We told you last week that firms were conducting different types of surveillance on their advisors. We also told you that BofA/Merrill was the worst offender. But it’s worse than that.
Beyond surveying your bank accounts (which can be mildly defended just in case you take side payments from ‘Grandma Jones’), BofA is now firing advisors for elements of sexting.
So personal behavior, which certainly isn’t any sort of crime and is done outside the confines of the bank itself, is now grounds for dismissal. Amazing.
Follow this for a minute. You receive a ‘free’ corporate phone, under the guise of monitoring client communications, they also spy on your personal conversations, then decide which of those seem to breach some sort of code of conduct, they then catalog it, and then you’re fired.
Nothing like a new and novel way to built culture and trust in your employer. And FYI – everyone reading this realizes that those phones can track your every location and move as well right?
So the story about being forced to own a ‘burner phone’ while working at Merrill now makes all the sense in the world. Amazing.
The most egregious of this current batch of firing was a broker, who asked to remain anonymous, shared messages via LinkedIn. Those LinkedIn DM’s were deemed inappropriate, even though they weren’t affiliated with anyone based in the wealth management industry whatsoever. After 22 years with Merrill, this advisor was fired.
Read that paragraph again. Your phone, LinkedIn, and private messages are being surveilled by BofA.
Tell me again why you are still there?
