I was overloaded for months and now I'm burnt out. The more I worked, the more was added to my plate. I'm exhausted but I'm still hesitating to quit, considering that the competing companies too squeeze employees as much as they can. What was your breaking point to leave?
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I remember my breaking point very well. I would get a sickening feeling every time I walked through TIAA’s front door.
One day, I pulled into the lot and just felt nauseous. I knew it was because I would be walking through the door soon. I decided that minute would be my last day. I could care less if I was vested or not.
True story…
I took an hour and a half lunch that day and talked to some recruiters. Came back to my cube when I wanted. Typed up my resignation notice and hit send. Within seconds my boss comes over and said to grab my things… I responded things??? Haven’t you noticed, I don’t keep even so much as a pen at my desk??? Boss looks at me sideways.
I then said” have you looked at your metrics lately??? I’m the one who held up your team!!Guess you can kiss that bonus of yours goodbye!!! “Your “ bonus is walking out the door today!!”
Boss says to me” This place does suck, I’ve been thinking of quitting myself”… I said “ don’t!!!if I were you, I’d stay right here.
He responds, why???
I said because I WONT be here..and you never know who will be YOUR NEW manager at another company!!! It MIGHT be me.. and I will surely remember everything you said, did, didn’t do… so stay right here!!!
It is a GLORIOUS and very true story!!
I just remember after NYT we never heard from a director or RVP on any type of call or retreat again other than to open a call where they could talk about their family as if anyone cared. Management made the advisors do their jobs and then manage a book of 1000+ clients on top of it with an insane annual sales goal and then claim that the culture surveys said that the advisors were asking for this (would have loved to read those surveys by the way) They spent most of their days sitting in meetings congratulating themselves on fancy titles they didn't earn and fleecing the company with insane compensation. This is TIAA's Achilles heel to this day - you have 1 person asking for money and 80 people counting it.......and then wonder why they can't support an online bank with no overhead?
Ha! This is a good thread. “Chris” had a three year time out. I knew he was full of cr-p when he said he was “retiring”. I think he got canned over the regulators sanctions on all the rollovers into PA. Not coincidentally, he resurfaced at the same exact time TIAA settled, so I’ll bet the SEC gave him the time out. Now he works for that shop where all the advisors wear polyester suits and blue faux alligator Stacy Adam’s shoes. Wicked classy. What Douglas C. Niedermeyer that dude was.
Agreed. Anyone who was a manager in IAS between 2012 and 2018 should be terminated. They knew. They all knew. The code of ethics for managers required them to say something. Something besides “Yes, Chris. Whatever you say, Chris. Good news, Chris We’ fired another 40 advisors last quarter, Chris. Their bonus will go into the General bonus pool for US, Chris!” They were Gutless cowards with no integrity. The ones still there should be shunned and pelted with garbage.
Yes I should not have presumed those that were being put on PIPs did not have the ability to achieve results. This was certainly a rigged game and those that sucked up got a lot of opportunities handed to them. I am still shocked how many of the old management of wealth have survived since the many reorgs after VSP - many of the individuals that represented the managed money at all costs culture soon went into CYA mode and slithered their way into different management roles. Truly despicable people that the new management should eradicate but won't. TIAA seems doomed to pay some more SEC fines in the near future...... It's funny how quickly history can repeat itself. I think Wells Fargo did a better job at cleaning house after they got their hands caught in the cookie jar to achieve results. Maybe because TIAA "serves those who serve others" it doesn't count.......great to see they bought another "Most Ethical Company award" for themselves recently........ Whatever
I left after I found out I was being compared to people who were getting all of their accounts assigned to them while the rest of us had to work like slaves just to do book a fraction of the new accounts the favored advisors were getting handed to them. Their bonuses were big while the rest of us worried every month that we’d be put on a PiP, which everyone knew meant you’d be gone soon or your life would be permanently miserable. The managers didn’t actually believe in letting advisors compete on an even playing field to maximize revenue. They believed that THEY determined who was a good advisor and who wasn’t. In my office, a lot of us laughed when I saw the news of investigations by the SEC and NY attorney general. We knew that if the investigation was for real, they’d find out that TIAA was totally misleading their individual participants out of their University plans and into a cookie cutter platform of mediocre funds. They abused their clients trust and they abused hundreds of advisors by forcing them to be unethical and mislead clients into that inferior Portfolio Advisor product. Many advisors got pushed out, many advisors sucked up and collected their blood money, but many truly honest and talented advisors simply left in disgust, with their integrity still intact. It was difficult to reestablish my career after I left, but it was the best decision I ever made for my health and my personal values on how to treat others.
I left during VSP as well. I was going on 2-3 years of not knowing how I was going to leave but knowing I needed to. It was the worst corporate culture I have ever seen or been a part of. Least talented management I have ever worked for. All sychophants, no one wanted to fix the front line issues but just suck up to the boss above them and take credit for the work of some great front line workers. The front line if too valuable was frozen in place and not allowed to be promoted into the management structure or elsewhere - the only option was to leave which is likely why the VSP was so "successful". If you were "poor" at your job (couldn't sell) you were coached out, fired, or you quit out of exhaustion. The people firing you couldn't sell nor had the privledge of trying to do your job - it was like this in every region. Here is the bottom line though. I had a pit in my stomach every day for almost three years that just got bigger and bigger. I knew the place was a dumpster fire and I was too frozen by fear to do anything. Every annual bonus I got was anticlimactic - it was more of a relief than a victory and then the hamster wheel started again. I advise you to listen to what your gut is telling you - its not going to get better. Take the small steps to transition away now.......your life will be so much better. Don't give up your power - to the inepitude in a management structure that does not care about you and never will.
Left during the last VSP. Tough walking away from the money, but got my soul back, got my health back and got my happiness back. Started my own business and now 2 years in, am making what I was at TIAA, working less for pre fulfillment. No regrets - you won’t have them either once you leave. Hard to realize how damaging that place is until you are gone.
I was "exited" for not getting vaccinated, and I decided to finally start my own company, and havent looked back since then. It hasnt been the easiest transition, but im finally at a point where my success is matched by my efforts and I dont have to appease corporate check boxes to get ahead.
My mental health took a toll. I kept telling my therapist that I couldn’t do anything right and digging to find out where that came from, work. All that i had endured over the years conditioned me to believe i was worthless. I couldn’t get a promotion, things i would say were thrown in my face by people that should have never known the information so it was clear my director was gossiping behind my back about why i would never be promoted. I was tired, working 60-70 hours a week and never getting ahead. There is life after tiaa. Do yourself a favor, just start looking & I promise you will be surprised how quickly you can find something else. Word is they are trying to cut the low hanging fruit to reduce headcount and bonus payouts. Get ahead of them & remember it is a game of chess
It's just a ploy to get you to quit so TIAA will not have to lay you off and pay severance. If they valued you as an employee, they would not be doing that to you.
My breaking point was I had no more self-respect left - like none. I was too afraid to say anything and that is exactly what the management structure wanted. You will certainly face the unknown if you leave but I can tell you the other side is so much brighter and sunnier. I don't regret leaving at all - start down the road of living a better life.....no amount of money and security is worth the exhaustion you feel.