In one of his first acts as CEO Raman Bhatia (pictured) insisted that all hybrid staff—many of whom were in the office only one or two days a week or on an ad hoc basis—travel to work for a minimum of 10 days each month. It seems that Bhatia was worried that staff would not be able to listen to PowerPoint presentations about cheese being moved, would no longer pick up management mantras and jargon, and may not even know what a paradigm is or how to kick the ball running.
Officially, the reason was: "By bringing colleagues together in person, our aim is to achieve greater collaboration that will benefit our customers as we enter Starling's next phase of growth."
However, according to the Guardian. in his enthusiasm to get staff back to the office, Bhatia forgot how much his bank saved on office space by having them work from home.
The bank, which operates online only, admitted that some of its offices would not be equipped to handle the influx. In a physics-defying statement, the bank’s HR team said it was “considering ways in which we can create more space.”
Starling has 3,231 staff members, most of whom are in the UK, with some also in Dublin. However, the Guardian understands that the bank has only about 900 desks, including 260 at its Cardiff site, 320 in its London headquarters and 155 in Southampton.
The bank has 160 more desks in its newest site in Manchester. It has signed a 10-year lease to occupy the fifth floor of the Landmark building, which also houses Santander UK and HSBC staff.
However, some staff have already resigned over the "rushed" announcement, while others have threatened to do so.
One hacked off staffer posting in Slack said the changes had been “rammed down everyone’s throats despite their legitimate concerns”.
They also accused Bhatia of trying to create a “bland grey corporate hellscape filled with dead-eyed zombies who care about nothing more than doing the bare minimum, clocking off and collecting a paycheque”.
Bhatia responded in a company-wide email, saying he was “surprised” to hear that the policy was unexpected and that he had spoken about getting staff back in the office two or three days each week “over the last few months. The leadership team has been thinking for some time about how to operationalise this because we share a conviction that working in the office is important for creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, performance, and engagement.”
Given that he and his managers work in the office, it is surprising that this magic engagement, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and performance did not rub off on them.
No one appears to have thought: “Hang on. We need a few more desks before we push this idea through.”
It has been a bad few weeks for Starling. The Financial Conduct Authority fined Starling £29 million for discovering "shockingly lax" controls that left the financial system "wide open to criminals." These included failures in its automated screening system for individuals facing government sanctions.