It's so incredibly wonderful to have finally exited this dumpster fire of a once great company. The air is fresher, the birds are singing, the flowers smell sweeter. The level of TIAA senior management incompetence, hypocrisy and corruptibility is matched only by that of our nation's current White House administration. No more ridiculous 3 day in office pseudo collaboration. No more glowing annual reviews and high praise that at bonus time still never translate to anything higher than a middle of the pack rating. No more televised circus side shows featuring the queen bee and her inner circle of high paid enablers (Are You Ready to Rock Charlotte!?). Let's see now how everything plays out as I try to get my retirement funds out of the company. There's a lot of great people that I'll truly miss. And no small amount of individuals that I most definitely will not.
18 replies (most recent on top)
@OP "I try to get my retirement funds out of the company"
This is objectively ridiculous. You don't need to try. If your retirement contributions are vested or whatever is vested, you can easily roll it over to any external IRA plan - at Vanguard or Fidelity or any other such company. How can someone who works in financial services be so ignorant about this basic concept? The idea that you need to "fight" to get your own retirement funds is just silly.
Instead would be better for you to discuss and plan your next career moving and share that with this forum, so everyone can learn something useful.
@151 In 2019 all remote work arrangements were ended and a large number of employees chose to take severance rather than be in the office five days a week. The current expectation of three days is much more accommodating. Those who can't handle three should try to find a fully remote job elsewhere.
@143 I hear you but at the same time before Covid when we were doing 5 days in office - we were not tracked like school children for attendance daily averages (or hourly) in office vs working from home.
Managers and executive leadership was more accommodating pre covid… the 2022 return to office was a mess and now is ridiculous tracking, frustrating associates and impacting “work life balance”.
Also before Covid at this company we had more in person meetings and far less WebEx/Zoom calls.
Hopefully you can be more like Jesus in your Pseudonym and empathize how others may feel.
@143 I agree with you. But, keep in mind 6 years ago, 10% of the company took the package. There has also been a lot of turnover since then, with Gen Z filling most of the vacancies. There are likely many in that generation that have never known a 40 hour, 5 day work week in the office; so reminding them of pre-Covid is likely to fall on deaf ears.
@j7 "There are many forward-thinking companies in our industry that only hire remote workers. "
Is this so hard for you to get your a** to the office? What is so amazing about sitting alone at home all the time? Being in the office for 3 days is good for your mental state and your career. I don't get this weird love for staying at home when you are not an 85 year old senior. We used to work 5 days in the office before Covid and that was standard.
It is always good to be free as long as you have something better lined up
Otherwise, this is just another way to whine and vent.
@OP
Congratulations! Wishing you all the success and freedom away from the “Tesla Truck” of a company that is here!
Been out of there for a few months now and the air is definitely sweeter! There are many forward-thinking companies in our industry that only hire remote workers. They want the best in the business. As I continue to read here about the nanny state in-office tracking, it sounds like toddlers in a daycare. TIAA is a dinosaur. Welcome to the other side.
Been gone from TIAA for 12 years now and my career trajectory and happiness level greatly improved after leaving.
Happy for you @op
I’m refreshing my resume as we speak. Can’t take much more and never thought I’d say that about a decade ago. Was actually fun coming here and working with my long time colleagues. Some were like family, and to see many of them tossed out like trash and to see others a shell of their former selves really takes it toll. TIAA is in a sad state and I don’t see how it rebounds with letting go of all the good talent.
Best of luck to you
@OP "a once great company". When was it great?
i took severance in January and luckily was in a position to retire early versus having to find a new job. Talk about freedom. I feel so light and stress free and even after working at TIAA for almost 3 decades, i rarely think of my time there other than the great friends i made. RHSP is a great plan as it pays for my health premiums and it was literally a one page form to activate the plan. They send you a debit card you can use for any medical expenses and it’s as easy as making a purchase on Amazon. The one thing to know is that before you use the debit card, you must transfer funds into the money market account because it is the only fund that can be drawn out of so if you have your RHSP funds invested in other funds, then move them over to Money market before using your debit card to get reimbursed. Other than that, it’s been a wonderful benefit.
@cf - the RHSP is actually a good plan. The platform for reimbursement is awful. I have spent hours on the telephone getting clarification on what additional docs are needed, only to find out the reviewer made an error. Just additional hoops to jump. FYI, I posted the comment below.
Can somebody give me insight to why the RHSP is bad?
@ac your lack of knowledge blows me away. How long did you work here? Either not very long or you never paid attention to much including the company retirement plan rules. Your entire 401k is fully cashable at retirement including any money in TIAA fixed annuity. You’re happy you didn’t have money there? In retirement I love having money in a fully cashable account that is giving me over 4% interest.
There are lots of problems here, but TIAA in the 401k is not one of them. It’s about the best thing we’ve got. Too bad you never bothered learning that.
I finally got out of the dumpster too! So thankful for the Denver closure.
Had my next gig lined up immediately with a nice raise and the severance package in my pocket.
It’s hard to believe how bad Thasunda is at that job.
Can’t wait to get my retirement assets out
@a7 idk about the @OP but I left… rather was happily set free… in December due to Denver closure.
My 401k was a super easy transfer to my new company because I didn’t have any CREF or even worse - TIAA Traditional in it. Also didn’t contribute one red cent to RHSP which is an almost a bigger scam than Traditional locking you in.
Only thing that is stuck here is my RA - which is the only reason I pray for my former coworkers and even more so the inept management to keep TIAA a float until I am old enough to get it.
Be ready to jump through multiple hoops to have your 401K transferred! If you have RHSP, the hoops are higher to jump for the cobra reimbursement.