"I work for a bank that's weaponized HR against its employees"
Writing on this site last year, someone said not to trust HR staff in banks because they are ruthless and will always act in the interest of senior management.
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I'd like to take this one step further. At the bank I work for, HR is a senior management weapon.
This wasn't always the case, but in recent years it has become so. Early in my banking career, HR could be trusted to help with a genuine grievance. Now, any grievance - no matter how valid - is immediately seen as a liability. Senior management are quickly involved and the individual, who may have been very mistreated, is managed out as quickly as possible.
HR have become gutless in the process, and the job has become devoid of meaning. People who used to advocate for employees as human beings are now treating them as numbers. I've seen juniors complain to HR while asking for anonymity, and then HR go directly to senior management with the named complaint.
Culture is suffering as a result. Complaints aren't properly investigated. Whistleblowing hotlines are overloaded with calls and barely work. Issues are swept under the carpet. Perpetrators remain in positions and are promoted. And people wronged are then wronged again when the bank spits them out.
It's depressing. If you're an individual subject to mistreatment, it makes life very tough. You can, bravely, go up against a bank in court - and some people are doing that - but it takes years and is full of uncertainty. You won't be able to get a new job during that time because you're seen as a troublemaker. In the meantime, when bad actors are let go, senior friends will often give them clean references, and they just turn up somewhere else. I've seen whole records of male bullying accusations wiped clean, while women are fired for minor infringements.
Wall Street has always been a tough place to work, but if anything it's become worse than ever. Good luck out there.
Isabel Wills is a pseudonym
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