Stressful...corporate bureaucracy.. wrong people in the leadership jobs - Anonymous employee TIAA Employee Review

2.0
Nov 6, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay, Good Benefits. Very nice campus in Charlotte. Great CEO.

Cons

Very poor work life balance (especially in IT infratsructure departments), Wrong people in the technical manager roles. Expect a re-org in every season. There is a 3 year vesting period for retirement benefits. This could be your only motivation to stay with the company. Recent culture survey results show 70% of people want to leave the company. Co-workers get very insecure and not trust each other. No team building activities. Almost impossible to shift jobs internally, unless you are in the inner circle of senior leadership. Cant speak for business groups but it can get very frustrating to work in some IT departments at TIAA-CREF.

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Pros

good benefits good training room for career advancement

Cons

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2.0
Jul 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good starting salary and benefits package.

Cons

The longer you’re there, the more of an expectation that you work more for the same or less income. Producers find it hard to justify staying when leadership keeps moving the goal posts on how to increase income. No rhyme or reason as to how they decide “promotions.” One advisor might have one good year and get promoted over an advisor that produces year in and year out. They fail to share revenue because they’d have a hard time justifying the income level compared to outside advisors with a fraction of the book size. They claim and depend on brand recognition to justify a capped income but fail, or just won’t admit that is why they keep losing their top talent. Operations is a nightmare that I can’t even begin to describe. When I share the processes that have been in place for over a decade, colleagues in the industry shake their head and laugh. They can’t believe we earn and keep business. The saying while I was there was “the biggest threat we face is that TIAA clients start to explore their options outside of TIAA.”

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