It is no small matter what is currently happening to thousands of bank employees. Due to various reorganizations at their employers, they lose their permanent contracts.
For hundreds of ASN Bank employees, December 31 is the last day they are employed by the bank. In November, the bank announced that another 850 to 950 employees will have to leave the field next year – they will face an uncertain Christmas. Thousands of jobs will also disappear at ABN Amro and De Nederlandsche Bank in the coming years.
Banks have a lot of experience with this: reorganizations have been the order of the day in recent decades, due to mergers, credit crisis, euro crisis and digitalization. Not all jobs are being eliminated by firing people – vacancies are also not being filled, retirees are not being replaced, temporary contracts are not being extended and people are being shifted internally to other positions. But for the people who are actually forced to leave, these reorganizations mean a huge change.
The banks have always had good social plans, the unions say. Where this used to consist mainly of a bag of money, it now also includes extensive guidance towards other work. But it is not easy – entering the labor market at the same time as thousands of others who sometimes have exactly the same experience.
What effect do these types of reorganizations have on people? Several (former) bank employees shared their experiences after a call via LinkedIn NRC.
For the people who are having a hard time with it, and the people who have not yet found a new job, it is difficult to talk about this with their name in the newspaper. Because as part of the dismissal process, they are not allowed to speak ill of their current employer. Or because they are afraid that their name in the newspaper in a piece about dismissal will not go down well with potential new employers.
A millennial employee at ASN Bank agreed to talk about his dismissal under the condition of anonymity – the editors know his name and ASN Bank read along without knowing his name to check the facts. NRC lets him speak anonymously to show as many sides of a reorganization as possible.
After the general announcement that there would be a reorganization – fewer branches, fewer jobs, fewer brands – the ASN employee heard in February that he was one of the people who had to leave. Rationally speaking, he supports the reason for the reorganization at his employer. “The fact that we initially had four brands meant that we were doing quadruple work in a sense. Four times administration, four times changing things, four times communicating about it to customers.” But he doesn’t understand that he and all the colleagues who did the same at the other brands all have to leave, because that work has to be done for that one brand.
For a long time he held out hope that a position would become available for more or less the same position. He kept that hope when he was released from work from July 1. “That also meant that I only had one contact with the mobility manager I received from the bank.” That manager is part of a ‘mobility center’ at ASN, which offers guidance to employees who lose their jobs.
Hopes largely evaporated when the bank announced a second reorganization in November. “Then I mentally said goodbye to the idea that I would have a future at ASN.” Although he still keeps an eye on the bank’s internal vacancies, people affected by the reorganization have priority.
He only spoke to the coach he spoke to at the mobility center four times. “I’m young, I thought, I know what I want. And I expected to be able to find another job soon.”
That turns out to be disappointing, now that he has been actively searching since November. “Similar positions don’t appear to be easy to pick up after all. And I actually want to continue working in the sector. I’ve only been working there for four years, I’m finally starting to understand banks. But now I’m considering other sectors. Ultimately, I’m not worried. At least, the main question now – if it doesn’t work out at this bank – is whether I will find something that I will enjoy as much as working at ASN.”
Three other people – all three of whom experienced multiple reorganizations – were willing to tell their stories by name:
Rob de ReeSaying goodbye still hurts
Rob de Ree (1958) started in 1982 at what was then Amro. Five years later he experienced his first reorganization, and many more followed after that. “It was also exciting for me a few times. Can I stay in the bank or not?”
After his first position at an Amro office, De Ree entered the personnel profession at the bank: he became an HR employee. The merger of his Amro with the ABN in 1991 had a significant impact on his work. He had to integrate the staff of both banks. But at the same time the HR organizations were also merged.
“I then moved into organizational consultancy, ultimately as an ‘implementation manager’ from the office in Eindhoven. This meant that I had to roll out the plans from the head office in Amsterdam to the local branches.” From 2009 onwards, Brabander De Ree had to travel to Amsterdam as a project manager. “The organization was then set up in such a way that management and part of the implementation were arranged from the head office.”
It turned out to be difficult for De Ree to find work as a 60-year-old
The 2017 reorganization was ultimately his last: he lost his job on January 1, 2018. Banks have long been known as parties with very generous lump sum payments – during the credit crisis, some continued to be paid for two years. According to De Ree, that generosity was considerably less when he had to leave. “I did receive a good amount of money. I thought: if I don’t have too many setbacks, I will survive until I retire, if I can no longer find a job.”
