Ann: Notification of cessation of securities - NAB, page-21

I worked for NAB for several years and these are among the things I noticed which lend evidence to why NAB will always be a bottom-quintile perform among major banks globally:

• Lavish fortnightly morning teas (for each division) and weekly boys and/or girls' club sessions at the bar - all fully funded by shareholders. The amount of beer I've seen consumed on your dime would probably make you feel nauceous.
• Andrew Haggar.No other words are needed.
• Making senior-level employees redundant -> hiring a junior to do the same job -> realizing experience matters, so they make the junior redundant -> hire back the same senior employee initially made redundant at a higher salary or MUCH higher contract rate.
• Ken Henry. No other words are needed.
• Normal companies have one Christmas party for each of their major offices -> NAB has 1-2 for EACH division costing $30-60k each -> Each team also gets treated to $100/person lunches -> Clients are treated to $300 whiskies and private dining experiences. There are 50 divisions, 35,000 employees, thousands of contractors, and hundreds of what they refer to as "Platinum" and "Gold" customers. You do the math.
• John Stewart. LOL!
• Normal companies know which devices are assigned to you and have processes to ensure you return them -> NAB doesn't -> NAB effectively lets you keep your laptop, work phone, iPad, Mac... because they don't know you have it. Need I say more?
• MLC. LOL!
• Normal companies have processes in place to ensure any interstate/overseas trips you take are justified via managerial approval, and the company expects tangible outcomes from their investment. At NAB, there is a culture of basically going on trips for fun. You can justify a $1,000 flight from Sydney to Melbourne, or a $15,000 business class trip to the US, simply by saying "important meeting". Do you know who approves these trips? Executive assistants lol!

So when Ross McEwan makes public statements such as "Our shareholders are hurting and we need to share that pain" and undertakes actions like taking money from all of you at $14.15 to buy back stock at nearly $30, just remember that there are things executives are paid to say in public and then there are things and culture of largesse and incompetence that they encourage in private.