Lagging morale - Research Analyst AllianceBernstein Employee Review

AB is a solid mid-sized company with a really good work-life balance. The culture is friendly and supportive.

Compensation is relatively lower compared to larger firms, especially big tech or larger financial institutions.

I like most of the people I work with, and many of them feel the same about the Cons I am going to list.

The company changes depending on the current political administration. They put politics over people. 2020-2024 we saw pushes for work-life-balance and DEI. Now in 2025, we are working 4 days in office and the culture is changing drastically. Many of our work from home "exceptions" were taken away, including being sick. A senior leader even told the organization in a Town Hall to use PTO if your children are sick... Paternity leave was just cut from 16 to 8 weeks without any formal announcement to employees. Most of the firm found out in a Q&A session with the COOs almost 2 months after the change was made. Maternity leave for “non-birthing” mothers have also been reduced to 8 weeks. Employee Resource Groups are being rebranded to not offend people (i.e. the women’s group can no longer have a mission statement that mentions “women” even though their events were never exclusionary). Signs about “gender expression” were put up outside the bathrooms and removed in 24 hours without announcement. The company goes back-and-forth on their policies and stances. We are promised big things that will only be reversed a year later. Most of our flexibility and benefits have been entirely lost. AB’s health insurance is also insanely expensive and doesn’t cover much.