UWM (company of Sparty's Biggest Booster) in Hot Water
https://blinks.bloomberg.com/news/stories/RT0191T0AFB4
Saw this article on Bloomberg News this morning. Unfortunately I think it's behind a paywall for now, so I'll summarize.
Dozens of employees at Ishbia’s United Wholesale Mortgage discuss a locker-room environment at the company. Racism and sexually offensive remarks were common among sales staff.
As Stefon said in Saturday Night Live, this story has it all, including lots cocaine, and Isiah Thomas.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^
"Racism and sexually offensive remarks were common among sales staff."
That would be a first. /s
Maybe they hired Jon Reschke.
Damn, UM tunnel strikes again. That stadium corridor really is evil.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^
Guessing this will keep him too busy to extend Mel's contract for awhile..
then I say we just sweep it under the rug.
MeLLLLLLL deserves both a raise and an extension. I hope the Spartan boosters realize his value, and what an incomparable asset he is for the community.
SD4L
April 12th, 2023 at 12:36 PM ^
I have a friend who worked as a loan officer/loan writer at UWM. He said the culture was terrible. 80-90 hour weeks, no recognition, rude leaders, etc. Doesn't surprise me that these allegations have arisen.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:43 PM ^
I worked there too. Culture sucks and leadership is very thin skinned
Sounds very much on brand for Sparty.
Yeah, I was gonna say between this and the seismic, it sounds like Ishbia learned a lot from his time under Izzo.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to work in the mortgage industry.
You need the cocaine to work that much, then need more cocaine to deal with the work hours.
April 12th, 2023 at 10:25 PM ^
Yeah I know a couple people who went to work for that company. You are expected to be in your seat and stay there during the allotted hours (although you're encouraged to arrive early and leave late) even having time cards for salaried employees who generally work in excess of 40-hour weeks anyway, despite their 'Firm 40' policy which is a joke.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:36 PM ^
This blog gives Sparty way too much attention. I’ll leave it there.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
100% agree.
And how ironic on the same day that The Athletic published a long-form article on Michigan football calling us "The most intriguing team in America" in which Bruce Feldman says he thinks this is our year to win it all this warrants a thread but that doesnt.
I would make one myself but I've already hit my daily new topic quota complaining about how f'd up the shortcut to this place is.
I've struggled with how to moderate the odd influx of MSU non-sports content over time, although this is actually a fairly big regional story in Metro Detroit, so it's in some weird gray area, I guess, between rival school and a place where a sizeable portion of the blog's audience actually resides. The chances of this story ending up on MGoBlog were likely significant anyway. That said, I understand the complaint.
During non-OT season, it always seems that two Big Ten schools being a 70-minute drive from one another makes for some interesting posts. In mid-April, apparently we have the same issue but for different reasons.
Curious how relevant freep will find this story....
April 12th, 2023 at 12:41 PM ^
Apparently, office video has also leaked. I have to say I'm surprised Mat let them do this to Tom Izzo.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:53 PM ^
"Low key" one of the best posts ever.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
Harrumph. So good I logged in 6 days before the tax deadline to give it a thumbs up.
I agree but really struggle understanding the overuse of “low key” with todays youth.
I'm not young. But I said it because typically it is a gif that I would just see and not read the dialogue above it. Happened to read this one and catch the nugget about Izzo.
That's at least not nearly as bad as the misuse of "literally"
April 12th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
UWM is a weird place. A lot of my wife's childhood friends work there. Generally the ones who never really left home (went to Oakland/MSU/Grand Valley at the furthest, but resettled back in Macomb). A lot of them started out with the weird posts about how great UWM was and their culture. They have a basketball court! How cool! But as time went along some of them turned sour on the whole thing. The "perks" were nice, but they weren't there to really improve the employee experience so much as it was to try and shift the focus to a shiny object and hope people didn't realize their dislike of other parts of the company.
Also, I recall sometime around Covid Ishbia came out and had this long post about Rocket laying off employees and calling it heartless, contributing to the decline of Detroit, and that UWM never does layoffs. But if you peel that back, for starters UHM isn't "in" Detroit like Rocket is (not the same degree) so it's not like UWM is a "Detroit" company. If I remember correctly, Rocket did an ok job trying to find new positions for people or giving them a decent severance package so it wasn't like massive layoffs on a Tuesday that put a ton of people out of work the next day. And as for UWM, they might not "do" layoffs, but they would make the work experience so poor for people they'd leave on their own or they'd drum up performance issues to get rid of people. It never rose to the level of a formal layoff, but Ishbia essentially was arguing semantics. That all being said, not the biggest Gilbert-stan over here, just that I find Ishbia to be a bit sleazy.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:44 PM ^
All true
April 12th, 2023 at 12:51 PM ^
A place I used to work brought an ice cream truck around once a month and called it "psychic income" which they used to justify their under market salaries.
