The Beginning Started at the End
In 2015 I was referred and recruited to a market level management position as Market Leader (formerly named Market Sales Manager) reporting to the Northwest Regional Executive, at the Fortune 500 bank I was at for 21 years overseeing 12-15 Financial Centers (brick and mortar banking centers). There were two market level positions that were meant to partner together to oversee these Financial Centers; an operational management position (Operational Manager) that oversaw the operational side of the business (Financial Center Managers and tellers) and a sales management position (Market Sales Manager, my position) that oversaw the sales staff (both junior and senior level sales associates).
In 2017, after the Portland Metro Market Financial Center Managers had expressed continued frustration and dissatisfaction with their market level Operations Manager which included several low “Associate Satisfaction with Manager” scores, the Operational Manager was placed into the Sales Performance Manager position without direct reports. It was communicated to us by the Regional Executive at the time that the former Operations Manager, now the Northwest Sales Performance Manager, was not to enter the Financial Centers in the Portland Metro markets for 6+ months.
In May of 2018 the Northwest Region was assigned a new Regional Executive, a former Sales Performance Manager and peer of the newly appointed Northwest Region Sales Performance Manager (formerly Portland Metro Market Operations Manager). Below is a timeline of events that led to my being severed from this company.
June 2018 - My first face to face meeting with my new boss, the Regional Executive, consisted solely of 2 joint Financial Center visits where the Regional Executive intimidated and bullied 2 of my women Financial Center managers and their teams while exhibiting erratic behavior which included rapid-fire questions around their sales performance, not giving enough time to answer one question before shouting out the next. At one point during the first visit the Regional Executive grabbed the computer mouse out of one of my sales associates hands and begin surfing through his computer and looking through his emails. The next day I spent 45 minutes with each of the Financial Center Manager separately over the phone comforting them and reassuring them I would protect them and do my best to be a buffer between them and the new Regional Manager given the fear he instilled with them on his visit.
Summer 2018 - The Regional Executive removed me from the Business Integration meetings that I had been a part of for 3 years. Later, I was also removed from my position as the Northwest Region Associate Engagement Champion) which I had been placed in after receiving one of the highest Satisfaction with Manager scores in the country) without warning, and was replaced by a newer member of the team. Over time The Regional Executive removed my from all boards and projects.
September 2018 - After several calls spanning the last 3 months where the Regional Executive berated my performance without being able to substantiate my repeated requests for proof, I began to fear for the worst; that he was looking for a way to terminate me. Due to an incredible fear of retaliation by him, I made the first call to an outside Ethics and Compliance organization to get my fears on record in the desperate hope that it would protect me. This company stated that their role was simply to protect my identity and to be a “middle man” between myself and the company with the goal of getting this company to respond to my concerns. Over the course of almost 18 months (from September 2018 until January 2020) I made repeated calls to this 3rd party company, uploaded dozens of pages of documentation and emails reflecting the bullying and intimidation I was being subjected to, without a single response from this company. As of May 11th, 2020 I still had not received any response from the company.
October 2018 - The Regional Executive and his boss, the Northwest Division Executive, traveled to Portland during a surprise visit, pulled me into a meeting room in the middle of a Financial Center that windows for walls, to “discuss” (there was no discussion, just accusations) what they stated was my “poor performance”. I was asked to start looking for a new job, that I was considered a “does not meets” employee, and that I would not be getting my yearly bonus. My multiple requests for documentation proving and outlining the details of their claims went unanswered and ignored. Being a data nerd and Manage by Fact believer, immediately following the meeting I pulled up every performance report I could find which proved my performing status, sent it to the Regional Executive asking for him to explain his claims, which he never addressed.
October 2018 - I made the first call to Human Resources that I can recall in my entire career, pleading for help and protection from what was clearly a leader set on terminating me without just cause, and sent in more than 10 pages of documentation including emails to and from the Regional Executive and myself. I pleaded with the HR representative to keep this private, that I was terrified of retaliation given the treatment I had been subjected to since the Regional Executive had been appointed in June of 2018. The Human Resources associate assured me that it would remain private. When she called me much later for an update she told me that she had spoken to the Regional Executive who had told her that I was not performing, and that I would be put on an action plan. When I asked for the proof that I was not performing, she was unable to provide. When I asked if she had reviewed all the documentation I sent in, she stated she had not. She then informed me that her job was to protect the company, not me.
