Ever since Amala was brought in, bringing with her cohort of nationals, racism in USAA has been on the rise. Even after her being dropped, pendulum has swung too far where if you're a person of color you no longer feel you belong. It's not overt in your face racism, but the covert subtle type with microagressions. And god forbid if you're not of Christian faith, it's a double whammy. As the resources get squeezed, and the decisions to drop personnels rise, it's the minorities on the chopping blocks first. It's becoming a pattern now, and no longer single occurrences. I'm seeing qualified experienced people get set up to be fired, and mediocrity being protected for no other reason but their skin tone. USAA is heading down a very dark path, perhaps a reflection of the state of the nation.
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@k5 Nobody said workplace training is the ultimate source of objective truth. The point is that it's the standard USAA or any other company expects employees to follow. If you work there, that's the expectation- regardless of whether you personally agree with every example in the training.
You can disagree with the training, but pretending it doesn't matter when it's literally the company's policy is a different argument altogether.
@k2 Imagine thinking something is objectively true because it's said in an assigned workplace training LOL
@k0 Dude, have you even taken the harassment training at USAA? It was assigned this quarter.
One of the key takeaways is that something that appears to be a compliment can still be perceived as discriminatory or even racist, depending on the context and the person's experience. I don't need to explain the entire training here- you should take it.
And not everyone who raises concerns about racism is making things up. It's about the experience someone has, even if that wasn't the speaker's intent. Unless, of course, you believe only certain people have the right to speak up when they feel they've been treated unfairly.
By the same logic, there are people on this very forum claiming they got laid off because of H-1Bs, that their children can't get into schools or colleges because of immigrants, or that home prices are going up because of immigrants. Never mind that many immigrants pay significantly higher tuition as international students to study the exact same subjects. And home prices? That's basic economics with many contributing factors - not something you can honestly pin on one group.
Thank you for the attention to this matter. - USAA
@ae "Pathetic and untrue"? Really?
Just scroll through the comments in this thread - and plenty of others on this forum. There's no shortage of hateful remarks. The evidence is right in front of you. Smell the coffee, bro.
It's not overt in your face racism, but the covert subtle type with microagressions.
Then it's not racism. Racism is the hatred of or belief that certain races are inferior. People are so desperate to be a victim that they'll take compliments as offensive. Someone I know (different company) got in trouble for complimenting his coworker for how well-spoken he was after a presentation. Other dude took that to mean "You're so well spoken for someone of your race," even though that wasn't said, implied, or intended. Race had nothing to do with the compliment; the guy was literally complimenting his coworker for his oratory skills and got in trouble for it because the other person put words in his mouth and inferred something that didn't actually exist.
The rest of your post is just made up. You have zero data to back up the claim that minorities or non-Christians are the first ones to be laid off. Literally zero. You made that up, plain and simple.
People with your mindset are the ones who need to be let go, because that mindset is cancerous to any group of people you work with. You make people walk on eggshells lest they be reported to HR for so-called microaggressions. You walk around with a chip on your shoulder looking for anything that could be twisted as offensive so you can get some oppression points and cry victim.
What ever happened to "assume positive intent"?
@j8 I remember a Senior DPO in Technology complaining, "Why is Diwali being celebrated?" That pretty much says it all.
The reality is that diversity initiatives exist across corporate America - they're not something unique to USAA.
Ironically, this forum is undoing everything USAA tries to project on LinkedIn about being a great place to work in IT. The contrast between the company's public image and some of the attitudes expressed here is pretty striking. LOL
@j8 If you look at the posts on this forum, it seems like what some people really dislike about USAA is its diversity. Some of it comes across as resentment toward immigrants who come here legally, work hard, build successful careers, buy homes, and send their children to good schools.
And here's another point: many immigrants who return to their home countries leave behind Social Security and Medicare taxes they've paid into for years, even though many never collect those benefits. That money stays in the system and helps fund benefits for everyone else. I hope you're okay with accepting those contributions. ;)
The OP's take is absolutely BS. USAA is lots of things, but non-inclusive is not one of them. Just walk up and down those hallways in San Antonio and the diversity you'd see is unlike most places in corporate America.
@hm Dude, Americans seem to like White European immigrants. Or do you not count immigrants who are people of color as Americans?
And what about Native Americans, whose lands were taken by settlers after they were ki-led and displaced? At least people who come on visas do so legally and pay to buy the land they live on.
By the way, both the President and the Vice President are married to immigrants. The President couldn't even keep his first two American wives - maybe they weren't doing a good job?
The immune response of the natural population is kicking in
Turns out people don’t like being flooded with H1B which drives up housing and drives down labor costs
They also don’t like seeing Rakesh become a manager and start only hiring other Indians - this is an observable thing across every tech company in the US.
Any engineer at USAA can also tell you that maybe 1 in 3 or 4 H1Bs are worth anything and the others are just glomming on and being carried
Americans have been insanely tolerant of this kind of thing in a way that desis would NEVER be - just look at how they treat Bangladeshis
And your cudgel or “that’s rayciss” isn’t going to work much longer
@a6 So, are you saying the "incompetent" people were hired by another group of incompetent people?
A lot of people who were hired on H-1B visas were originally converted from their 3P (third-party) roles. Don't be jealous, dude. I don't believe many of them were let go because of performance. In many cases, teams simply didn't have enough meaningful work to show, and managers couldn't justify extending certain contracts or visas.
But here's the thing: you're not getting their jobs. If those employees were let go, many of those roles are not being backfilled. In the technology department, not a single role was backfilled.
So maybe the conversation should be about actual business decisions and workforce planning, not blaming people's nationality or immigration status.
@bn I don't completely disagree with you, but I don't think the racist response to the original post is justified. It just so happens that the people we work with are genuinely good people. I've had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented colleagues, and that's why it's disappointing to come here and read comments like this.
What concerns me most is that this kind of thinking suggests there may be people with racist views lurking within the company, and I find that far more troubling.
@ff Really? So when the new CIO brought in one of his own people, many seemed perfectly okay with it. I guess that's because he happened to be of a very specific color. Come on, man.
Racism is very much reflected in your response. It's not their fault that they just happen to be smarter than you.
I work in a department where many major projects are led by people from a certain country. Meanwhile, I've seen people get promoted not because of talent, but because of how close they are to their managers. Favoritism isn't new in corporate America, but the gall to have this company proudly display its core values across the hallways as if it's above everyone else is appalling.
At one of USAA's D&A sessions, Dan's consultant, Mr. Mee, said the company should focus on developing in-house talent instead of relying on third parties. Ironically, the employees applauded the message while seemingly forgetting that the consultant delivering it was himself a third-party (3P) contractor. That was a real "LOL" moment. Even more ironic is that USAA has had to bring in many new leaders because some of the existing ones were promoted based on proximity to management rather than competence.
Some people simply cannot accept the fact that immigrants from all over the world are outperforming them. Instead of recognizing talent and hard work, they resort to racist remarks. Judge people by the quality of their work, not by the country they come from.
Hiring only the race of yours is true example of racism.
@OP this is going how you thought it would. Put it on yOuR-vOiCe tomorrow so we know who to point and laugh at.
USAA and its leaders let a lot of poor behaviors slide, but racism isn’t one of them. The OP’s post is absolutely not true.
So not true, speaking as a minority. No workplace is perfect, but posts like this are just perpetuating lies.
This is a pathetic post and completely untrue.
lol ridiculous It's about bad performance and people hired who weren't qualified for the job they received. Just because IT has a preponderance of Indo/Pacific people has nothing to do with "racism" and more about performance and pay. Grow up and perform and worry about your performance not your skin color.