Just curious as to why Mr. Hayes was such a standout in
the eyes of This Board and why This Board continues to stake their
reputations on him? Even though Members, Employees (current and retired)
have been trying to warn you of the consequences already being felt by
members and employees from this one decision. Whether This Board likes
it or not, his CFO position at the time of Wescorp's failure is a big
deal to the average SECU Member. Just reading the comments and hearing
the concern in the employees' statements on this blog, noticing a
difference within my local branch, seeing services we once had taken
away - all these things have gotten my attention.
My accounts have been with the credit union over 25 years, I have experienced the difference between SECU and my former bank - I am not not willing to give up the personal service SECU provides. When you see a company declining in so many areas, first place you look to is the leadership.
So I did some
research on my own this morning. Read everything on Wescorp, understand
the outrage considering our credit union had to cover some of the cost
of crooked Wescorp employees and now we have a former Wescorp employee
as CEO. Wanting to be open minded I decided to see what I could find on
Andrews Federal Credit Union. My first search, gave me all I needed
to know. With all the talented, trained leaders our Credit Union has
invested in for so many years within SECU walls, This Board ignored them
for the CEO position and chose Hayes?
See below from Google
search: I asked the question how many employees does Andrews Federal
Credit Union have and this is the exact copied answer:
"How many Employees does Andrews Federal Credit Union have? Andrews Federal Credit Union has 57 employees.Mar 16, 2023"
Hayes'
credentials that made him SECU Board's choice above all others after a
nationwide search was Wescorp and his most recent stint managing 57
people as CEO of Andrews Federal Credit Union? In 2021 at the time of
Hayes hiring, I think SECU employed 6000 or more people. How do you say
out of your league respectfully?
At this point, I will say Chris
Ayers, you and your board members set this guy up for failure. Did you
really think in 2021, SECU staff and retirees and Members would take
this one lying down? Easy to see This Board's goals were to outsource
our credit union's North Carolina jobs, give us Members no choice but
digital and phone services and dismantle SECU piece by piece. This Board
needs to immediately stop wasting our credit union money, stop taking
away our services and stop allowing credit union employees to be
harassed by Hayes and Brady's new hires.
North Carolina State Employees will not give up their credit union and will not let 11 individuals destroy SECU.
..."Other than that [or "This"!] Mrs. Lincoln, what did you and the President think about the play?"
Thank you to the member who wrote this. Unfortunately I’m sure they are waiting for a response like the rest of us. Please say it louder for those in the back! Recruit more members to speak up and help us! He was not qualified and clearly the second runner up was not either. And it saddens me that she was the runner up. All of the other servant leaders who could have kept our credit union together and this was the top two choices? Smh. This train has derailed and it does not appear to be getting back on track. The executive team and Board are doing everything they can to control the voting in the fall. We all must stand up and work together to dismantle them. Let’s get creative!
ReplyDeleteI have from a very reliable source that they didnt even allow an interview for the person who many thought was in line to succeed Mr. Lord. Just completely ignored him, much like they did Mr. Lord before he retired.
DeleteNo question that This Board is the problem. Hayes is a self-identifying idiot, moving from never could to embarrassing irrelevance
DeleteYes, all true. And he would have been the perfect pick to continue what others before were stewards of. We would have continued to be the best of the best.
DeleteAdd she/her Brady to that problem list along with the Board. Most definitely she was in the Board's ear bad mouthing all other SECU candidates for the job, wanted it for herself. Remember prior to COO, she was the credit union's spokesperson, she had alot of interactions with the Board, there is another Board blunder.
Deleteif you're referring to who I think you are, he wasn't just snubbed he was also downright done dirty once Jim Hayes came in. Assuming we're thinking of the same person, he has the experience, intelligence, is a very likable person, understands our philosophy and culture, and cares greatly for both our members AND employees (imagine that). I keep hoping maybe employees and members can get together and throw out all of the bad actors and let him go full Caesar until this ship is corrected.
DeleteYes, same person. He’d fix it. I know several “legacy” employees who have retired but would be willing to come back under new leadership to right the ship.
DeleteWe need to protect this person at all cost! She/her is the person who TOLD who got a face to face interview with the board. So much for confidentiality from the board and the company they hired to do the search. So again she/her had way too much interaction with the board. And while we are telling it all, maybe she/her needs to confess to her constant meetings and lunch rendezvous with other executives prior to Haze’s arrival trying to dig up dirt on him to give to the board. Immediately upon his arrival she’s acting like his best friend and stuck her claws right into the neck of who should be leading this company. And now you see baby was put in the corner. Truth about all of this needs to come out. The board needs to reverse all of this mess immediately and apologize! They should be embarrassed
DeleteSomeone yesterday made a very good point. This is a volunteer board, not employees of SECU.
