Job Title: Operations Personnel
Location: San Diego, CA
Submitted on: 21-Apr-04
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I am sure the dress code is handled differently at every office. Some
offices have casual dress, but "supposedly" not the one where I worked.
Unfortunately, some employees were singled out more than others when
the majority of the office was not dressing according to the
guidelines. Management did not handle this well, as they continually
put out new memos about the dress code instead of those dressing
inappropriately being pulled into the manager's office for a discussion
about it. I think it would be best for them to handle it as the
transgression occurs and not keep putting out memos to the general
office population. This is only one of the issues facing management.
Another is the secretiveness with which the corporate entities expect
the management to operate. If someone was let go, quit or hired . . .
if anything came up in the office, the managers did not address it
immediately. I understand the issues about saying that someone has been
fired, but the management is responsible for keeping the office orderly
and not a rumor mill. By the time they address things, rumors have
started. I left my notice while I was out of the office and when I came
back to work, everyone was wondering what was going on. The managers
had four days to advise the office that I had decided to leave Smith
Barney, but they didn't. There were all sorts of rumors going around by
the time I returned to complete my tenure there. The management can
always just say that a person is leaving the company and leave it at
that. The sooner it is handled, the better. Obviously, there were other
issues that came up in the office that the personnel would find out
about on their own. Sometimes the managers would call a meeting several
weeks after something had occurred to advise us and we all basically
knew already.
Another major problem for Smith Barney, it has reduced the work force
like other brokerages and it continues to see how much of a load it can
put on a small amount of people. The salary at Smith Barney for the
amount of work, experience and securities licensing they are requesting
is not sufficient. They continue to request more and more of their
employees without compensating them for it. They want experienced
people, but not too experienced because they do not want to have to
compensate them what they are worth. They have a habit of making
promises regarding rewards for getting securities licenses and how it
will advance one to a new position, but it doesn't come to fruition.
These issues, as well as not addressing issues involved with people not
doing their jobs immediately really sucked the morale from the people
in the office. Many employees went to management with concerns about
specific individuals in the office not getting work done or doing work
improperly and it was not addressed immediately. Or management decided
to have a round about discussion with the person about generalizations
instead of laying down the law. Sometimes you just need to lay down
exactly what is expected and follow up to make sure the person is
getting it done. If not, write them up and keep notes about this stuff.
They never do it there and it creates a problem when it is decided
after months or a year that there have been so many complaints by other
employees that something must be done like termination. Then we hear
things like, "Should we start keeping notes?" Should we start? Notes
about an employee, both good and bad, should be kept by management in
the personnel file. That way, you have cause if the person needs to be
let go and you have justification for bigger raises, too.
There wasn't much diversity in the office where I worked. A great deal
of white people, predominantly male.
There are not a lot of opportunities for advancement within the retail
offices and even less since they began to downsize significantly since
2001.
The company needs to find ways to be more flexible with the hours. I
understand the market is what moves this company, but they need to
really consider the opportunity for the support staff to telecommute or
work their hours differently to attend to personal needs. Even those
without children found it difficult to attend to personal matters and
keep the hours required there. I don't suggest they abandoned their
traditional hours, just be more accomodating to those on the lowest
rung of the Smith Barney ladder. If support staff had the opportunity
to work from home telecommuting once or twice a month, they would find
it exhilerating and it would give them the sense that the company
actually cares about their needs. There is a lot of pressure at Smith
Barney to put them first and not your family. They will never have
employees that feel satisfied until they address this matter.
It really does seem that Smith Barney does not care significantly about
those at the bottom of their totem pole. They push for them to do more
and get paid less and just be happy that they have a job. It probably
has a lot to do with the significant turnover rate of the support staff
during my tenure there.
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