ANZ Bank crisis: Staff are revolting against new CEO Nuno Matos on Reddit

Australia’s corporate culture of surveillance and conformity faces a revolt from disgruntled ANZ Banking Group staff, who are using social media platform Redditt to post running commentaries on the the bank’s problems and those of new chief executive Nuno Matos.

For weeks, ANZ staff have anonymously ridiculed the CEO, rubbished senior management, slammed the culture, and complained their bonuses will be cut in an online window to a workplace rocked by 4,500 job cuts and regulatory scandals.

On Monday, a new Reddit thread for ANZ staff stoked more venom toward its CEO and senior management in response to the bank’s $240 million fine for widespread misconduct that regulator ASIC is seeking to impose for failings, which include charging fees to dead people, incorrectly calculating bonus interest on savings accounts, and ignoring hardship pleas from vulnerable clients.

The fiery mix of online anger included sexually vulgar insults, accusations of corruption, incompetence, and a running commentary that mocked a Monday afternoon all-staff meeting to discuss the bank’s regulatory scolding.

One Reddit user posted: “All staff event to be held by (CEO) Nuno (Matos) today. Regarding the ASIC fine. But also to probably tell us how much he loves us as he fires us.”

Other anonymous employees responded to the thread, with vulgar complaints that they were getting “f..cked” by the bank and its CEO.

Others on Reddit blamed management for the perception that annual bonuses under the bank’s Group Performance Dividend (GPD) scheme will be cut this financial year as a consequence of the operating scandals.

The bank’s bond trading and markets division has also come under fire after ASIC sought to impose a $125 million fine on it. Some of ANZ’s trading staff seem to view the Wolf of Wall Street movie as more a behavioural guide than a cautionary tale, according to their colleagues.

“I’ve said this for years: You can work your ass off, do everything right, act with utmost integrity and the incompetence and corruption of our so-called ‘leaders’ keep running this company to the ground, and your reward is a reduced bonus,” said one Reddit poster.

Another employee declared their hostility to the bank. “Hope the share price goes subterranean,” said they wrote. “I survived (the job cuts) but will still not be taking my variable pay as shares this year and will still start selling the ones I have as soon as possible. Turns out that spite motivates me so much more than long term gains.”

ANZ shares, which were trading at 32.82 Tuesday, have been the worst-performing of big-bank shares since the scandal broke early last year.

Employment law

ANZ declined to comment on the chaotic Reddit forums, which likely contain their fair share of the sewer politics, misinformation, and narcissism that’s a hallmark of social media.

In fact it’s unlikely the poisonous forums represent the bank’s culture and consensus views of all staff, with employment law experts warning the Reddit rebels face a potential comeuppance.

“If I were an ANZ employee I would keep my grizzling to around the dinner table in the privacy of my own home,” said Sydney University Professor and employment lawyer Joelle Munton.

“This reminds me of the case of Michaela Banerji who was sacked from her government job when it was discovered she was posting anonymously on a social media site, criticising her department’s policies. Her case went all the way to the High Court. She claimed freedom of expression, but she lost.

“There are other cases where employees have criticised employers or fellow employees on social media and lost their jobs. They try to argue it was private comment, like whinging at the pub after work, but in most cases it’s held that these sites are very public and obvious disloyalty to the employer can be valid grounds for dismissal.”

Social media and Charlie Kirk

The September 10 murder of conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk in the US has also lit a fire regarding sensitive issues around employees posting political or moral views on personal social media.

On Tuesday, it emerged a South Australian police employee is under investigation for social media posts celebrating Kirk’s murder.

Justine Wu, a legal consultant at Sprint Law, said there’s no explicit right to absolute freedom of speech in Australian workplaces. There is an implied right to freedom of political expression under the constitution, with other rights and obligations under employment laws dependent on complex legal variables.

“Employers may have the right to dismiss staff who post on social media, even anonymously and on their own devices outside work hours, if such posts breach company policies, incite hate, bring the business into disrepute, or compromise impartiality,” Ms Wu wrote.

On Tuesday afternoon the Reddit posts on ANZ continued to roll in to show that communications, public relations, and human resource professionals in corporate Australia now face a new, dynamic challenge in controlling the public agenda.