Stressful environment. Some middle management takes their stress and frustration on lower ranking staff/seniors. Overtime is EXPECTED! The idea of utilization is a total bogus. You have to work a lot of overtime to meet the requirements and hit your utilization goals. There is a lot of work that is not "chargeable" or project development which is not included in utilization calculations and therefore how busy you really are is not truly illustrated. There is a lot of politics and some managers, that have been with the firm a long time, have a lot of say, even if they are not professional/honest, just b/u they have connections. There is some favoritism. Lotus Notes is used as e-mail and it is very inefficient and you end up waisting time looking through it constantly (not easy way to search, etc.). Some management thinks you should put EY above all else. You are rated on a scale 1-5, 5 being "significantly above expectations", 4 "exceeded expectations," 3 "meet expectations", 2 "below expectations," 1"did not meet expectations." Most of the time you are at 3 and they tell you that the expectations are so high as a firm that you are at 3 and should be happy working with such as firm that expects so much (great writer/ great technically, works hard and gets things done, meets deadlines, brings ideeas…etc.). Although, the higher management rates themselves higher (4) as of course they know each other well and…politics. Many of the managers/sr. managers are definitely not 4/5. Many staff/seniors work a lot of overtime and they are rated 3. After a while you don't care b/u it is not realistic but at first it is a shocker that even if you try very hard, give everything you can, you can still get 2/3. When you get rated 4 overall (during a year), you get a bonus.
