG. Across the board, Wells Fargo treats its employees better than Principal. It's kind of wild when I hear about the salaries from friends at PFG. Almost all of them could make 10-20% more at WF.
Like you are competing with one of the largest financial employers in the DSM metro and you aren't competitive.
Although WF also requires 3 days in office a week. Its because that's what all the banks are doing. WF took the initiative from Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.
I don't even see it as more work and a cup or two comes out just as fast if someone doesn't want to wait for the entire pot.
I think one thing that keeps people away from WF is job security. It seems like every other week they are laying people off. I worked at WF Mortgage in the late 90's so it wouldn't be fair to judge but I assume it hasn't got better.
That doesn't really seem like a valid reason to require employees to be in office X days per week. So what if a competitor is in office, what does that have to do with WF?
I'm not a coffee drinker, but one of the reasons I went with pods in our field office on the jobsite is that coffee drinkers are lazy and messy (yes I know it a generalization, but 15 yrs working in construction site field offices from little single wide trailers to multi billion dollar project offices shows the same thing). People don't clean the coffee pot, or leave 1/2" of coffee so they don't have to make the next pot which then causes the coffee to evaporate and burn the bottom of the pot, or they complain about people not making the next pot or they spill grounds everywhere and maybe make a half assed attempt at cleaning them up, or they spill/drop coffee out of the pot onto the counter. Throw in not shutting the coffee pot at night and it's just a PITA.
Yes pods are more expensive and we go throw a borderline ridiculous amount of them for a small office, but I'm paying a premium to not have to deal with stupid people.
Well, WF's CEO's mentor is Jamie Dimon, so it's safe to assume he'll do whatever Jamie does.
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Agreed, this shows a lack of leadership at a company. My old employer, who was a small privately owned family business, acted the same way.
Important reminder that the Financial sector C-suite is just a revolving door of executives going from one bank to another. I think 70% of WF's C-suite worked at JP Morgan Chase before coming here. They're all friends with each other and hang out in the same social circles.
A lot of group think & collusion.
Example: JP Morgan Chase Bank builds brand new NYC headquarters (10,000+ employee capacity) right before the pandemic hits.
They made employees come back into office to protect their huge investment. Bank of America and WF shortly follow suit.
I imagine a lot of popped collars and expensive booze. Rich mahogany. Maybe a horse or two when they all get together
At the company I referenced, they did release all the results to the whole company. One thing was very obvious: unhappiness increased with each higher level in the organization. The doers at the bottom were the happiest while the people at the bottom were the least happy.
And to your point I quoted above: I try really hard not to feel this way, but its hard not to anymore. I'm about halfway through my career and have seen people who make their career their life are the ones who rise to the upper ranks of an org. I'm as much or more competent than them, but because I set boundaries around life (i.e. I'm not skipping my kids concert just because you're late on a deliverable) then I am unable to rise to the upper levels. I also want to believe there are companies out there that truly do not feel/act this way. I'm certainly trying hard to find one, if it exists!
Everything has a cost. Chasing the dollar has a cost. I've chased the buck all over the country. Played a part in costing me a marriage and the stress vs. pay started to move the scale.
I was the guy putting in 60 hours and the occasional weekend. Some were doing much more.
At some point work became transactional. (2008 for an exact date). So I'll give you an honest day's work. I'll pick my projects to fit my skills better.
But I'm not elbowing anyone to climb the ladder. Because I've seen too many times where the 80 hour a week guy gets laid off just like the straight 40 person
If I had to guess it's the complete opposite at the company I work at. The upper management thinks they are moving the company forward and there are no issues with the poorly planned and poorly implemented changes they have been trying to make. Those in lower levels who are impacted by these poorly implemented changes are just a bunch of complainers that they'll never make happy regardless what they do is the culture here lately or at least that is how it comes off to most here with the lack of transparency and care the upper levels show for those who raise legit concerns and problems to them. If the results were positive at the top levels they'd be glad to share it I'm sure so the fact that they haven't done for years when they used to just validates the frustrations of the lower level folks that are grinding away keeping things afloat.
I set boundaries around my life too. I'll quit my job before accepting that working ridiculous hours that include night and weekends is just part the job if they ever try to push that on me as it's not what was required when I took the job. Kind of reminds me of that scene in Elf where the exec and his board flew in Christmas Eve to hear a book pitch and Walter Hobbs tells him don't make him choose between his job and his son then tells them "up yours" and walks out of the meeting. If my job ever got to be like that I wouldn't hesitate to do the same. I'm at a point at my current job that I am compensated well with good benefits and my manager is not the type to force us into doing things we don't need to be doing but the culture here as becomes so toxic in general due to the leadership at the top. If this was earlier in my career I would have left this company by now but I have 20 years in and it would cost them about a year's severance to lay me off so I'm kind of hanging around just in spite of that as I didn't put up with the crap I have the past few years to just let them off the hook for that. Now if they make it even more miserable around here where it does start to cut into my personal life and happiness then I probably would consider finding another job but for not I will just treat it as a job where I have no incentive to bust my ass more than I have to trying to please people that could care less about it as the reward for that is just going to be more work and stress.
I just had my annual review. I was told my 50 hours/week was "way too low" and "it takes 60-80 hours a week to advance at this company." Then the next comment from my boss was "But you're a dad/husband, so you gotta decide which one you want." I wanted to quit on the spot. That's a moral wrong in my book. But I have a family to provide for. I am working 60 hours a week now...40 hours for my day job and 20 hours/week to find a new one.
Years ago I got the "you're expected to leave PTO on the table if you want to move up. You take time off and management believes you aren't dedicated"
Uh. Huh.