United Wholesale Mortgage wants everyone back in the office.
How’s that going? A case study in two parts.
Hey Everyone,
While prepping last month’s Good To Know, I revisited this Wall Street Journal article on United Wholesale Mortgage’s return to office policy.1
The article is one of those strange pieces where the journalism is either lazy, or the writers are winking at the reader in a “can you believe these people!?” way that indicates the source isn’t in on the joke.
But it doesn’t matter since no one currently at United Wholesale Mortgage comes across as thoughtful or self-aware. Regardless of the writer’s intent.
As I reread the article, I was struck by the confidence of United Wholesale Mortgage’s CEO, Mat Ishbia. Here was a guy who was so confident in his return to work mandate despite having no evidence that it was a good thing for his company (much less his shareholders). So I decided to take a deeper dive.
This post is a two-part case study. In part one, we’ll examine the WSJ article. In part two, we will compare United Wholesale Mortgage with its biggest competitor, Rocket Mortgage - a company with a very different approach to remote work.
Spoiler: These posts argue that return to office mandates are a good indicator of ineffective, feelings-based leadership.
Ben
United Wholesale Mortgage wants everyone back in the office.
Disclaimer: I can’t emphasize this enough, I’m not unilaterally pro remote work. I like having an office! It serves a purpose (and I often use mine).
What bothers me are the delusional RTO mandates by people who think that demanding a physical presence is a crucial element of effective leadership.
Speaking of, how’s it going at United Wholesale Mortgage? A company that recently demanded all workers return to the office 5 days a week.
The decision—made before many other companies asked workers to return—came at a cost. Roughly 500 employees quit United Wholesale Mortgage over the policy, Mr. Ishbia said. Those who did typically departed for other jobs six to 12 months after the mandate. Some of those employees indicated in exit interviews they left UWM because they wanted to work more from home, he said.
Oh, that’s too bad. Guess they weren’t “team players.” Let’s hear about those who left.
Archie Woods, 38, commuted into the office five days a week before the return policy went into effect so he could build relationships and be around company leaders. But he tired of the drive once roads got busier, and left UWM’s IT department last October.
Man, that’s a bummer. It sounds like he was a relatively engaged employee. Who else?
One who left was Joseph Danz, 27, who started at UWM in August of 2020 in the IT department and lives in Rochester, Mich. Mr. Danz said he enjoys working with others in person, but then several people he considered mentors left the company. He also got used to the convenience of being able to do tasks like laundry in the middle of the day when there was downtime. He resigned in April.
Man, another engaged employee from the usually tough-to-backfill IT department, is gone. Guess Joseph and Archie weren’t very good at collaborating in person five days a week.
But 500 employees (roughly 7% of UWMC’s workforce2) feels serious, so why would a boss want everyone back in the office?
Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “A lot of managers, and a lot of leaders, think that if they’re watching you, then you’re productive,” Mr. Cappelli said. “We know that’s not true.
Ohhhhh, so it’s because “a lot of managers” think that if they are watching you, you’re more productive. Even though we (not those managers) know that isn’t the case.
Has helpful anything come from UWM’s new RTO policy?
No.
But there’s a story where an AVP of Sales says that she likes working in the office because she enjoys seeing reps who may be struggling so she can help them.
Which begs the question: why does she have to see a rep struggling physically? Doesn’t she have the data/call listening technology/competent management team to know what is happening? Wouldn’t a struggling sales rep show warning signs before showing them physically? Signs that, and I’m just spitballing here, show up in much more measurable, objective, and tangible ways?
As a person who has managed multiple remote and in-person sales teams, I can tell you that one, probably two, things are going on with the “struggling sales rep” story:
It is total and complete bullshit.
This AVP of Sales couldn’t manage themselves out of a paper bag.
It is also worth noting that this anecdote is the only pro-RTO story from a source other than the CEO.
“Kicking their ass.”
Mat Ishbia, United Wholesales’s CEO, closes us out with this gem:
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.
Spoiler for next week: he’s not.
What we can learn from UWMC?
My biggest takeaway from this pro-return-to-office piece is that making decisions based on your feelings, like UWMC, is a bad idea.
Mr. Ishbia provides zero actual evidence that his decision to demand a five-day-a-week return to office has increased the value of his company. Instead, we get comically vague descriptions of the perceived cultural benefits. These benefits, it should be noted, aren’t exclusive to in-person work.
But United Wholesale Mortgage doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Next week I’ll look at how UWMC compares against their major competitor, Rocket Mortgage, a company with a very different approach to remote work.
The article is behind a paywall, which is for the best. You don’t need to read it.
Probably welcomed attrition given the current state of the US mortgage industry.