DeleteThese directors make or have made their living in different areas of NC government and are probably specialists in their field of work. Not necessarily specialists in the credit union or non-profits fields. So from where do they gain their insight on these critical decisions for doing what is best for the credit union. Many directors will look to some individuals from within the organization for some inside information or guidance. For some reason, this Board did not accept any suggestions or guidance from retiring CEO Mike Lord. Pretty clear now who this Board may have looked to. What we do know is at least 5 Directors were opposed to hiring Hayes. Just throwing in a slightly different perspective. Everything appears to be unraveling...
Two of those 5 got off the BOD after Hayes was hired
DeleteI'd guess Andrews Federal CU has more than 57 employees (zoominfo says 297). But, your point is well taken. The board should have been looking for someone who not only had experience running a much larger financial institution, but also with a history of success for what the board was looking to achieve. (Maybe the board members watched Ted Lasso too many times. haha) Same with the CIO. I heard that the CIO Hayes chose, was never a CIO before, let alone, having proven success replacing core financial systems. Please SECU board members, recognize your mistake, stop digging your heals in, and correct the mistake.
ReplyDeleteSurely there are some people who read this blog that have ties to someone on the BOD??? Someone that could help stop this train before it runs completely off the tracks. There isn't a whole lot we (employees) can do for fear of losing our jobs. I've been with the credit union 10 years and never, ever thought we'd be dealing with anything like this. Ever. It's a d$@n shame.
Deletemaybe it's 57 executives out of 297 employees, seems about the right percentage he wants to achieve
DeleteIt seems like the board went for flash over substance. Confidence doesn't always mean competence.
DeleteI think the BOD had this planned a couple of years before Hayes, they were just waiting for Lord to retire and Brady was the insider getting info for the board. That’s why they shoed out the actual should be CEO to a random position. This is so embarrassing that we have to deal with this. Is Jim Hayes somebody anybody would hang out with? No. Is he somebody you would trust with your wallet? No. Is he somebody that is good at monopoly? Yes. That’s all you need to know.
DeleteI wanted to point out some more things about what they have done over in the Contact Center. They told employees for months that 4 on 4 off would be going away, creating anxiety and at one point they made everyone come in for a meeting, which most employees believed would be to go over the new schedules. The meeting was to tell them to stop speculating on the new schedules. Then, folks over there were told they would have some choice in their new schedules initially based on seniority up until the next evaluation/quarterly review, at which point employees would be eligible to switch to different shifts based on performance. What performance metrics would be used is anyone's guess. None of that happened anyway; shifts were just assigned and given with a nice "if you want to find a new job I understand". They were also told that if the new schedule conflicts with already made plans, management would "work with" them. When asked what this entailed, most employees were told "well you can use PTO". Kind of defeats the purpose of even saying you'd work with them huh? There is also a queue of well over 100 calls waiting basically all day and up until midnight every day now. Members constantly complain about the new phone system. Morale is at an all time low. They essentially demoted all of the team leaders/supervisors overnight with no warning. So all of those senior employees were thrown back into all of the basic "tier 1" call queues as well as remaining in the "supervisor" queues (SECU*RE queue, FSR Help queue, Supervisor queue, etc.). These are just some of the things I've heard from some of the friends I made over there while working overtime the past several months. They have a very thankless and stressful job and now with these awful new changes I'm not sure who would ever want to work there. Working a few hours for overtime pay (especially on a saturday) was taxing enough for me. I really am starting to believe that they are trying to force people out either to outsource or automate as much as possible? I'm not sure what the end goal is.
ReplyDeleteMost companies' call centers are horrible places to work. And that's literally by design. That's the modern day philosophy on call centers: create such an unpleasant work environment that people burn out and quit after a year or two.
DeleteWhy, you ask?
Because it's cheaper. The people running the call center don't care at all about customer service. They need employees to quit so they dont have to pay them raises or promotions. They want a "healthy churn" of fresh meat coming in every few months on the base salary - lower pay, no PTO accrued, etc.
They NEED most of their more experienced employees to quit; they're too "expensive". They don't understand that there's an inherent value in having experienced, knowledgeable employees on the front line. They see the call center as a means to merely placate disgruntled customers, not find actual solutions to said customers' problems. They'd rather have them yell at some poor front line representative and then hang up, now "satisfied" that they gave someone a piece of their mind.
That is where SECU is headed, if it's not already there.
