‘Getting the chop after 40 years’: The Reddit threads of disgruntled ANZ staffers

5 days ago 6

As ANZ Bank chief executive Nuno Matos has launched into shaking up the bank in the past four months, one of the more striking aspects of the upheaval has been the very critical, and very public, online reaction from some staff.

While ANZ has begun sweeping restructures and started culling 3500 jobs, some ANZ staffers have taken to online platform Reddit to vent and gossip.

It is a phenomenon that has given the media – and the wider public – new insights into how Matos’ agenda is being received in parts of ANZ’s workforce.

Some ANZ staff have taken to Reddit in response to changes from new chief executive Nuno Matos.

The social media platform has meant disgruntled workers can anonymously rail against their bosses, crack jokes, share gossip about what’s happening in their section of the bank, and support each other through a time of high anxiety.

Matos, who started in May and was not well known in the Australian banking scene before that, has made no secret of his desire to drive cultural change at the bank, this week declaring the deep job cuts were “very tough” but necessary.

ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos announced sweeping job cuts on Tuesday.

On Reddit, meanwhile, some ANZ workers have made fun of their boss – who is the subject of a weekly thread on the platform – from behind pseudonyms.

Referring to the Portuguese-born Matos by nicknames “Papi” and “El Nuno”, Reddit users have joked about Matos hoarding the chamomile tea (his morning drink of choice) on the executive level at ANZ’s headquarters in Docklands, in central Melbourne.

“There is no chamomile tea on L10 anymore. I suspect a certain connoisseur might be hoarding it,” one user wrote last week.

Another joke on the platform is that Matos is waiting at the turnstiles to check when people leave the Docklands building each day after work (ANZ says this is not true).

In other cases, bank staff are turning to Reddit to share information about which sections are being affected by job cuts, or to support each other.

One user wrote last week they were “getting the chop after 40 years”. “I’m still doing my best as I work out my time. I feel for those left behind – most already work like hounds and they’ll be asked to do more,” they wrote.

Other posts offer support. At the start of this week, one user wrote to wish their colleagues all the best for a “crazy week” and passed on a tip they’d received from a former boss: that looking for other employment options doesn’t cost you anything.

Some of the information published online has been highly embarrassing for the bank. An apology email sent to staff because some workers had been alerted they were being made redundant by an automatic email was published on Reddit before it appeared in the mainstream media.

‘We maybe don’t have those physical peer groups that we once had before, but we have these peer groups online.’

John Hopkins, a professor of management at Deakin University

Reddit was founded in the mid-2000s, growing over time into one of the largest online forums globally, with communities (“subreddits”) that discuss every interest or niche topic imaginable. Today, beyond sports and hobbies, employees are using the platform to discuss their workplaces – often anonymously – to voice concerns and share inside perspectives.

The use of Reddit in corporate Australia goes far beyond ANZ staff, of course. The “subreddit” r/auscorp has 211,000 members and is described as a place where professionals can “ask questions, seek career advice and discuss the latest company news and gossip”.

Professor of management at Deakin University John Hopkins said the trend did not surprise him as Reddit could provide a place where people could vent or share their thoughts about an employer.

“I suppose it’s just a reflection of the culture that we have today,” he said. “These people are upset and are turning to their keyboards for affirmation or support from like-minded individuals. We maybe don’t have those physical peer groups that we once had before, but we have these peer groups online.”

Hopkins cautioned that staff posting on Reddit should remember that once posts appeared online, it created a permanent record of their comment, “which could potentially lead to issues in the future for the individual who posted it”.

“Whilst users may think they are posting anonymously, it often doesn’t require too much detective work to identify the account owners, and their identities can sometimes be uncovered through methods like doxxing,” he said.

Matos on Tuesday described the plan to cut 3500 jobs, or about 8 per cent of ANZ’s workforce, as a last-resort measure, but argued the cuts were needed to simplify ANZ. After announcing the cuts, Matos held a call with people leaders from across the bank – a group numbering in the thousands.

The Finance Sector Union, which has slammed the move as a profit grab, held four online meetings with staff on Wednesday and has said it will challenge the cuts in the Fair Work Commission.

With David Swan

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