TIAA Employee Reviews about "senior management"

Pros

- many work from home office - understand family/ work balance -

Cons

- senior management doesn't control "swirl" well - a little less progressive than other financial services firms

Pros

Local office has a team approach and I’ve built friendships with long standing colleagues

Cons

Over the past two years I’ve seen more changes at TIAA then in recent memory but not for the better. There is a lot of new senior management at TIAA and they so far have done nothing to garner the trust of the employees. They got rid of the alternative workplace and instead of just admitting that it was a process to lay-off employee they mask it based on collaboration. The firm decide no longer to be in the... insurance business but yet the firms name is Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. The firm will offer third party insurance options, which we always speak about how “we are different” but now we are acting more like other asset management and advisory institutions. There has been no real vision laid out but everyone knows more changes are coming and more potential layoffs, which goes to my next point. The firm is looking to cut cost but yet it says we are doing well, well enough for The CEO compensation to be north of $20M so why all the cost cutting measures. TIAA had to change to be competitive and no one debates that but the firm is now another Wall St institution and the specialness of the firm is no longer.

Advice to Management

This section is so irrelevant and worthless as no senior management is reading reviews on Glassdoor

Pros

Great benefits. Very nice campus.

Cons

Senior management is no longer trustworthy, no longer operating within our 100-year-old values, and no longer different in any material way from other Wall St. firms. These guys just announced new smart windows in the NY City office the same day they admitted more job cuts were coming. They said ending work from home was not a workforce reduction strategy but now have admitted most of those people will not be... replaced. AND, by the way, there is a hiring freeze in place. This happens at TIAA about every 18 months now. So if you want a job where you can virtually NEVER stop worrying about being laid-off, TIAA is the place to be. In addition, the criteria for promotions is radically subjective. No rhyme or reason involved.

Advice to Management

Stop lying to the employees. And return to our values. Try transparency.

Pros

Pay is very good and retirement plan is superb. Current CEO is a very decent guy.

Cons

Senior management no longer cares about employees. The end of work from home (and the loss of hundreds of good employees along with the horrible treatment of hundreds of others), the new open seating for all (though I’m betting senior management will keep their big offices behind locked doors with a security guard blocking access), the end of vacation days (“open vacation” just means less vacation), no raises for... anyone earning over $150k (though according to public filings the big honchos all have received huge increases); and on it goes. I’ve been here since last century and this is as bad as it’s ever been - even worse than “black Monday” when 500+ people were all walked out the door with 15 minutes to clean out their desks.

Advice to Management

Listen to your employees. Not only do many of them know more than you, they care more than you. I know that sounds crazy but think logically. Five years after you retire how much of your financial life will be tied to the future of TIAA? Very little because most of your money has already been paid out. But for us old timers the vast majority of our future is tied to the success of TIAA. So please listen. Sadly... you’re not.

Pros

Amazing retirement plan, ( in addition to 401K), worth the 3 year vesting. Pay was solid as well. Also, paid training. This is a good place to learn and grow if you get on a team / product where the silo matches exactly what you want to do, so think "product Focused" I was here a while and grew quite a bit professionally during that time. My immediate team and Manager(s) were great. TIAA is very, very siloed, so... you can view that as a good or bad thing; I made it work in some ways and became an expert in my product set. The people I worked with in my immediate team and in the my office were really great, fun, smart people who cared about the mission. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work here - so shout out to those who hired me!

Cons

Silos. Senior Management. My last 16 months there, it was hard to get experience with other products that interested me and grow my career outside of my immediate team, ultimately leading to the reason I left. Senior Management lives in their own bubble and are completely disconnected from the rank-and-file;. There is some "last century" style culture being pressed from the top down, like ' you need to... be at the office at a desk to be productive', so work at home program was not flexible unless you were hired on that way or had a doctors note - so. . .not what I would call a forward thinking / progressive environment.

Advice to Management

When you hire for your Senior Executive team, don't just look at paper stats, like MBA from x prestigious school, positions held at other "marquee worthy" firms, but hire people with a high EMOTIONAL intelligence that know how to truly relate with others, know how to relate to teams, people - Over-all, I feel Roger has done a good job growing the company.

Pros

Co-workers are creative and have become good at doing “more with less”.

Cons

Senior management now cares more about growing the company than serving clients. They want to manage assets but are farming out investing to newly acquired subsidiaries and Nuveen.

Advice to Management

Across the board budget cuts are forcing managers to select good performers for redundancy. Team members are given no notice on departures so there is not proper handoff on work. Remaining team has to pick up even more. Once or twice okay, but the semi-annual purge is killing morale.

Pros

Good people, work from home culture, congeal work environment, diversity is important

Cons

Conflicting Senior Management agendas, under staffed, inefficient internal processes

Advice to Management

Walk the talk as it relates to carrying for your employees

Pros

Used to be a great department/place to work before the reorg of 11/2013. Still some great people, and the building is nice.

Cons

Everything went downhill quickly after reorg of 11/2013. Senior management tries to micromanage everything instead of moving forward. They will find out what you want for your career and go out of their way to close that door for you to make you feel like you aren't important. I thought I was the only one this kept happening to until I talked to others. It's such a weird and ridiculous tactic. They will also find... ways to not pay for exams and exam materials!!!!

Advice to Management

Get a new chief actuary. Take a look into potential ethics violations as there is a movement to take the anonymity out of anonymous surveys by specifically following up with individuals on their responses.