October 2018 - I forwarded the email that I had sent to my Regional Executive including statistics and data that contradicted the Executive Executives claims that I was not performing (which I never received a response to) to an upper level executive in the mortgage department (whom I had trusted as a friend and whom I had worked with for 20 years) asking for his help and guidance with protecting myself against what had become clear to me was an attempt to terminate me from the company (he was also one of the interviewing executives who made the decision to hire the Regional Executive). Later we discussed this over the phone and he told me he would speak to the Regional Executive and then circle back to me with guidance. The next time we spoke, my colleague informed me that the Regional Executive had informed him that I wasn’t performing. I forwarded back the email I had sent him weeks before proving my claims with data and reports, but they were never addressed.
January 2019 - During a Regional Meeting in Seattle, where at the time the Regional Executive and the Sales Performance Manager were expressing concern over the fact that their ranking had not improved since the Regional Executive was appointed in May of 2018, the Regional Executive began the meeting by stating “I am not trying to manipulate my ranking and scorecard, but we need to do something to change our ranking.” At this meeting the Regional Executive and the Sales Performance Manager outlined 5 key sales metrics that they felt had the highest weighting on their scorecard and set the expectation that we were expected to meet 100% in each category. Within 3 months my West Portland Team was leading in these categories yet the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager’s ranking overall was not improving.
January 2019 - After receiving continued feedback that the Sales Performance Manager was making surprise visits to the West Portland Financial Center Managers and creating fear within the Financial Center, I spoke to the Regional Executive and informed him of the fear being instilled, and shared with him the verbal direction given to us the previous year and that we had understood was given to the Sales Performance Manager after he was moved from the Portland Metro Operations Manager with direct reports, to the Sales Performance Manager without direct reports; that he was not to enter into Financial Centers in the Portland Metro Market which included the West Portland Financial Centers (my Market), due to the dissatisfaction he had caused in his previous role. My intention was to keep him out of my Financial Centers so that my team could operate without fear and intimidation. People operating out of fear not only do not perform, but there is a higher chance of turnover- not to mention the mental, emotional, and physical strain it caused. The visits from the Sales Performance Manager into the West Portland Financial Centers continued through and after my being severed from the company.
Beginning of 2019 - Myself as well as two other Market Leaders, the Regional Executive, Sales performance Manager, and the Operations Manager met over the phone to discuss the placement of three new hire Financial Center Managers who were getting ready to come out of training. One of these associates I had taken into my market and created a customized training program for him (as I did with each associate who is coming into my market, as well as other associates who were training in neighboring markets to ensure their success). Within three months out of training he was a leader within the region in multiple categories and within nine months he was ranked at the top of the company (you can read his testimony to this effect within the section “What Keeps Me Going”). During this same call the Regional Executive, Sales Performance Manager, and the Operations Manager shared that they wanted to put one of these brand new associates into one of the largest and most complex Financial Centers in the state. For 45 minutes I adamantly argued against this, stating that this would be setting the associate up for failure knowing that there was no leniency for performance once an associate is out of training, and no mentorship program to support new associates out of training. Regardless of the serious concerns I had, this brand new associate was placed into one of the largest and most complex centers in Oregon (outside of my market) which at the time was not even fully staffed; being told that staffing the center would be her responsibility. Within months this Financial Center, under the leadership of the brand new associate, failed a national Compliance Audit with one of the lowest scores recorded in Oregon, and was failing in sales performance and Client Experience, subsequently being written up and progressing down the disciplinary action path which ultimately leads to termination. You can read a personal letter written to the President and CEO that outlines this very similar common place treatment of new associates in the section titled “The Culture”. The person that appeared most supportive of the decision to place a brand new associate with no mentor into one of the largest centers in Oregon, was the Sales Performance Manager who the Regional Executive had been deferring to during the majority of the phone call, (and who continued to give more power to over the course of 18 months, you can read more about this in the section “The Culture”) and who had also adamantly disagreed with my advice around placing this associate into a smaller center for a greater chance of success. As a company we completely failed this associate, yet this was never acknowledged or addressed, and instead the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager frequently insulted both this associate from a leadership perspective as well as personally.