That sounds like something out of "Severance."
April 12th, 2023 at 11:43 PM ^
A place I used to work at said their name on our resumes justified a lower salary. If that doesn't encourage turnover, I don't know what will.
Watching From Afar,
I do remember a stretch where that one peer from HS who now works at UWM posted incessantly about how great working at UWM was. It was cultish until just stopped cold.
A Cavs-Suns NBA Finals would be very interesting…
I think Gilbert abstained from voting entirely during Ishbia's purchase. Which Ishbia then went on a Detroit news channel (I think it was Local 4) and called him out for it. Gilbert didn't vote no, he just didn't vote which honestly is probably the right thing to do. Ishbia just seems like a guy who takes every minor slight as a challenge to his very being. It's werid.
April 12th, 2023 at 11:10 PM ^
"a guy who takes every minor slight as a challenge to his very being."
I wonder where he learned THAT?
April 12th, 2023 at 11:17 PM ^
DISRESPEKT!!!!
April 12th, 2023 at 10:30 PM ^
If you ever look at glassdoor for this company, it's certainly eye-opening. Certain parts of the company have incredible employee churn so it's easy to do passive layoffs, just watch people go and don't replace them. They also mention the weird rah-rah after hours employee social functions which you're basically mandated to attend.
April 12th, 2023 at 11:15 PM ^
This tracks with what I’ve heard from a former employee — who quit because UWM reneged on a promised bonus.
Along these lines, I have always thought it was odd that UWM is the Pistons’ jersey sponsor and that it advertises on television. The company does not sell any retail product or service. It’s a mortgage wholesaler that plays an intermediary role in the assembly of mortgages for mortgage-backed securities. The only reason they would advertise is because they always need new employees. What kind of company needs to do that advertising to maintain a moderate size workforce? One that abuses its employees.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
Isbia??? More like Isbeing an asshole.... amirite?!?!?!?!
April 12th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
The Suns organization won't have to adapt much then.
I find it somewhat hilarious that the NBA force the Sun's owner to sell due to sexist and racist remarks, only to have it sold to another owner with identical issues. It is almost like the NBA doesn't really care and only forced the sell as a face-saving maneuver.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^
"You gotta get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers."
So long Jamari Howard....
Wait the company that gave Mateen Cleaves a corner office and upper management title right after his trial doesn’t have the best culture? No way.
Not just Mateen; there are several Sparty teammates on the roster:
Contrasting MSU then to UM now (not entirely fair), Ishbia was on the MSU team as a mascot of sorts (rather than than someone who had ability). Michigan had one of those during its championship run in the late '80s. His name escapes me.
Marc Koenig
Conflicted about Mateen Cleaves. There is all the baggage, and then there is the guy who I regularly see at a health club who is just a regular considerate dude shooting hoops with random kids and smiling and laughing the whole time.
People are complex. Some people really are totally great and some are total assholes, but most people succeed in some ways and fail in others. Most of the time, the failures are not of the variety that cancel out all of the good. And even when failures are of the variety that polite society will distance themselves from the offender, it still doesn't stop good conduct from happening now and then.
It's a reflection of internet culture that we too often think in binary terms of all good or all bad.
I don’t know if “well he seems like a nice guy” really helps the case vs Cleaves going from facing 15 years in prison for being caught on camera dragging a woman by her hair across a street into a nice comfy office is a great argument towards UWM’s culture.
I’m not disagreeing with you completely, but didn’t that case get thrown out by the COA because it shouldn’t have even survived preliminary exam? (It is an actual question, I don’t think it ever got to a jury).
i used to work at Rocket and they look at uWm with complete disdain, which i think is kind of funny since they are two huge mortgage companies 20 miles apart that are also msu cults. i will say Rocket is a fine company and would never tolerate any kind rampant abuse like is alleged. They are a cult though and you would never go anywhere in the ranks if you did not 100% swallow whole all the "isms" that define their cult.
Uhhhh phrasing