Pros
You will have a sense of being part of a community with shared values and the majority of colleagues genuinely want to serve their customers well. There is an enjoyable social side to the business, whether that's through the annual event laid on by the business each Christmas or the ad hoc nights out teams put together themselves. Pay at the senior levels is good, though some way to go at the more junior levels in some areas of the business. The pension scheme is very good - better than many organisations within the sector; other employment benefits are more typical of the sector. There are nearly always opportunities to progress and move around within the business - albeit that these arise as a result of a relatively high staff turnover - and existing colleagues generally get first dibs at those opportunities.
Cons
Professional accreditation is sought and valued within some of the technical business specialisms, but shockingly absent in others and this feeds through to poor customer outcomes on too many occasions. Almost every business activity is targeted and measured at a very granular level and the singular focus on these all too often gets in the way of the big picture of simply delivering a steady, solid and reliable service which is ultimately what customers really want. Prospective employees should note that the performance bonus scheme is based on achieving these targets and that the bonus pot (for those achieving their targets) isn't equally distributed - higher earners will get more, lower earners will get less. There is a somewhat top-down, command and control approach to management which is a problem for an organisation which seeks to attain a culture of trust. One of the more distasteful manifestations of this is the very clearly identifiable "inner circle" where the power resides.