Employees at Starling Bank resigned after the new chief executive demanded that thousands of employees come into the office more regularly, despite not having enough space to accommodate them.
In his first major policy change since taking over from UK Digital Bank founder Anne Boden in March, Raman Bhatia has ordered all hybrid staff to be made redundant. Many were only in the office one or two days a week, or for advertising. Temporary basis – Minimum of 10 days of commuting each month.
But the bank, which operates exclusively online, acknowledged that some offices were ill-equipped to handle the influx.
“We understand that some offices may not be able to accommodate everyone working 10 days a month at this time. We are looking at ways to create more space,” Starling's HR team said. The email sent and seen by the Guardian said:
Starling has 3,231 staff, the majority of whom are based in the UK and some in Dublin. However, the Guardian understands that the bank only has around 900 desks, including 260 at its Cardiff base, 320 at its London headquarters and 155 in Southampton.
The bank has signed a 10-year lease to house an additional 160 desks and occupy the fifth floor of the landmark building at its latest site in Manchester, which also houses staff from Santander UK and HSBC.
The announcement sparked a flurry of complaints from staff on internal Slack messaging channels, many highlighting a lack of desks and parking spaces and a disruption in work-life balance.
Some officials have already resigned, citing the “hasty” nature of the announcement, while others have threatened to resign. One staff member who submitted the notice told the Guardian:
“Being asked to incur the time, expense, and disruption to my life by returning to the office for half a week without notice is something I personally cannot understand or accept. As a result, I have made the decision to resign. I did.”
In a Slack post with more than 100 likes, one outraged staff member said the changes were “shoved down everyone's throats despite legitimate concerns.”
They also described Mr. Bhatia as a “bland, gray corporate hellhole filled with dead-eyed zombies who do the bare minimum and don't care about anything except getting the job done and getting paid.” He accused them of trying to create a “landscape.”
Mr Bhatia hit back in a company-wide email, saying he was “surprised” to hear the policy was unexpected and that he had been talking about bringing staff back to the office two to three days each week “for the past few months”. said.
“Executive teams have been thinking about how to operationalize this for some time because we share the belief that working in the office is important for creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, performance and engagement,” Bhatia said. ” he said.
The online bank, founded by Borden in 2014 and backed by Goldman Sachs, has rapidly grown from 43,000 customers in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2023. During that time, the company's workforce grew from 279 to more than 3,200.
The announcement of the return to power comes after the Financial Conduct Authority found “alarmingly lax” controls that left the financial system “wide open to criminals” and fined Mr Sterling £29 million. It was held one month after. These included glitches in automated testing systems for individuals facing government sanctions.
Starling's new policy comes as more companies look to bring employees back into the office on a more regular basis after the pandemic led to an explosion in working from home.
Goldman Sachs will be one of the first major employers to bring employees back to work five days a week in 2023, setting a precedent for companies such as Amazon, which is asking employees to return full-time starting in January. .
Supermarket chain Asda also strengthened its stance. make it mandatory Thousands of employees at offices in Leeds and Leicester will spend at least three days a week at their desks from the New Year.
Stirling said in a statement: “Mr. Sterling recently formalized a long-standing practice in which colleagues are encouraged to work two to three days a week in local offices. Our goal is to , bringing colleagues together in person for greater collaboration that benefits our customers.
“Human resources managers can provide additional support to colleagues with health or other personal needs. Companies with fully remote or flexible arrangements are already maintaining those conditions.”
