I have never ever in my life have had to deal with such woeful incompetence from an established firm. I am at a loss for words. Absolutely no one knows what they are doing here. You have leaders who are confused and do nothing. We have mandatory training that is pointless. Systems that don't work, that everyone knows doesn't work but still continue to force down your throat. I just can't take it. I have always worked somewhere where at least the systems you have to utilize to do your job functions properly. But for this firm to embrace so much dysfunction I just can't see room for any competent people to work here. They get burned out so quickly. Just no at the top cares about clients and branch teams or pretty much anyone that isn't at the top.
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You all are id--ts if you think there is a such a thing as a DEI hire. Edward Jones has never hired anyone other on ability. This phrase has nothing to do with anything other than the incompetent person in the White House. DEI is hiring people, regardless of who they are, not because of who they are.
@OP people here have lost sight of what it means to deliver value to branches and clients (if they ever knew). As a mid career hire 4 years ago, I was stunned at how much time they wasted on meaningless work. Getting access to what you need to do your job is a nightmare. The long timers sit back and let you struggle because “that’s just how you learn Jones”. Really??? You think it’s a valuable use of my time and firm money to email person after person to find out what access I need. And that’s BEFORE even submitting a ticket to get that access (which can be days or weeks) only to find out that in the process of giving you that access they removed your access to something else you need. All of this time and money and NOTHING of value has been delivered. Other companies I’ve worked at would be apoplectic at this buffoonery. The “leaders” here however don’t know any better so they smugly insist that new hires “prove” themselves by navigating their administrative cr-p show every day. I think senior leadership is doing the right thing by getting rid of useless layers of leadership. But I’ve seen enough. I don’t have confidence they can move fast enough or be as aggressive as they need to be to turn this place around in 5 years.
@OP I've been here for almost 18 yrs. What you said is 100% dead on accurate. The only reason most of us have stayed here (knowing we paid below market) was because we had job security, work life balance, enjoyed the people on our teams, and felt like to some degree we were appreciated and treated as family by the higher ups. That is all gone now. Watching this company destroy itself in real time and in record time will be a case study for the ages. I feel like this company has been hijacked by a foreign entity or something. I want to reimagine that this has all just been a nightmare and I can wake up out of it.
@bk are you me? Your description of giving less capable teams more responsibility pretty much describes my situation.
I empathize with you all.
Being somewhat new (4 years) with EJ, I have a somewhat basic question. A couple of you have mentioned that you have a lot of vacation time and that is stopping you from leaving the firm.
As we are not allowed to rollover any vacation to next year, I assume you can’t have a “lot” of unpaid vacation time built up. Secondly, if you leave, the firm is required to pay in lieu of your unused vacation time.
Am I missing something?
Dear Stressed & Depressed,
It is unfortunate. What’s worse is that it used to be a very functional place to work. I used to take so much pride in the work product I produced. I was proud of the leaders and their decisions. I stayed late and came in early. I was thanked for a job well done. But since Penny took over and created this “matrixed” environment, all the work I was great at and enjoyed was given to other (less capable) people. When I asked questions about the way we were doing things that didn’t make sense, I was chastised, bullied and punished. So many people I respected retired early or found positions elsewhere. Frankly, ER is just the icing on the “cake of cr-p” that is EJ. But you’re right, some of us have a lot of vacation time and sick time so we are biding our time and have learned to compartmentalize the mental trauma inflicted by our arrogant and ignorant ELT. Do what’s best for your sanity and take care of yourself.
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Here a little over a year and completely agree. Never seen more mediocre talent being asked to run the show, it’s clear who you know is more important than what you know here. I’m leaving, the same as all the good hires will. Those who can’t do better will stay, they have no choice.
Yep, leadership will be left with only quiet quitters. All talent will slowly leave. It’s becoming unbearable if you care about your job. Hard work is not recognized. Promotions are DEI focused. The few are left to do the heavy lifting.
The 80/20 Rule is alive and well here eye roll 80% of the work/issues gets done/resolved by 20% of the people. Highly competent, knowledgeable people absolutely get burned out and stay because it’s familiar work/they have a lot of time off earned/ they have a family to support and going out into the job market right now is very scary.
So accurate. Case in point, AI training that isn’t even about AI or how to use the firms AI tools. Just pointless, waste of time.
I couldn't agree more