I was laid off from TIAA in New York City a long time ago. It seems ever since they relocated major parts of their Operations, first to Denver, CO and then to Charlotte, NC with major presence in Dallas, TX, they've been laying off people on a regular basis since 1996. It was unheard of to lay off people prior to that. They've been in business since 1917. To me, it's indicative of the poor quality of leadership.
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@1x6+1jjtqbsr2 It’s great you had the opportunity trelocwte to Denver or Charlotte and could decline both and remain employed. Su-ks you got canned eventually but probably because you didn’t move to Charlotte though many NY’ers that moved to Charlotte (or Denver) back in the day were let go within weeks/months of relocating too which is a fear others have about relocating to Frisco now.
Unfortunately for over a thousand associates in Den/BFD/Jax, that choice is not possible. It’s move or you’re gone (if they are not straight out eliminating your role and not offering Relo.).
It’s one thing to offer relocation to more equally distribute the work force across the country. But an whole other thing to dump a ton of folks because you can’t find a cheaper place to rent and don’t want to give up the name on the building until you’re all out of it and are stuck in a bind trying to get tax breaks for your expensive waste of money of a new building in TX.
This will be my last comment on the subject. I worked in the Individual Counseling Center, which, by all accounts was a large call center counseling participants on ALL the insurance products. So it was not a small operation. Prior to my layoff, which again was in 2002, there were layoffs; relocations, downsizing and outright elimination of positions. I was employed for almost 20 years. I had the opportunity to go to Denver, in 1997 and Charlotte in 2002, but declined both. I'm telling you what I saw and know.
The problems at TIAA started in the mid 90s when they lost their non-tax status (thank you very much Tom Delay). And it's true that the first mass layoffs started in September 2003 (500 total - I saw the payroll numbers in the budget & finance dept) so if you were laid off before then it was either a very small dept or you were singled out because you broke a rule. Yes... TIAA did fire people for breaking rules in the 80s & 90s.
The whole Decisions 2003 initiative was started by Herb Allison because TIAA-CREF needed to get up to date with their record keeping business. The conversion to Omni started in 2004 and finished some time in 2008. That was supposed to bring TIAA to the 21st century in the record keeping business.
But true to form, TIAA never really caught up with technology. They have always been behind the 8-ball and always will. And even if things got better under Roger (I liked him ALOT) TIAA never got to the level of their peers.
For senior leadership today it's all about meeting their metrics, their numbers. Just look at the CEO: An $800k increase from $18.5 million salary because a # regarding plans was met. And the rest of us got a ZERO increase. Welcome to corporate America. And now the 1500 moved to Accenture and the move from Denver to Frisco, TX. The 1500 moved to Accenture could've been layoffs with no employment at Accenture. But the closing of the Denver office is really messed up. I really feel bad for those employees. Frisco, TX? Please. I'd rather die than move there.
Interesting to note, Affirmative Action, which doesn't exist anymore and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion are primarily used by not people of color, but White Women. So please, comments about DEI has no relevance to this conversation. TIAA, just like a lot of old, growth companies were under pressure from the increasing competition along with the loss of their non-profit status.
This is also what you get when you care more about the color of your leaders than the qualifications of your leaders. TIAA ran the business on DEI and not actual results for the past two decades and is now paying the price. Same thing happening on the university campuses it “serves”.
While the current leadership is abysmal, blame for this mess goes back a lot further. For the first 100 years of its existence, TIAA was run like a university where everyone had tenure and the traditonal product was its endowment. Eventually it rotted from the inside out and became more about paying stupid level salary and bonuses to management- being a director was basically a ticket to lifetime employment and a seven figure retirement. The current leadership is simply the latest (and perhaps the last) of the grifters. All the old timers complaining need to have an honest look in the mirror. If you want this firm to survive, you’d better hope more layoffs come because it’s the only way it stays afloat long enough to turn around.
I was laid off in December, 2002. There were layoffs prior that was not made public. While Forbes maybe saying September, 2003. That is not true whatsoever.
"they've been laying off people on a regular basis since 1996."---Company had their first layoffs in September, 2003. "On Sept. 22 (2003), it let go 8% of its workforce in its first layoffs ever"--Bloomberg
Yep. Curious to know which companies have with good leadership and no layoffs.
If the folks hired in the 80s and 90s are popping up here, they have to face the facts that the company had no performance standards back then sionce they had no competition. There's a reason why when outside CEOs finally came in 20 years ago, there was a lot of cutting. The talent was overall poor and prior poor management never bothered to Fire anyone.
It was like working for the federal government. Hard to call that good leadership.
Okay…