De Ree does not look back with resentment: the bank was a good employer. “But my farewell? That still hurts. I experienced that period as lonely. On December 31, I handed in my card and laptop and left the building alone. A former colleague, who noticed this, came to Amsterdam especially for me to have a cup of coffee with me. But the fact that there was nothing else, after so many years at the bank, more than 35, that still affects me.” De Ree later heard that more people had had such a bare farewell. “On paper it is well arranged, such a reorganization. But my department had already been dismantled, the manager was already elsewhere.”
De Ree eventually found no other job. He received an offer at another bank the first year after his departure, but chose to focus solely on training for a marathon that year. “I made that promise to myself, and I had to keep it.”
After that, it turned out to be difficult to find work as a sixty-year-old. “I came close three times, but was rejected.” De Ree then succeeded in ‘singing it out’. “I budgeted tightly, I knew exactly how much I could spend. Now that I am of state pension age, the ‘money truck’ comes by again every month.”
Corine Schreurs
Corine Schreurs started in her twenties, after graduating from secondary economic and administrative education (meao, equivalent to what is now MBO), at the branch of SNS Bank in Enschede. First behind the counter, then she provided mortgage advice. “When I became pregnant with my second, there was a reorganization going on and I raised my hand. Then I looked after the children at home for six years.”
An attempt afterwards to find a job outside banking came to nothing. “Then I left my CV with all the banks, and I was able to start working at ING in Enschede in no time.” Schreurs ultimately worked there for 12.5 years. First sixteen hours a week, and then 24 hours.
At ING she also made the first customer contact in a branch, for business and private customers. “But at a certain point I really didn’t like the work anymore. Look, I support digitization. We have to keep up with society. Only: because of that I no longer saw the nice customers. At a certain point I was only busy getting people to replace their passwords.”
I had a lot of work experience! Only specifically at a bank
In order to leave banking, Schreurs realized she needed a college degree. “I did work at higher professional education level, and was also looking for a job at that level, but I did not have the diploma.” At the bank’s expense, she was then allowed to take a higher professional education course in 2018: business administration, in an accelerated project. When ING reduced its branch network in 2020, Schreurs again had the opportunity to leave voluntarily.
Schreurs then encountered the next hurdle: she had been a ‘banker’ all her life, and the institutions she applied to could not see through that. “The municipality of Enschede allowed me to call about why I had been rejected. They said: you don’t have the experience we are looking for. But I had a lot of work experience! Only specifically at a bank. Then I said: I want to do an internship with you. To gain work experience in another industry. And that was allowed! Also from the UWV.”
Schreurs has been working at the GGD Twente for a few years as a project employee. She still finds it strange that it was so difficult for her to find work as a bank employee. “People think that at the bank you only deal with finances. Business accounts, investing. But at the bank I learned how to deal with people. You receive constant training at banks. And you become very flexible: when I worked at ING I had to apply for a new position four times. And we are used to organizing everything tightly. That was really different at the municipality. What I especially want to say to the recruiters who are now receiving bankers: hire them!”
Linda VervloetTime for something new
Linda Vervloet (1979) started at SNS Bank in a secretarial position. In the 24 years she subsequently spent at the former insurance branch Reaal, BLG Wonen and ultimately Regiobank, she experienced several reorganizations. “But these reorganizations have brought me further each time. The bank allowed me to take a training course. I did an internal traineeship.”
At Reaal, Vervloet entered the marketing profession, after which she ended up working at Regiobank for the longest time: thirteen years. There she experienced three reorganizations, each time having to apply for a new position and being able to move up each time. “I was given the opportunity to work there as a communications advisor. During the next reorganization I became head of communications. And during the next reorganization I was given responsibility for the brand as fire lead.”
I have actually been saying for ten years: I want to start a business
The current reorganization actually seemed to result in a similar situation again. “First I contributed to the repositioning of the ASN brand. To include the Regiobank in this. Then the moment came again: my position will be eliminated. Do I want to continue? I had to identify my motivation for this. And then I thought: now is the time for something different.”
That had been going on for some time. “I have actually been saying for ten years: I want to start a business. But yes, that was quite a big step. Especially when you are used to so many guarantees. In terms of income, but also the secondary employment conditions are good at a bank.” The reorganization was another opportunity for Vervloet, this time to take a leap outside. As part of the social plan, ASN provided her with an external coach who helped her think about entrepreneurship. “I thought: I would be crazy not to do it now.”
Vervloet will remain in the financial sector: she will help independent financial advisors set up their brand and communication, with the help of artificial intelligence. “That may make this step easier. I will still remain in the world.”
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