Do you enjoy the corporate environment?

[Make]

I think this white-collar culture of britain actually makes you do less useful work and more stuff that "seems" like work.

This is coming from a call centre though.

Also middle management just meddle and are incompetent.

Every time I've dealt with the big boys (program managers) they've been great. Middle sucks.

 

[antijoke]

Yep, July last year

They made everyone in my department in the London office redundant (apart from me). I then stopped enjoying the place, as my colleagues were awesome, so I walked in to a better role elsewhere.

Nice, all of my friends who work at CPW in the stores said it's such an awful place now since all the pay changes, they hate, yet they won't leave.

 

[Raymond Lin]

... management have to find some way to keep themselves busy.

And make themselves look like they are doing something to their bosses.

 

[The Dread Pirate]

In a word... no.

 

[krooton]

Nice, all of my friends who work at CPW in the stores said it's such an awful place now since all the pay changes, they hate, yet they won't leave.

Yep, the call centre functions were all moved up north, the subsequently outsourced to Capita.

So glad I got out when I did.

 

[Gilly]

My brain hurts... Pardon? I'm being thick.

LOL, sorry, just a throwaway comment about a date not coming any quicker than it does

 

[randomshenans]

This couldn't be more true. I was so annoyed with my manager's lack of ability to do anything, he was put in to a 360 review thing, where everyone had to do one in his team. Though, he's based in the US, I'm in Basel, and I'm the only fully English person over here, so he could easily work out my comments, and I was brutally honest.

He sat me down to discuss my feedback saying he didn't think it was very fair...

 

[Gilly]

I always put my name at the top of my review feedback for people, and I'm always honest.

Straight Talking

 

[Mr^B]

I enjoy 95% of it.

There's a bit of process/management malarky to deal with, but mainly I just get on with what needs to be done.

 

[agnes]

LOL, sorry, just a throwaway comment about a date not coming any quicker than it does

Ah, haha.

This couldn't be more true. I was so annoyed with my manager's lack of ability to do anything, he was put in to a 360 review thing, where everyone had to do one in his team. Though, he's based in the US, I'm in Basel, and I'm the only fully English person over here, so he could easily work out my comments, and I was brutally honest.

He sat me down to discuss my feedback saying he didn't think it was very fair...

I always put my name at the top of my review feedback for people, and I'm always honest.

Straight Talking

Yep, happened to me too. 6 of us had a new manager, spoke to my director saying I wasn't happy with the new manager and wanted to give some feedback on things that might improve things for the team.

no one else really bothered to speak up in fear of being singled out. I told my director I genuinely didn't mean anything more than just constructive criticism and I didn't want him knowing I had said anything.

The next day, I was pulled into a meeting with my boss and he said he wasn't happy I went behind his back to discuss issues with the director...

Needless to say, I left the company on my own terms shortly after but it's like that everywhere.

 

[Suarez7]

I always put my name at the top of my review feedback for people, and I'm always honest.

Straight Talking

Best way tbh

 

[D.P.]

At the moment I'm [unfortunately] on a temporary secondment within a global bank, having been here for a month so far I feel I'm in a position to express my annoyance at the culture and politics.

Coming from an agency side background, I find it tedious, unfriendly and totally annoying.

For example, pulling staff away from their work to have pointless two hour long meetings everyday; just to discuss how better to improve project management processes, deadline handling and tasks everyone already has digitally been assigned to, is just ridiculous. There's definitely more time spent standing around the post-it note walls than there is actually doing work. Any opportunity to stand around the post-it wall is jumped at.

The place is full of weedy little men who revel in any opportunity they get to tell management you aren't following the appropriate processes to the letter.

It's really opened my eyes to a world I'd rather not be involved in. I've only met two people so far that I'd actually sit down and have a drink with.

Anyone agree or feel the opposite? I don't mind being shot down for my opinion - could just be the banking industry but it's hellish in my eyes.

Banking, enough said really.

 

[Housey]

At the moment I'm [unfortunately] on a temporary secondment within a global bank, having been here for a month so far I feel I'm in a position to express my annoyance at the culture and politics.

Coming from an agency side background, I find it tedious, unfriendly and totally annoying.

For example, pulling staff away from their work to have pointless two hour long meetings everyday; just to discuss how better to improve project management processes, deadline handling and tasks everyone already has digitally been assigned to, is just ridiculous. There's definitely more time spent standing around the post-it note walls than there is actually doing work. Any opportunity to stand around the post-it wall is jumped at.

