Selfish and petty management. - Anonymous employee WaFd Bank Employee Review

2.0
2 Oct 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Base employees and first line supervisors working in HQ have a good attitude, and strong camaraderie. It was fun and pleasant around the office provided management was out of the room. Nice breakrooms and pretty good free snacks.

Cons

Management is full of selfish, mediocre managers who are only concerned about the appearance they are doing a good job to the execs. Any mistakes made by manager will be quick blamed on a lower level employee. They form an "Untouchable" caste and treat entry level employees like peasants. Execs are straight up scary, and one wrong word to them will be serious trouble for you from your manager. Middle management is a mediocre lot, who are best avoided when possible. They police the employees tightly- there is even a rule you can only have a limit of 3 personal items on your deck (enforced, too. one day I had an extra picture of my kids out and got a verbal warning from a manager for a cluttered desk). Business formal dress code is fastidiously enforced. They even tightly regulate how and when you can eat snacks and coffee down to the letter (I received a warning that the snack I was eating at my desk was "too big" to eat at my desk- I was actually eating while I worked to successfully meet a critical deadline and just trying to be a productive employee!). I'd think they would be more concerned about the actual job you are doing. I.T. and tech modernization is years behind the curve, and improvement suggestions must be made very carefully politically, and go up a very long & formal chain of command just to get approval. Barriers hindering productivity take forever to get eliminated.

Explore other reviews about WaFd Bank

5.0
18 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The leadership at all levels is outstanding

Cons

No cons in the bank

2.0
28 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Primarily remote work. Decent PTO after the 4th year.

Cons

Limited staffing and limiting overtime opportunities until the bitter end of potentially missing deadlines, which you are guilted into working. 2% "raise" every January and ZERO merit raises. Gutted profit sharing and profitability bonuses over time. Most recent bonus, which is tied to net profit after dividends, was given a result when the scale was never published. All previous bonuses had a floor-to-ceiling profit scale that showed the targets months in advance of the end of the bonus period.

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