Toxic Work Environment - Anonymous employee Citizens Employee Review

The "cons" of working at Citizens Bank are numerous. The words: "screw up to move up" describe the mentality of many branches - particularly if you are the manager's pet. Colleagues with abysmal customer service scores, questionable ethics, and the lowest revenue in the branch were praised, while colleagues with the highest revenue in the branch, excellent customer service scores, and the utmost integrity were bullied. Human Resources works for the bank - not for the employees, so despite assurances from human resources that the bank indicates that they take toxic work culture, harassment, and hostile work environment seriously, they do not. I have been on repeated calls to address the aforementioned concerns among colleagues, and there is nothing that is done. Often, the manager accuses the victim of being petty - and in less than a year the victim is either terminated for poor performance or he or she resigns. Gossip and turnover run rampant. The incentive plan is often unattainable due to unreasonable goals. Rural branches have the same goals as urban branches, despite the foot traffic varying significantly. Also, I have seen colleagues miss an incentive payout for missing the checking account goal by ONE - despite having the highest revenue in the branch. NEVER count any getting an incentive payout because the bank will always find some reason not to pay it. The bank believes that colleagues do not enter fake appointments into their checkup software; however, when colleagues are micromanaged for not having enough appointments, there are still a fair amount of colleagues that enter fake appointments to satisfy managers. This may not occur throughout the bank's footprint; however, it still does happen. With pressure to open new checking accounts so high, colleagues will open a new checking account for a customer - even if a new customer originally wanted ONLY a savings account - after "selling" the customer on using the checking account as a savings account so the colleague makes goals. It makes me question whether the bank is more interested in doing what is best for its shareholders versus what is best for its customers. Lastly, the systems are redundant and the technology is antiquated. We had to enter the same information into multiple systems. Recycled leads are common, so on call nights we just simply called the same customers we called 90 days ago. This irritates customers and often leads to hang ups and rude responses from customers. Most managers have little management experience and were simply promoted due to their sales ability. A great salesperson, despite the bank stating otherwise, does NOT necessarily make a great manager. In most cases a great salesperson is a lackluster manager. Managers ofter little ongoing training and support and are often unavailable to meet with colleagues or customers often due to the fact that they need to be on endless conference calls with other managers. The lack of managerial support, appreciation, attainable incentive pay, and ongoing training are the biggest reasons this company has turnover.