The place is full of weedy little men who revel in any opportunity they get to tell management you aren't following the appropriate processes to the letter.

It's really opened my eyes to a world I'd rather not be involved in. I've only met two people so far that I'd actually sit down and have a drink with.

Anyone agree or feel the opposite? I don't mind being shot down for my opinion - could just be the banking industry but it's hellish in my eyes.

Are these people working in compliance, risk or security perchance?

 

[pitchfork]

I hated corporate environment.

To me it's "cut costs and make as much money as possible at any expense, then give upper management huge bonuses for stealing the lower managements ideas", endless meetings, general dullness, attempts to get you to work over your contracted hours at every corner.

Much prefer public sector, more relaxed, not profit driven, cake, you get the odd stupid initiative but generally, and I've worked for a few public sector firms now. The firms are extremely well run in terms of management practise, it's easy to rise up the ranks (to an extent). They don't try and **** you over for all you are worth and then sell you down the river like in private sector, and that is how it should be.

But I would like to try working for a small firm with no hierarchy, much more informal I should think.

 

[oulton]

shifty that sounds dire

 

[krooton]

I hated corporate environment.

To me it's "cut costs and make as much money as possible at any expense, then give upper management huge bonuses for stealing the lower managements ideas", endless meetings, general dullness, attempts to get you to work over your contracted hours at every corner.

Much prefer public sector, more relaxed, not profit driven, cake, you get the odd stupid initiative but generally, and I've worked for a few public sector firms now. The firms are extremely well run in terms of management practise, it's easy to rise up the ranks (to an extent). They don't try and **** you over for all you are worth and then sell you down the river like in private sector, and that is how it should be.

But I would like to try working for a small firm with no hierarchy, much more informal I should think.

Cuts hit the public sector too, it's not all cushty and safe like the old days.

In fact, every year my gf has to find out if cuts are happening and who is at risk. It certainly wasn't an annual occurrence in the private sector companies I worked for.

 

[pitchfork]

Cuts hit the public sector too, it's not all cushty and safe like the old days.

In fact, every year my gf has to find out if cuts are happening and who is at risk. It certainly wasn't an annual occurrence in the private sector companies I worked for.

Private sector companies don't call it budget cuts.
"corporate restructuring" and "trimming the fat" spring to mind and they do it, not because they can't afford to keep the people, or even because they don't need them but because they want to deliver increasingly big dividends to shareholders (even if they haven't honestly earnt them) so that management can get a lovely fat bonus.

Private sector will operate in such a way as everyone is forced overcapacity, most private sector firms don't hire nearly as many workers as they should.

Where I work at the moment in public sector, if you do work overtime you get paid or you get time in lieu, on a flexitime system what is more, so even a couple of minutes overtime is recorded and collects over the year.

I'm not saying I have the best job security, but it's no worse than a lot of people in private sector.

And I'm certainly treated much better and much happier because my work is actually doing something good, not making some already rich person money to buy their entitled children BMW's.

There's more of a "job for life" culture here than in any private sector firm what is more. Because they want good skilled people and they want to retain them. Pay peanuts, get monkeys and that's in more than the wage packet.

 

[elmarko]

I don't, but that's because most of my work outside of predictive modelling is related to evaluating business cases & benefits realisation analysis (which, as the people who set them are idiots tends to show that some pretty expensive & extensive business plans have been a complete waste of time & money).

The fact people manage to get highly funded projects without a viable business case is simple mind boggling, then to make matters worse - when a business case is produced the people they get to assess them don't have the skills required to critique them.

Finally, after this massive fruitcake of idiocy is passed around the business I'm then asked to determine the benefit of a given campaign or process change (first question... "Did you use a control group?" - .... them... "What's a control group?".

People in the business/corporate world are just as stupid as any other area of work from my experience, simply moving from stupid idea to stupid idea - in a desperate attempt to justify their own inflated pay-check.

Obviously you get the odd exceptions, but overall the incompetence is staggering.

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

It's only work.

I like the people in it, generally.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I quite enjoy the public sector

Came from the private sector, and things are so different. I think any job has the potential to become boring if you're not happy.

I know I went through periods at my last company where I found myself counting the days to the next annual holiday. The secret is to find something that isn't the same every day IMO.