*** it’s important to note here that it was common occurrence to hear the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Managers personal opinions of people, which resulted in them picking and choosing who to promote based on their personal opinions. Common insults about the associates personality, looks, and other demeaning comments were common place.February/March 2019 - The Regional Executive’s peer coach was brought on to a team call to announce that she would be requesting anonymous feedback regarding the Regional Executive’s management style, and once the feedback was gathered and compiled it would be presented to the team, without the Regional Executive present, to discuss in greater detail. We had several weeks to provide the feedback directly to her via email, and a few days before the due date she reached out and asked if I was going to complete the feedback as I had not yet responded. I confided in her that I was absolutely terrified of the Regional Executive retaliating against me and she assured me that it would be completely confidential; that she would even change around the wording of my answers if she felt it would help keep my feedback anonymous. I felt that this could be the chance I needed to stop the bullying and abuse, and I sent my feedback to her.
March 2019 - During our March Regional Team Meeting, the Regional Executive’s peer coach presented the 6 page deck with our consolidated feedback to the team without the Regional Executive or Sales Performance Manager present. During the 1/2 day meeting and discussion I was surprised to learn that the feedback from the rest of the team was similar and not only included the Regional Executive but also feedback (unsolicited) regarding the Sales Performance Manager which included terms/wording such as; manages by fear and pressure, special treatment to some on the team, sales pressure, constantly changing priorities and direction, unorganized, lack of support to the team, does not communicate goals or direction to the team, lack of respect of the team, bullying, intimidation, etc. Some of the verbiage was so severe the peer coach changed it within the deck before presenting it to the Regional Executive. The peer coach announced that the deck would be sent to the Division Executive, the Regional Executives manager, as well as Human Resources. Later I learned from a few other female Market Leaders that the Regional Executive had treated them similar to how he had treated me (at the end of 2018) by claiming they weren’t performing and in some cases was successful in writing them up; in my opinion because these Market Managers did not know or understand where to get the reporting needed to defend themselves. Some of these Market Leaders had been with the company for decades, and in at least one case was forced to step down.
During the overnight meeting 7 of us met for a late night cap at the hotel to discuss the events of the day.March 2019 I expressed to my Regional Manager that I was having difficulty staying on top of all of the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Managers quickly changing and competing priorities week over week (a concern that the entire team had expressed multiple times on our weekly team calls, as well as in the six page deck presented in March during our in person meeting), and was looking for assistance.
Within days, and on a Friday, I received an urgent email from the Regional Executive’s Administrative Assistant telling me to meet the Regional Executive immediately at a Financial Center in East Portland. Instead of offering the assistance I had asked for, he wrote me up for not responding to an email on time and asking to reschedule a meeting from a visitor in order to complete all of the tasks being added each week.
The Human Resources associate who was on the phone asked me what the Regional Executive could do to support me, I shared with her that I had been asking for help, as had the entire team, and that there was a 6 page deck outlining the unanimous concerns for the workload, competing priorities, and constantly changing direction of which we struggled to keep up with. The amount of tasks required of us was not only keeping us from being able to manage and coach our team as effectively as we needed to, but was creating increasingly long work days and weeks. This was never addressed.Sometime between April and July 2019 - The Northwest Division Executive (direct boss and hiring manager to the Regional Executive) was moved to another area of the company. Around this time the Northwest Region was “absorbed” or consolidated with another Division rather than being appointed a new Division Executive.
June 2019 - I received an email from the Regional Executive’s administrative assistant to meet the Regional Executive immediately at a Financial Center in East Portland. Upon entering the meeting I was confronted by an angry Regional Executive face to face as well as a Human Resource associate over the phone, and was presented with a Final Written Warning for having the late night cap with co-workers back in March after our regional sales meeting. I was told that if it would have been in my hometown of Portland, it would have been acceptable, but since it was during an overnight trip to Seattle it was considered on bank time and therefore I would be receiving a Final Written Warning (the first in my enter career). To my knowledge no one else from this late night cap was issued any warnings or punishment.
When I began to cry in fear and defeat, the human resources associated stated that this was just something I could move past and not have to worry about. When I asked her if someone had actually been offended or complained, she stated that that wasn’t needed as my behavior was inappropriate given I had had a late night cap on bank time (bank time meaning in Seattle away from my hometown of Portland over 2 days of in-person meetings; I have added a picture from this night to the header of this post).
