For those who are former BBTers I’m interested in knowing how you’re doing. I’ve been gone over 6 months and at first it was difficult to acclimate myself to a new environment, new colleagues and work culture. I keep expecting the hammer to drop with announcements of RIFs and have to remind myself it’s just the residual fear from having to worry so much after the merger occurred.
6 replies (most recent on top)
Take the survey results with a grain of salt, they are useless and nobody really cares. Ohh they could use them to pressure a low level or mid level manager into getting out. Put them on an action plan to try and get them out, who cares. The sad part here is the managers remaining from senior leadership on down have been neutralized if they aren’t part of the Suntrust gang. I see it daily in our BU. The Suntrust leadership makes whatever decision they want with no regard to their HBBT counterparts. Who goes, who stays, whose hired. If confronted they deny or just flat out lie (normal). This is an incredible display of arrogance to a degree not seen before. They’ve won for now until the reckoning comes by late 2022. Then all bets are off. Enough pressure will be brought on the BOD by then they’ll be forced to take action.
Speaking of the engagement survey, can anyone even imagine how much worse the results would have been if “teammates” felt their responses were 100% confidential? I haven’t spoken to ONE person in the last 18 months who didn’t think this place was a horrible place to work. If everyone at Truist really felt confident this survey was anonymous (and wasn’t terrified for their job), I have a strong suspicion our level of engagement would set records in the banking industry…for utter and complete disengagement. Which, by the way, is still a lot more than our “management” team deserves.
HBBT here. I am planning on leaving. Not only have I never been a cool aid drinker (mind you that is a horrible analogy as they all died) I am tired of their politics being forced on us. Also they have teammates who are exhausted because they don’t replace when people leave so more is thrown at those left. They make it so those who once cared about doing a good job don’t because the workload makes it impossible. The branch staffing makes absolutely no sense. The training is so bad when someone gets hired it is a month before they even start training. Morale amongst the teammates is at it lowest. Did anyone notice the email about the engagement survey said 73% responded, but they never said what the results were except there is work we have to do. In the past they always touted the engagement percentage. Not this year.
Having worked a number of years for BB&T, I have two regrets. First, not applying sooner, so I could work longer under John Allison's leadership. We loved our jobs, worked hard, accomplished much, and had fun helping our clients back then. I stayed about four years after Mr. Allison retired - my second regret. My advice to everyone reading this post is to find and do what you love. Please don't waste your time working for a person or organization that makes you miserable!
I left and while there are the typical corporate challenges in my new job I don’t have the same feeling that our management is going out of their way to make everyone miserable. In fact at my new job they are very concerned about employee burnout and turnover that they are making sure everyone takes half days on Fridays, offering retention bonuses for people doing the actual work (not clueless executive managers), and just a real sense of teamwork. Do we have office politics? Sure. But I don’t feel the constant threat of layoffs every week or have to do deal with a self righteous CEO who thinks a few seeds of hope can just paper over all the misery he has caused.
HBBT person here. I left because I was unable to work for what I came to see as a morally bankrupt management team. I personally don’t believe they even like their people. I would literally go home, look in the mirror, and ask myself - what does it say about ME to support an executive team that is this callous to their own employees?
Anyway, I now work for a regional financial institution and it is a breath of fresh air. There are always irritants and my new bank is no different, but we are a team (not siloed, political, paranoid combatants). In fact, I very much like the people I work with now. Management is engaged, much like at old BB&T, except our CEO doesn’t secretly wish to be Oprah Winfrey or Dr.Phil - he sticks to managing the bank. One more thing, PLEASE do NOT let anyone tell you that Truist Management (SunTrust) is the norm, it is absolutely not!! To the contrary, there are a lot of places out there even better than pre-merger BB&T, and I considered that a good place to work.