The call center still has great staff in MSS and LCC in SVP and manger roles. So it hasn’t dissolved yet. But if Hayes continues down his path of destruction, it will be that way in a year
Delete“I want this to be the best place to work.”-Jim Hayes. Did your mother raise you not to lie Gym? We don’t do that here in the south. You have created terrible working conditions all in order to reap financial benefits and use our members money to make risky investments that have no business being made. I’m more disappointed than the BOD more than anything. Just standing by and letting this happen while a great place that’s been apart of our great state is rotting because of a CROOK! You are volunteers….why do you have such an incentive to keep this cancer in our credit union. He is a CANCER! That is facts. Now be good volunteers and remove him and start to open your ears to the people that actually work here. Not a man that has a terrible track record that has been in this state not even 2 years and he is already on the verge of getting ran out! It is needs to be said again….YOU…ARE…..VOLUNTEERS!!!!! WE KNOW THIS PLACE BETTER THAN YOU AND GOOFBALL HAZE
DeleteStrange to me, most Board of Directors I have been associated with over the years have been more than willing to hear both sides of any issues. I don't understand This Board's unwillingness to give ear to those who who appear to be fighting for the future of SECU. A volunteer credit union board unwilling to listen to the employees who know the inside and out of our credit union and the very ones who know the members best? I wish this could be resolved, this is hurting our credit union.
DeleteThank you for this post - well done! Please spread the word. None of what's going on can be changed without the support of the members. It's your credit union that's being dismantled please speak up.
ReplyDeleteits true, members are starting to ask questions about the CEO and what we are doing….
ReplyDeleteNot we. Them. We peasant employees didn't do anything. I make sure our members know this.
DeleteGreat post by a great member.
ReplyDeleteWest Coast Hazey IPA's regime so far reminds me of the first verse of the classic Metallica song - "Leper King"
Spineless from the start
Sucked into the part
Circus comes to town
You play the lead clown
Please, please, spreading his disease
Living by his story
Knees, knees, falling to your knees
Suffer for his glory
You will
I went back last evening and read the letter SECU's Board Members sent to their employees. I was taken by the words: We, like any good Board....
ReplyDelete1. Not sure what constitutes a good Board with these folks. An 11 Member Board moved forward on a 6 to 5 vote for this CEO who it appears has caused nothing but turmoil and confusion down at SECU. On the Boards where I have held a seat during my lifetime, a vote with this tight of margin would have been a red flag for us. Not so sure a good Board would have taken a chance on an unknown candidate when it has been said there were other possibly stronger candidates within the credit union who were not afforded an interview. I think this alone deserves an explanation to the membership from this Board Chairman and the other 5 who voted with him.
2. After the 2022 Annual Meeting where many Advisory Board Members were in attendance and voiced concerns over changes within the credit union. This Board set about making changes to the Voting process by which our Directors will be elected at the Annual Meeting 2023. I would like to know if these same 6 were responsible for that change. This should be the membership's red flag, a good Board wouldn't be changing voting processes in the midst of all the controversy This Board's actions have caused.
Reminder: Advisory Board Meeting procedures were changed also. Each Branch must strictly follow prepared Agenda from Raleigh - no deviation permitted.
DeleteSo centralization. Nothing local. Total reversal of 86 year policy.
DeleteIt's easier to control when centralized
DeleteSome questions this letter from a member raises. This information is easy to obtain from search, Did none of "this Board" do a search on Hayes? None of them learned of his activities at Wescorp prior to his hiring? Did they know about Wescorp and what it cost NCSECU? Did they believe Hayes, CFO, that he "knew nothing" about invest failures, coverups etc, at Wescorp under his watch??
ReplyDeleteWho was the search firm used to conduct the search for CEO? Why was this particular firm hired? What on earth was the vetting process used for candidates? a 6-5 vote?? bringing in an outsider who is a crook? What was "this Board" looking for in a CEO for NCSECU? Was outsider number 1 on the list?
We have lost our gatekeepers/shepherds and now the wolves have moved in ... almost like a trojan horse ....
ReplyDeleteAll legacy SVP, VPs and managers…please don’t leave. You are needed more than ever to hold the line
DeleteAt least one wolf was already here choosing self over everything else - Even to the point of inflicting all this damage to our credit union.
DeleteTwo examples of members using Facebook to get the word out about what's going on with our SECU.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/joe.osborne.71
May 6 comment
https://www.facebook.com/jeff.williams.397501
Several comments on shenanigans at NCSECU
Going to start building an anon Facebook account this week.. I’ll keep you guys posted. Want to make sure everything security wise is ready to go. Didn’t want to do this, but somebody has to at this point. I’d rather just enjoy coming to work and spending time with my kids when I’m off. But here we are.
ReplyDeleteThank you for working to create this fb page!!! You'll be doing a great service for all members/owner.
DeleteFantastic! Please do keep us posted and share the FB page you create! Hazey thought he could shut alllllll this down by blocking this blog from SECU computers - keep the truth hidden. Well, I'd say that's not working out too good. My coworkers and I have been hoping that this all gets exposed to our membership so maybe they can help us stop this destruction.
Delete