It's becoming Schwab green verses Schwab blue. Entire groups are being moved into TDA management without any communication. Directors are putting of walls. Lots of unknowns. Rumors. Again, no communication. Lots of lying. Everyone on the Schwab side seems to be interviewing for other positions into other groups or planning on leaving. I never thought I would see Schwab turning into this.
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Dumpster fire. Management doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. The blue management do not communicate. They do not try to engage the green talent that they have. John Ryan is so full of himself he doesn’t understand who he’s got working for him doesn’t care to learn the names of the people he has working for him and treats the green associates like they are stepchildren. Always been a stepchild but this is the worst that I’ve ever been treated or seen anyone been treated. I understand Schwab bought TD Ameritrade but do not make promises if you’re going to keep them. Myself and the rest of my team would just rather you give us a severance and send us our way. You treat us as though we are meeting list and have no value. You send your minions in take over not ask us our opinion and destroy what we have spent years building.
spot assessment re: cutlure. I'd also offer a different vector....smart, empowered vs d-mb, insecure. arrogant blue doesn't know what good looks like and didn't care to have an open mind here.
Any people on the Schwab blue side who think the level of technology oversight & governance is acceptable or even normal for that matter is wrong. There's a ton of Schwab green folks who have come from Citi, JPMC, Goldman. And they can tell you that NO BANK OPERATES TECHNOLOGY OVERSIGHT LIKE THIS. It's like having 5 traffic cops for every 2 licensed drivers. No wonder nothing gets done.
I left for a signing bonus elsewhere. I mentioned my RSUs and asked my new company if there was something they could do for me. They covered 100% of their current value with a higher signing bonus. This market is great for employees, it’s not great for Schwab.
You have to take into account total pay, specifically RSU and ESOP awards. Most of the high performers that are leaving, also have received yearly rewards that can range from $10K to $25K of RSU/ESOPs. These vest over four years, every year. So they have a payout of around $25K vesting this year alone. Take into account SCHW has is has hit $78, that's a big payday that goes well over $25K when they sell their RSUs and exercise their ESOPs. This is on top of the yearly bonus payout in March (minus either $3K or $6K depending on your grade), which can be $30 to $40K. That's a chunk of change you want to take with you. And you can still leave for an excellent package + signon bonus/stock offering elsewhere.
Exactly, I don't see why waiting around for 5 months (and some have been posting since June that they want to wait), makes much sense. You may be more secure, get a sign on bonus or just be happier.
Maybe if we're talking about a $50k payout in Mar, it may be worth it, but then you can do probably negotiate something on the other side anyway.
You don't have to wait for a bonus in March because many higher paid positions at other companies are offering some lavish sign-on bonuses. My peer just left Schwab and took a position with a $20,000 1st paycheck bonus and 80,000 in stock over 36 months just for coming on board. That does not even consider a 20% increase in pay, full time remote, and no Vax for remote users. A person would have to be crazy to pass that up. They could cut you loose from Schwab today.
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Burn STS dumpster, burn.
“I’m out after bonuses” - I think that’s the only thing that’ll keep some folks around this busy season. Once March 15 has arrived, that ball and chain is gone and it’ll be one less impediment for more attrition. While the Schwab Green side will have received 37.5% of their bonus by November, for Blue it’s an all or nothing proposition to leave early.
The retention bonuses that Schwab would have to pay are not likely going to work at this point. Will be interesting to see what the raises this fall are.
@xvv+1ddxljN1
Agree completely. Also the TDA side of the IMO had tons of experience in how to do these things, and they have been sidelined.
Early on they said our cultures were similar. Hahahaha NOPE. Schwab nice is bu-----t. TDA teams were not mean, but they stated the problems and worked through them, sometimes with some tussles. That made the final product excellent. Not so at Schwab. Who wants to just build the stupid thing some MD decided they wanted? Not me. I’m out after bonuses.
This is like the Schwab CAP Theorem. You cannot have more than two of the following three: high pay, remote work flexibility, and empowerment.
Schwab Blue here. Actively seeking a new position elsewhere. Top reasons for attrition:
- Pay. I make around $200K base + average $40K bonus. I can do better elsewhere.
- WFH flexibility. It is just inflexible period. Even with the recent changes announced, I say nice try, but no sale. I can do better elsewhere.
- Job satisfaction. Can't get anything done, because other orgs/groups won't move. Had enough, lets go elsewhere and try again.
I think that’s probably how Schwab Green views things, it’s an ultimatum. That being said, Schwab has the potential to be the former. A lot Schwab Blue engineers I’ve worked with have been good. I think they’re just handicapped by the environment. A lot of great ideas and solutions die at the MD level or are preemptively ki---d by architecture. Technical decisions don’t get made on based on data, merits, or someone’s level of experience in the domain.
I wouldn’t consider myself a barometer for Schwab Green, but it seems like most people are waiting for bonus payouts in March. That represents anywhere between 15-50% of comp on the legacy bonus structure. MDs also do not get quarterly advances, so it’s even more significant for them. Some people have already written off retention bonuses that pay out when the company declares CD1 is complete. What terrible idea it was to have retention bonuses that pay out then the company says so.
I’m curious to know why Schwab Blue is leaving if the culture hasn’t significantly changed. A majority of the surviving systems are Schwab Blue. I’ve heard attrition is worse than the green side. Aside from more work, what’s different for you?
If you think your opinion in TD Green matters, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. You really have two choices, stay and adapt to the Schwab method or leave. There’s not a middle ground. Do you want a true problem solving culture or a throw money and bodies at the problem culture? If you prefer the former, leave. If you prefer the latter, stay.
M:
The description of the qualities of the two organizations is spot on.
I think is a combination of several issues. Sorry in advance, this is lengthy.
The main reason I think we got here is because the IMO completely ignored and undervalued the cultural aspect of integration. CMEEE and your personal interests IS NOT culture. Both groups have very different norms and ways of working.
Schwab Green was lite on process and big on empowerment. Each team was more or less a laboratory for experimenting with new technologies and ideas. The best ideas usually won by consensus from adoption. TDA went through 4 chat/collaboration platforms in the course of 3 years until they found “the one” (Slack). Enterprise architecture was more of a consulting organization, primarily focused on enterprise direction.
Schwab Blue has far more structure and rigor for regulatory reasons or otherwise. There are lots of defined processes and layers of governance. Technology and architecture decisions are mostly set by the architecture group with minimal outside input. Enterprise wide standardization exists on just about everything. There is a well defined hierarchy and almost every decision point is executed at the top (MD or above).
These things don’t mesh. At all. You have Schwab Green walling themselves off to preserve their autonomy and empowerment. Or in the worst case, leaving. Then you have Schwab Blue trying to make sure Schwab Green complies with the existing processes and standards and being met with significant resistance. I think if the IMO and HR had taken culture seriously and tried to merge them, we’d be in a better place. This wouldn’t be the first merger that failed for this reason. I think there are a lot of parallels between this and the Amazon and Whole Foods merger.
https://hbr.org/2018/10/one-reason-mergers-fail-the-two-cultures-arent-compatible