She asked me what I needed from the Regional Executive and I stated that I needed assistance, and had been asking for assistance, with the overwhelming daily and weekly tasks that were ever changing, as well as the competing priorities that consistently got in the way of me managing my team and providing the support they needed, and that there was a 6 page deck presented in March with this same unanimous feedback from the whole team. This was not addressed.
I also shared that I had been asking for a year for just one face to face meeting with the Regional Executive per month, and that he had yet to meet with me (except to put me on warnings, one in March and one in June) though he met with my peers weekly; both in Seattle and in Portland (note: he was also taking my male direct reports to lunches during his Portland visits). She and he promised that was completely appropriate and would start immediately. Not one of these meetings ever took place.June 2019 - Immediately following being placed on a Final Written Warning by the Regional Executive and Human Resources, I called the Human Resource associate that had been on the call during the meeting. In tears I shared the multiple calls to Human Resources and the outside Ethics and Compliance company regarding the continued bullying, intimidation, abuse and unethical sales pressure by the Sales Executive, and that I was certain he had been trying to terminate me for a year. She told me that I needed to meet with the Regional Executive to discuss my feelings and concerns. I shared with her that I had been experiencing negatively differential and isolating treatment from him since the beginning. Her response was simply “at this company we do not tolerate retaliation” and again advised me to consult with the Regional Executive. We never spoke again.
July 2019 - The Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager’s scorecard continued to reflect the lowest in the country, while my West Portland team continued to rank at the top of the Northwest Region. During a team meeting around the July timeframe the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager outlined for the team a new plan to improve their ranking and scorecard; given that credit card sales had the highest scorecard weighting that impacted their ranking, we would now be focusing primarily on credit card sales with an emphasis on the Preferred Rewards program. Over the next 6 weeks each Market Leader was held responsible for holding mandatory weekly in person meetings every Friday starting between 7:30-8:00 and ending between 9:00-9:30 for every Financial Center Manager in the Northwest Region. The content focused primarily on credit card stats and data.
I shared my concerns with the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager that what we were doing could be construed as crossing an ethics line, and seemed to be similar to what Wells Fargo had done.
In addition, over the course of these meetings many Financial Center Managers expressed concern that we were pushing sales “similar to Wells Fargo” and that they felt it was unethical.
When I brought these concerns to the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager the response was “If you are a barista at my Starbucks, and you cannot make a drink for customers correctly, I will make sure that you are no longer a barista in my coffee shop.” (This phrase was commonly spoken to the Market Leaders as well as our direct reports when the Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager attended our meetings).
Concerns were never addressed.August 2019 - The Regional Executive and Sales Performance Manager’s ranking and scorecard remained last in the country. The weekly credit card meetings were cancelled and instead weekly 30 minute calls were instated between each Market Leader individually and a team of executives including the Operations Manager Executive, Sales Performance Manager, Regional Executive, and other performance coaches and executives to address credit card sales.
During these calls Market Leaders were required to share their computer screens and show the daily emails that we were required to obtain from our Financial Center employees regarding how many clients they met with, specific to details surrounding the required credit card conversations with each client. If the emails were not “painful” enough, we were instructed to re-write responses to our team that felt more threatening in order to “gain results”. We were told that these calls were “meant to be painful”.
Comments were made weekly such as “Your team did not hit 100% of their credit card goal, this is a failure! You failed!” And “I’ve chewed up and spit out leaders like you plenty of times before.” During one specific conversation where I was proudly presenting a specific Financial Center’s incredible improvement from 36% of credit card goal to 99% of goal, I was told I and my team were both failures. At this time my entire Market was above 100% of our card goal, and top in the entire Region.
This was never addressed or discussed.October 2019 - The environment became so abusive and toxic to not only myself but, even worse, to my Financial Center associates, that I asked our Operations Management Executive to meet at a Starbucks to discuss some major concerns that I had (a big part of the Operations Manager role was to keep an eye on sales practices to ensure nothing unethical is happening).
During this meeting I showed the Operations Manager emails to and from the Regional Executive and myself, the Sales Performance Manager and myself, as well as the documented concerns of our Financial Center employees regarding the sales pressure surrounding credit cards. I confided that I had been being bullied since June of 2018 and my repeated pleas to Human Resources had gone nowhere, and instead I continued to be told that the Human Resources department was there to protect the company.
I expressed serious concern for the credit card sales pressure and stated that I feared we had gone down the path of Wells Fargo. I shared with her that I had a large folder on my computer with emails, documents, and more which would prove my claims; some of which I shared with her. She repeated the mantra of the weekly credit card calls “these calls are meant to be painful".”
