Redundancy season

Good morning AusCorp. The new FY is truly underway with inflation still higher than expected and rate cuts “imminent” depending on who you ask.

Trump’s tariff policies have finished making its rounds across mainstream news and media, so together with our team at Pick & Scroll, this edition of Flat White will be covering recent redundancies, parental leave policies and some of the toxic workplace stories that didn’t make the cut from our survey a while back.

After our recent hiatus, The Aussie Corporate is now back in full swing!

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💡 Brain’s Trust

1. Reporting Redundancy Season

This time of year, companies should be walking into Q2 reporting season but it seems that redundancies are back on the table (or so we've heard). The redundancy list from last week reads like a who's who of Australian business with Atlassian, Bank of Queensland, Endeavour Group, Westpac, ING, Lendlease, Lendi and Capgemini all making the cut(s). Bupa saw teams across the board get dissolved, days after they got hit with a $35M fine from the ACCC for misleading conduct and publicly scaling back their 4-day work week trial.

The turmoil continues in banking with Macquarie and Westpac supposedly also quietly culling roles for a while now, with a new round of redundancies currently hitting Westpac's private wealth, digital, business and consumer banking teams over the past month. CBA has also decided to replace 45 of its front-line service staff with AI. Anyone who's tried to get actual help from a chatbot knows exactly how that customer experience is going to play out. Whether this all changes with the next generation of autonomous agents, we’d be curious to see how lenient an AI bot can be when helping to refinance your mortgage.

It also looks like ANZ and Suncorp's merger synergies are really showing through in the form of their "harmonisation strategy". Redundancies might be a byproduct of your typical M&A strategy but for anyone working at Suncorp at the moment, natural attrition seems to be the more cost effective alternative to voluntary redundancies...

Anyone know a company that's actually increasing headcount? Let us know via DM or reply to this email!

2. The Parental Leave Lottery

Last week we asked what your company's parental leave policy looked like, and the responses ranged from "world-leading" to "absolute joke". While the legal minimum is 12 months unpaid (plus 20 weeks government pay where appropriate), most decent companies are offering 16-26 weeks of full pay for primary carers. That's become the new benchmark, which means anything less feels like your employer is saying "congratulations on your life-changing moment, here's the bare minimum so you don't take us to Fair Work".

When compared to those doing the minimum, the standouts are quiet impressive - UNSW offers 36 weeks full pay, Salesforce throws in $50k for IVF support and Deloitte lets you ease back into work with a 4-day work week. On the flip side, you have companies offering "nothing," reducing existing benefits, or one particularly grim example where a male employee was denied primary carer leave while his wife returned to work.

Given that raising a child now costs more than most people's annual salary, the difference between a good and terrible parental leave policy isn't just about time off but whether your employer sees family as a priority or just an inconvenience to their bottom line.

3. Dry July Horror Stories

As we wave goodbye to dry July, you might've seen our Instagram post about toxic workplace stories doing the rounds. While some of the highlights featured the return of self-funded pizza Christmas parties or cancelled AFR subscriptions, we also received submissions of corporate behaviour so appalling you'd wish your employer asked you to come back to the office 4 days a week.

We're talking about managers making redundancies in hallways because "this won't take long," and one particularly charming leader who made everyone on parental leave redundant while hosting a Christmas party with the theme "whanau/family." Our personal favourite? The company that sent an annual gift voucher email to all staff - except it's actually a phishing test, because nothing says "happy holidays" like corporate trust issues.

The pattern is depressingly familiar with companies preaching values while practising the opposite. Whether it's retracting pay rises after someone resigns, giving promotions without pay increases, or even labelling a colleague that committed suicide as “problematic” before sending around a donation link, the disconnect between corporate PR and reality has never been starker.

If any of these stories sound familiar, know that you're not alone in this mess. While we can't offer financial or career advice, we're here to lend an ear, share a knowing eye-roll, or remind you that sleeping in toilet cubicles during lunch breaks because of excessive work hours isn't "dedication", it's a workplace safety violation masquerading as culture.

Of the 500+ or so submissions we received:

• 22% were related to job security & layoffs, PIPs, redundancies and unfair terminations;

• 23% were related to HR & company policies - unfair leave and vacation days;

• 18% were related to pay and compensation;

• 17% were dedicated to poor management and leadership;

• General work place culture got 14%;

• And 6% were "severe" ethical lapses...

