I read post on this site often about what a manager can and cannot do when it comes to hiring, firing, RIF, salary, bonus and remote work. Here is my direct experience in no particular order of importance. I retired over a year ago and am receiving my pension, so can freely write this. I know some things have changed in the past couple years, since my retirement but most of this was true in the early 2000's when I started at hBBT and is will be true forever at Truist.
1- Managers have the final say on who is hired. However, I never hired any FTE that the people that I manage did not approve of first. i.e. The candidate had to pass the team's interviews and I would have the go-ahead from my team before any offer was made.
2- If you don't get all the salary you can get upon initial hire, chances are you will never get to a salary of a newer hire. i.e. 99% of all new hires are paid more salary than experienced FTE, given the same pay grade. see next item...
3- It is nearly impossible to get more than a 10% salary increase and stay within the same paygrade. To get a real salary increase you have to get paygrade promotion and then the salary increase is capped at 20% increase (promotion) unless we managers can get a Level 3 (L3) (this was CTO level approval in my mgmt chain) to approve...which is almost impossible. If the original salary is so low that the paygrade promotion forces the new salary to be more than 20% then L3 has no say so; they have to approve. Prior to my retirement I got overy half of my FTEs a paygrade promotion and/or up to a 30% salary increase with the smallest salary increase 12%. I had 2 of the FTEs get a two paygrade promotion...from 109 to 111. Hence, it can be done, but most managers are spineless and will not even put for the effort to do so. It took me over 12 months of asking, begging, paperwork, more paperwork, arm twisting, etc.
4- AIP, yearly bonus, are somewhat decided by direct managers. We were given a bucket of money and would allocate a certain percentage or amount to each FTE that was AIP elegible. The higher the paygrade to more amount of bonus was allowed. The higher the performance rating the more bonus amount was allowed.
5- AIP allocation could be and was overwritten by the CTO at his whim. You may have heard stories from a couple years ago of the current CTO stating "It's my money and I will do with it what I want". Yep! it is true. I was there when he said it. i.e the CTO would go in at the last minute and take money from our buckets and give to his teacher's pet people with no regard for we manager. We had NO say so as direct managers. I fought that battle with a previous CTO (not the current CTO), anyone remember Eduardo J?, and HR and lost.
6- HR is not your friend. They tow the company line and will, virtually, stab you in the back while giving you a reach around. Never trust anyone from HR with anything. SERIOUSLY!
7- RIFs are 90% pre-determined. Someone/some group above a line manager is making the decision on who gets RIFed. It doesn't matter your performance, your time in service, or your salary...if someone wants you gone, you will be gone and there is little a line manager can do about it. You are nothing more than a line on a spreadsheet when it comes to RIFs. More on the next item.
8- Line managers do have some say on RIFs...if they put up a fight. In a round of RIFs in 2024, I was given a list that ~45% of my FTEs RIFed, roughly 11 of 25 people. I fought that tooth and nail and got the number whittled down to 5 that were RIFed. I was told by HR, "Your group will have some RIFs. You are not exempt". I picked those 5 names because I knew they could get a better job elsewhere and quickly. It was still a VERY hard decision for me to make. Of those 5, three ended up on a contract doing the same job for more salary, 1 was rehired 6 months later, and the last one moved on to a new company.
9- Take your vacation...every day of it each year. There is nothing that you are doing that can't get done by someone else. You are not the glue holding Truist together. Take your sick days also. Use it or lose it. They are your sick days and there isn't a darn thing your manager or HR can do to keep you from taking your given sick days. If you have a real good manger, be honest with him/her on sick days. Tell them that you need a couple days of sick time as a break from Truist. Good managers will understand. POS mangers will hold it against you and question you and demand a doctor note for every 5 minutes you are away.
10- Lastly, If you have a good manager, you know it. They will do what is right for you...not for them. They will fight for you and your livelyhood at Truist. Most managers are self-serving douch bags that only care about CYA and using you as a stepping stone.
P.S...DO NOT let Truist run your life. It is only a job. Your family, your physical and mental health, your life are more important.