Leaked posts from NAB’s internal social networking platform show staff confessing they felt ‘defeated’ by the bank’s worsening culture, just hours after a colleague took his own life at its Melbourne headquarters.

The conversation between three workers appeared on the Big Four bank’s internal ‘Engage’ platform, from March 5 – the day a man from the fraud department took his own life from the roof of NAB’s Docklands building.

The suicide took place after 2pm on a Thursday, when his colleagues were returning to the office after lunch.

While the reason for his death is unclear, a number of workers at NAB – Australia’s second largest bank – told Daily Mail about their own mental breakdowns and suicide attempts following what they described as relentless and targeted bullying by managers.

One former employee, John Horwood, previously revealed he seriously contemplated taking his own life twice – most recently in December, from the same rooftop as the man from the fraud department.

In the leaked conversation, staffers took aim at NAB’s governance teams ‘who don’t actually do any work themselves’, along with the ‘inadequate’ responses by CEO Andrew Irvine during a Q&A session.

One worker of 30 years said they were struggling to remain optimistic, ‘given today’s tragedy’, and that they’d given up trying to offer constructive feedback through staff surveys.

Another wrote: ‘I’ve been thinking about the complexity of our environment and I think it’s a lot worse than it used to be, to the point where it’s probably affecting my mental health.’

One worker took aim at NAB’s CEO Andrew Irvine (pictured) whose responses at a Q&A session were ‘inadequate’

Leaked posts from NAB’s internal networking platform, Engage, show staff saying they felt ‘defeated’ (pictured)

One NAB staffer referred to the suicide of an employee on March 5 (pictured)

The conversation took place in early March, and began because one employee didn’t want to fill out the bank’s internal Heartbeat survey – a biannual questionnaire designed to measure colleague engagement, risk culture and performance.

Surveys are touted by the bank as anonymous opportunities for employees to provide meaningful feedback, but a number of workers told the Daily Mail managers can get access to their team’s survey comments.

He wrote: ‘I might be finally defeated and giving up on being endlessly optimistic – I must be old and grumpy.

‘I am not doing the Heartbeat survey because I had previously done them assiduously and I have concluded that lack of listening by management is the biggest problem. 

‘However, management do seem to care about survey participation rate.’

They said the best way to provide feedback was by posting feedback on the internal networking platform instead, and directly referred to the suicide while wondering whether they were right to describe themselves as an optimist.

‘Given today’s tragedy … maybe [saying that I was an] optimist was optimistic … I have made serious attempts at constructive criticism over the years,’ they wrote.

‘Real improvement at NAB will make NAB a better place.’

They also listed a range of things they believed NAB did well, before a second worker said the complexity of the environment was impacting their mental health (pictured)

The second worker said governance teams at NAB ‘don’t actually do any work’ (pictured)

The second worker also said they hoped cracks in the business would start to show (pictured)

They wrote a list of things NAB was doing well, which included fortnightly sessions with chief technology and operations officer Patrick Wright.

They had mixed feelings about a Q&A session with CEO Mr Irvine on March 26, three weeks after the suicide, which was called ‘ask me anything’.

The worker wrote: ‘[Mr Irvine] seems to be thinking about Australia long term, though be undermined (sic) by NAB’s offshoring.’

NAB has axed about 1000 jobs from its Australian workforce since October, opting instead for employees in India and Vietnam.

They said Mr Irvine ‘really tried to answer questions, ‘though some he needed more time to ponder and, as such, gave inadequate answers’. 

A second staffer said they had been thinking about the ‘complex’ environment at NAB, saying, ‘and I think it’s a lot worse than it used to be, to the point where it’s probably affecting my mental health’.

‘In the current environment of governance teams who don’t actually do any work themselves … and these disparate stakeholder groups rarely reconcile priorities with each other.’

They also said they were ‘almost cheered up by the sharp increase in complexity’ because it meant cracks in the business might begin to show, but said ‘the experience is nonetheless very stressful at the moment’.

A newer employee said it was ‘never great to hear’ that an optimist was feeling defeated (pictured)

NAB’s Docklands headquarters is pictured

They said the applications team had been ‘papering over the cracks’. 

A third employee who was new to the bank said: ‘It’s never great to hear that an optimist is feeling defeated.’

A NAB spokesperson told Daily Mail: ‘NAB supports all colleagues to raise genuine concerns or allegations of wrongdoing and has clear policies and independent channels to ensure concerns and allegations are taken seriously, assessed fairly, and without retaliation.

‘That commitment is fundamental to our culture. Our processes meet all our legal and policy obligations, and they are applied regardless of who is involved.

‘I reiterate that if our colleagues have specific concerns, we want to hear about them so they can be heard and appropriately addressed.

They also said NAB has more than 40,000 employees and colleague engagement surveys place the bank within the top quartile benchmarks. 

‘We know we don’t always get it right, but we are committed to listening and creating an environment where our colleagues are heard on matters that are important to them.

‘If a current or former employee has concerns or specific allegations we encourage them to contact FairCall, our independent anonymous whistleblower service operated by KPMG.’

A man from NAB’s fraud sector took his own life at the Docklands office building (scene pictured)

It comes after a number of former NAB employees told Daily Mail about how their experiences at the bank led to mental breakdowns.

One former staffer said he resorted to alcohol abuse in 2021 because of the same systemic bullying that drove his friend and colleague – a married father-of-three – to suicide almost a decade earlier. 

Others say they were the victims of targeted redundancies for speaking out against the bank, or fired after being placed on performance improvement plans because unfair dismissal claims are often cheaper than redundancy payouts.

Another worker recalled being trapped in a small office and being verbally abused by a manager.

Regarding the worker who took his life, Victoria Police confirmed it attended an incident in the CBD on March 5.

‘Police will prepare a report for the coroner following the death of a man in Docklands on March 5,’ a police statement read.

‘The body of a man, who is yet to be formally identified, was located on Bourke Street about 2pm.’

If this has raised any issues for you, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636 for confidential crisis support.

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