Let us know if your story should've made the cut, or better, let us know what good your employers have done recently.

 🗞️ Workplace Watch

1. HSBC prepares to sell its Australian retail banking unit, with Citi leading the process following NAB's $1.2B acquisition. LINK

2. Scyne Advisory reduces workforce to 950 employees amid leadership departures and business challenges. LINK

3. Top law firms are using unconventional screening methods whilst offering $110,000 starting salaries to graduate lawyers. LINK

4. Qantas has implemented a clean-shaven policy for all pilots to ensure emergency oxygen mask effectiveness. LINK

5. Macquarie has begun preparing for AI disruption in equity analyst roles, particularly affecting junior positions across the industry. LINK

6. KPMG's public service consulting work has reduced to $106M from $300M due to decreased Defence contracts. LINK

7. An increasing number of Gen Zs are choosing to focus on expertise over leadership as a path to career satisfaction. LINK

 🗞️ On Your Minds

🇦🇺 TOP AUSTRALIAN NEWS RECAP

1. Financial firms face retention challenges as 81% of young, wealthy clients plan to change advisers after inheritance. LINK

2. Immigration-driven demand has accelerated house price growth in development-ready suburbs across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. LINK

3. Australians are booking 59% of Christmas travel overseas to Bali, Tokyo and Auckland whilst couples comprise 32% of travellers as lower airfares drive demand. LINK

4. The Australian Parliament has passed legislation to reduce student debts by 20% as its first act of the 48th Parliament. LINK

5. Financial analysis shows renters who invest in property could be $116,000 better off over 10 years than owner-occupiers. LINK

🌏 THE ODD PICKS

1. Women can lose up to $1M in lifetime earnings due to daily career decisions affected by societal conditioning. LINK

2. Time Magazine has provided their top 100 podcasts of all time so if you need a new recommendation, they've got you covered. LINK

3. If you have an Australian passport and you're feeling slightly less powerful today, it could be because your passport was devalued in the passport power rankings.  LINK

4. A dietitian’s guide to the best foods before, after and during a cold. LINK

5. Gen Z doesn’t want to say ‘hello’ when answering the phone. LINK

🏉 Sports Catalogue

It’s been another big sporting month, both locally and abroad. The showpiece event in Australia has been the British and Irish Lions tour, which brought a wave of nostalgia for die-hard Wallabies fans who still dream of John Eales slotting penalty goals to beat the All Blacks in the 85th minute.

Despite the British & Irish Lions defeating the Wallabies 2-1, the Wallabies played well. They could have easily won Game 2 and generally won a lot of fan support throughout the series. Credit must go to the Lions’ fans, who turned up in huge numbers and drank their body weight in Guinness, helping to create a fantastic atmosphere.

Overseas, Tadej Pogačar claimed his fourth Tour de France in an incredible performance, beating his main rival Jonas Vingegaard by over 4 minutes. It was also a successful tour for Australians Ben O'Connor and Kaden Groves, who picked up stage wins in Stages 18 and 20, respectively.

At Wimbledon, Jannik Sinner and Iga Świątek claimed their respective singles titles. Golf fans watched Scottie Scheffler take out the British Open, while the England women’s team won the European Championship in a dramatic penalty shootout.

Something for everyone!

TOGETHER WITH

Doga Sydney - Corporate Cuddles & Puppy Yoga

R U OK Day is coming up soon so organise something for your team that will get your name up in lights. Real team bonding happens with puppies and not with a self-funded pizza party…

Forget the pub, escape rooms and bowling - we’ve got you covered with Corporate Cuddles and Puppy Yoga 🐶

We also hit a milestone in July with our Auscorp subreddit breaking past 100,000 members!

While we appreciate that the Reddit platform may not be for everyone (some blame the angry punters, the bots or even the UI), our Auscorp subreddit has become a community where you can share those inside thoughts that might just get you reported to HR, or a place where you can lean into the advice of fellow professionals as you climb that bureaucratic ladder.

These were the top few posts from last month to get you through this bleak Monday morning.

1. In light of the Coldplay incident; what is the wildest way a scandal got exposed at your company?

2. How this KPMG partner ignores teams calls

3. Anyone else schedule fake Teams meetings just to get some quiet time?

4. I was fired today… first time ever and it feels horrible 

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