I asked her to call my peers as well, which she stated she would. To my knowledge no other Market Leader was approached regarding these concerns.November 2019 - After a Regional telepresence where I presented my team’s top performing status with detail to the Regional Executive, the Operations Manager, Sales Performance Manager, Operations Executive, Business Support Manager, and other various executives, Human Resources and administrative associates, I was asked to stay back with the Regional Executive and the Operations Division Executive (the manager of the Operations Manager which I had shared my concerns with in October).
*** It’s important to note here that during my presentation I gave heavy credit to 3 of my Financial Center Managers- the only section Of my presentation that notes were taken by the Operations Executive, Operations Manager, Sales Performance Manager, and Regional Executive; detailed questions were asked regarding my opinion of these managers. Subsequently these Financial Center Managers received the highest sales performance goal increases in 2020 (In November 2019 goals were in the process of being assigned by Financial Center for 2020), and from what it appears their 2020 sales goals were exponentially higher than their peers- making it more difficult to hit their sales goals, thus more difficult to earn incentive; a major “selling point” provided in interviews to Financial Center Manager candidates. This appeared to be a common practice; when Financial Center Managers were performing well, instead of being rewarded they were assigned a heavier chunk of the Market sales goals for more guaranteed success which impacted the scorecard and ranking of both the Regional Executive and Sales Performance manager.
My computer and work phone were immediately confiscated and I was then informed that I was being severed from the company; when I asked for details none were given.
I was told that because of my stellar record with the company I could “retire”, and that any inquiries from future employers would reflect “retired, not terminated” (contradictory to what the 12+ page “agreement” stated).
I was told to sign an “agreement” and return it the next morning by fax.
This “agreement” would pay me over $99,000 to release the bank from any liability regarding my being severed from the company, and most importantly - it would keep me from being able to help any associates still at the company who were experiencing bullying, threats of termination, and sales pressure (I later read within the agreement that I had 3 weeks to review, sign, and return the agreement with an additional timeframe to reverse my decision).
Given the amount of pressure that had been placed on me the last 12 months to fire employees that in my opinion was unjustified, I knew that I could not sign this agreement.
After my 21 1/2 years of top performing status I knew that I had to be the voice for the voiceless. I decided not to sign the “agreement” and was able to assist several women over the next 45 days to exit the toxic environment and find careers where they could be and feel safe.WHAT CAME NEXT- The first call I made after being severed from the company was to a dear and trusted peer. He as well as two other Market Leaders had met at a local restaurant to discuss the outcome of our individual Regional Meeting presentations and I drove to meet them. Within minutes of arriving, the Regional Executive called each one of them separately and warned them against speaking or communicating with me going forward. As of May 11th, 2020 only 1 of those 3 peers whom I saw after work weekly for the last 6 months, has reached out to me. I believe that fear of losing their jobs, after seeing what happened to me, was a heavily weighted factor of this.
Within an hour of those calls, an email went out to the entire Washington and Oregon Northwest Region associate and partner list informing everyone that I was no longer with the company effective immediately and warned them against having any contact with me.
Within minutes of this email my phone began ringing off the hook with concerns and fear of what had occurred as the email had a negative and fear invoking tone with no details of what happened.
Within the hour the Regional Executive called one of my male Financial Center Manager direct reports (as was shared with me) and asked him if he wanted to take my job.
Within days of my being severed the Performance Manager began calling my Financial Center Managers to let them know who would be covering as their manager while they looked for a replacement for me. Many shared concerns that they were scared they were going to be terminated as well (as was shared in writing with me by several associates).A former colleague of mine informed me that the first executive leadership meeting after I was severed had 40 people total; 37 men, 3 women. All white.
If we’re going to change the culture, we have to identify that it’s a problem from the top down.Though the deadline to sign the “agreement” which would have paid me just under $100,000 to stay silent was December 12th, 2019 - they continued to send certified letters, call, and email trying to convince me to sign the “agreement” all the way into February. Not until I drafted a letter with my lawyer telling them to stop harassing me did they actually stop.
I believe I did everything within my power to protect those that reported to me against the intimidation and threats of termination. In addition to helping several associates obtain other jobs, I have assisted in coordinating interviews for others outside the company. Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being.
My mission continues to this day