Heard that an announcement is coming this week that a certain group of "low on the totem pole" employees will be required to be in the office 5 days/week. Yeah, it's the AA's. And if true, I doubt it will stop with them. That whole "hybrid is the new way of doing business" malarky is unraveling like a poorly sewn suit.
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what’s fake news? that Wealth AA’s are now required in the office 5 days a week? If that’s what you’re talking about and you haven’t heard anything it must be because you’re not a wealth AA. Our region was notified via zoom call last week and a follow up email to business partners was sent out letting them know about their AAs. Multiple AAs in the region were also laid off effective Sept 1st since they supported executive suites and had no physical office to go into.
Fake news. It's been a week and... nothing. Can't stand when people make up stuff. I'll bump this thread again next week to prove again how much people lie on this board. It used to have insights.
The only AA’s having to go in 5X week are those in client facing WMA offices. This decision was made because someone needs to be available to receive packages, client documents, checks etc.
AA’s for Wealth Advisor’s (AC2) and other groups not client facing are still 3 days week.
@131+1jszftxyy To be fair it’s not really about needing/spending money to do 5xRTO, it is more of saving money by doing so.
Doing 5xRTO will save more money than it costs to switch back to… It’s going to happen eventually. Because T wants it.
May start with 4xRTO for some in operations and other areas leading some people to leave for other opportunities outside that are hybrid or full remote and avoid management needing to do a reorg/layoff/severance.
As for a full 5xRTO for all associates, it will probably be after Denver closure or a few months before to “spite” the Denver workers remaining and try to get them to resign before severance dates saving a lot more money.
“To be fair” TIAA has the money to “ create” a 5x a week role for a service person to be on site to do the kind of things that are required. They always have, this isn’t just coming up now. Unfortunately lavish spending is more important. Attrition is real and more work will be falling on the WMAs and CRMs soon and the AAs that are left to bridge the gap will burn out fast. We all know what the hiring process is like. It takes forever and so does the training which takes even more time away from the AAs that are left. How unfortunate for reasons being “client experience.”
A few things: First, for those saying that it makes sense that client facing AA’s should be in an office; you don’t know what you’re talking about. They’re asking all wealth AA’s to return to the office five days a week and that includes those in the hubs who are sitting up on the third fourth and fifth floors and have absolutely zero contact with clients. Second, this isn’t just about returning to the office. Several AAs were laid off and given the option of either taking a severance package or moving to another state to fill an available role in a regional office since they currently work virtually due to the fact that the offices they were working in closed during Covid and have not reopened but rather converted to executive suites. This will leave entire regions of states without AA support for WMAs in these executive suites. I don’t know where they think the support is going to come from moving forward but when I asked that question they said “we’re not sure yet.” Proof that this company makes poor decisions before having any real solutions thought out and lined up for how it’s going to operate in the future. I was given the two options and in the next breath was told “please consider moving to another office as we really want to retain good talent.” Are you kidding me? if you wanted to retain good talent, why are you staring at me telling me that you just cut my job for the simple reason that there’s not an office close enough to me for me to go sit my warm a-s down in and do the exact same job that I’ve been doing from home for the last five years. You just laid me off and now you want me to uproot my whole life and move to another state to fill a role just so you don’t have to do a search. Hard pass. I feel for my colleagues who are going through this, but I personally have a great sense of calmness that came over me the day after this announcement as I can now walk away from this dumpster fire of a company that is spiraling into the drain and leave the headaches behind. very very sad for a company that used to be so great. and don’t even get me started on the disastrous Salesforce roll out.
@je+1jszftxyy
Don’t be so naive.
Why else are they closing offices and relocating folks. For now it’s 3 days. If it was too full we couldn’t do 3 days and would still be at 2.4 average. So they can easily push it to 4 days soon then 5 or jump straight there.
Sure they need bodies in Frisco for the tax benefit but T wants people in the seats. Remember the reason 2-3 and 2.4 became 3 and was tracked - people were not in the older office she visited in TX early on (which was under construction being remodeled and whatnot).
I wouldn’t say it is eminent… but can see 1/1/26 (or 7/1/26 after Denver closes) being a 4 day requirement and a year later being 5 days again like the good old days except now we are tracked like cattle with tags keeping track of our every move.
Not happening broadly
To be fair, if you’re a client facing role at TIAA you have to be available for clients. Yes, it’s an inequality but that’s the role you signed up for when joining this festering tu-d of a company. “Leadership” believes that having boomers come in to drop-off checks is going to save this company so by damn you have to be there…
They keep up the bullsh-t and I’m about to be in zero days a week. This BKWD a-s company can fu-k right off.
I think that we have a bigger issue here. It is the Wealth AA’s who are now going to be required to be on the office 5 days a week, while AA’s from other business units are “coffee badging” meaning they come into the office for an hour or two to get their badge swipe to meet the persona and leave. I have seen this in several offices. While those on the Wealth AA teams followed the rules and now we have to go into the office. There are so many double standards in this company.
TIAA employees very few Administrative Assistants. If offices that deal with customers need a someone on site five days a week that seems reasonable.
@dr+1jszftxyy Spot on.
We’re not a bank. We shouldn’t let clients walk in checks. Either upload digitally or mail them in. We have too many smaller offices being utilized like a brick and mortar bank instead of meeting with wealth managers directly. If clients knew how much TIAA wasted with all our locations their heads would spin.
We could eliminate every WM “branch” (save a bunch of money) and get into the 21st century like Fidelity, Vanguard, and all the rest of the competition who is laughing at us.
AA = Administrative Assistant.
The AAs in local offices are responsible for processing checks brought in by clients, among other duties (that Advisors don't want to do - or are not allowed to do). When there is no AA in the office and a client brings in a check, it delays processing...leading to more complaints. In many cases, the AAs in small offices (especially ones where they are the only AA) have already been going in 5 days a week to keep this from happening because they get reprimanded for it.
What’s an AA? Wealth Advisor Associate?
It is true. Wealth AA’s now have to work in the office 5 days a week beginning in June. No reasoning was given. Just a morale sinker.
Just the next step in forced attrition in an attempt to save the company.
If true another stupid decision at the top. AA’s are one of the many groups that can do everything from home and don’t need office time to collaborate whatsoever.
Also if true… Then we all better get assigned seats and stop the zoom reservations because hoteling won’t work in any site without a hiring freeze and layoffs which are also rumored.
CEO hates the remote concept more than any thing. As soon as “headcount = seats” in the main offices she will push for 5 days in the office.