Pros
1. Compensation - Competitive pay, Would struggle to get this level of compensation in another company in the Northeast. 2. People – The people make the culture. Vast majority of colleagues are very friendly and are willing to go out of their way to assist each other.
Cons
1. Return to office mandate - Echoing the sentiments of recent reviews, the return to office mandate to 3 days has not gone down well. Morale in the office is low as everyone is complaining about the queues at lunch/for coffees, the level of noise in the office and the lack of parking. Work-life balance has been significantly affected as commuting to the office adds a minimum of 1.5 hours onto the day given how busy the traffic is around the area and how poor the public transport links are. Not a single person below senior management was consulted about this change (despite being told otherwise), which makes it clear that this entire program has been implemented as a sort of stealth redundancy program (i.e. annoying employees into leaving, which is cheaper than having to undergo a program) as opposed to productivity or “high-performance”. 2. Work-life balance - See above regarding return to office, but additionally I have interacted with colleagues who have been required to work evenings and weekends for months at a time because of hiring freezes and cost-cutting. There is also an imbedded culture of rewarding excellent performance with more work and throwing money at the problem hoping that will sort any issues. This culture needs to change, as talented individuals will not be able to cope and will leave the business. 3. Progression – In certain departments there are no clear progression routes which is disheartening if you are in a role you enjoy, as the options are either to stay at the same level and not progress or move into a different department. 4. Bonus targets - Unsure how these are set, but there is extreme misalignment between external messaging and internal bonus payouts. Can only assume they are set at a far too stretching level, which disincentivises high performance. 5. Accountability – There is a culture in certain departments to not accept work, even if it makes the most sense for them to do it; leads to frustration and poor relationships between departments.
