Hey Everyone,
Last week I wrote about United Wholesale Mortgage Company and a Wall Street Journal puff piece chronicling the company’s decision to require all workers to return to the office five days a week.
Part two is where I dive into the CEO, Mat Ishbia’s declaration that UWMC is “kicking their [competitions’] ass.”
Generally, I try to avoid being hyperbolic and overly critical of any company’s leadership. After all, everyone has their own battles to fight. But when you make bold assertions in the WSJ, you invite scrutiny.
-Ben
🥾"Kicking their ass"🥾
Last week I wrote about the WSJ piece about United Wholesale Mortgage Company’s return to office policy. At the conclusion of the article, UWMC’s CEO, Mat Ishbia, provides his take on his company’s performance and its five-day-a-week return-to-office policy:
When executives at competitors call Mr. Ishbia and say they are hesitant to push their own workers back to the office, Mr. Ishbia said he jokes in response: “I tell them, ‘Let them stay home,’” he said. “I’m kicking their ass and having fun with it.
So I thought I’d fact-check that statement by comparing United Wholesales Mortgage Company to one of its chief rivals, Rocket Mortgage.
Why Rocket Mortgage? Besides being UWMC’s primary competition, they also have a fairly sane return-to-office policy where teams are given the flexibility to determine what works best for them. It’s hard to tell exactly, but it’s safe to say that many teams work remotely.
This post will demonstrate that draconian return-to-office mandates are, at least in the case of UWMC, a signal of executive delusion.
Spoiler: Mat Ishbia isn’t kicking ass.1
The Comparison
There are two ways that I looked at both UWMC and Rocket.
The first is employee sentiment. For that, I looked at Glassdoor. Glassdoor is a site where people can review, share salary information, and post about their employer. It’s anonymous and certainly not perfect, but at UWMC’s and Rocket’s scale, it gives us a pretty good idea of how each company’s employees feel about the company.
I also looked at stock performance. Again, this isn’t a perfect measure. Rocket Mortgage is part of the much bigger Rocket Companies, and since UWMC didn’t go public until 2021, it doesn’t have much of a track record. Nevertheless, I looked at the trailing twelve-month P/E ratio and analysts’ “buy” recommendations.
The Results
Bottomline: United Wholesale Mortgage isn’t kicking ass.
Across the board, UWMC employees rate their company as worse to work for and recommend working there at a much lower percentage than those at Rocket. Additionally, fewer analysts recommend buying the stock, and UWMC’s trailing twelve-month P/E ratio is markedly worse.
The Learning
Beware delusional and draconian return-to-office mandates. They’re a sign of a much bigger disconnect between leadership and reality.
Fun facts I learned while looking into Mat Ishbia: His dad founded the company, UWMC went public in 2021 via SPAC (📉🤦♂️), Mat started working there after graduating from Michigan State in 2003, he became CEO ten years later. He also owns 71% of the company, so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Related: Isn’t nepotism grand?