Starling Bank staff have accused new chief executive Raman Bhatia of creating a ‘grey corporate hellscape’ after issuing a return to office policy despite the lack of desks to accomodate the employee influx.
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Bhatia has ordered all hybrid staff – many of whom were in the office only one or two days a week, or on an ad-hoc basis – to travel to work for a minimum of 10 days each month.
“We are aware that in some office locations we may not be able to accommodate 10 office working days per month for everyone right now. We are considering ways in which we can create more space,” an email sent by Starling’s human resources team and seen by the Guardian said.
Starling has 3,231 staff, the vast majority 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 a further 160 desks in its newest site in Manchester, where it has signed a 10-year lease to occupy the fifth floor of the Landmark building, which also houses Santander UK and HSBC staff.
The announcement led to complaints from staff on the company’s internal Slack messaging channels, with many highlighting the lack of desk and parking spaces.
One aggrieved staffer posting in Slack, with more than 100 likes, 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”.
Writing in a company-wide email, Bhatia said he was “surprised” to hear that the policy was unexpected. “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”.
Starling said in a statement: “Starling recently formalised a longstanding practice in which colleagues were encouraged to work in their local office for two to three days a week. 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.
“People managers are able to provide additional support to colleagues with wellbeing and other personal needs. Those with fully remote or flexible arrangements in place already remain on those terms.”
