Low morale at Freddie is palpable right now and has been for the past few months. There is a lot of pressure and anxiety from senior management over issues like mandatory return to office. Many hard working, tenured co-workers are leaving due to this and from losing flexibility.
Mangers and Directors are left to deal with these issues while losing top talent in the process.
What is the goal? The CEO and senior management is not doing anything to make Freddie a place people want to work or even stay. Fannie Mae still has no plans to go back to the office as do many companies in the area, so why is the CEO trying to be a trailblazer? Senior leadership had a chance to actually change things for the better for workers and fumbled the bag. This was the perfect opportunity to actually turn things around for Freddie. Instead, top talent is leaving and everyone else left dealing with this is feeling terrible. Workers were dragged with a string by senior management for over a year with looming back to office guidelines which was felt heavily.
Clearly flexibility and feedback from workers isn't a priority at Freddie. If you want to feel like cattle forced back to work in your pin which is a terrible open office, or just want to be another number, this place is for you. This is very sad to say because I have enjoyed working here for many years. As someone who went through the great financial crisis with the firm, the current morale around the company feels pretty similar, which is a great feat considering we didn't blow up.
I cannot recommend anyone to work here at this time.