A Word of Warning for Hopeful Hanovarians - Researcher Hanover Research Employee Review

I worked as a researcher with Hanover for a little less than a year. I was very interested in growing as a researcher, and the complex interview process led me to believe that this would be an above average workplace. Disclaimer for the “rant” that follows: I am not a disgruntled or fired employee. I left because the low pay wasn’t worth the high amount of stress that I experienced while there. Within two weeks of arriving I was able to see what a toxic work environment Hanover is. I would advise job seekers to check out the other negative Glassdoor reviews for Hanover. You’ll see that many of those opinions are replied to by our CHRO in a pretty passive-aggressive manner. This is exactly how anyone who speaks up with concerns or constructive criticism is treated while at Hanover. One of the most frustrating parts of this is that Hanover even collects employee satisfaction feedback through a (poorly designed) survey. Once those were filled out we never heard about them again! When it gets down to it, Hanover just isn’t willing to actually apply feedback to improve employee wellbeing. Something I heard a lot while there is that people don’t feel as though it’s worth it to provide an honest exit interview as criticism will only inspire the wrath of HR (and reliable sources say they WILL call up your new workplace) and probably won’t help out your ex-coworkers anyway. During meetings, the higher-ups will talk about our superior product. In reality, we are consistently rushed on our projects—and not in a “fast-paced, dynamic workplace” kind of a way. I was told by an upper manager to hurry up on a project because “it doesn’t have to be that good, it just has to LOOK good for the client”. During my time there, my research skills deteriorated. There is currently severe understaffing caused by a hiring freeze and the vast amount of people quitting. Due to this and indiscriminate sales practices, employees are constantly stressed out and trying to balance too many projects. Many have to work overtime in order to finish their assigned work, though overtime pay is NOT provided. Hanover uses promotions as a way to cajole people into working extra hard (and for free) in hopes of having a reward thrown their way. They won’t out and out demand overtime, but if you don’t complete your projects in a timely manner (which is often impossible without working “for free” after work hours), then you won’t be getting that promotion. When you factor that in, you would make much more money anywhere else, since Hanover offers bottom-line salaries but still expects overtime. Sexism is a real issue in the Hanover workplace. The vast majority of the top management are white males. They value fresh-out-of-college females for lower positions because they figure that they will put up less of a fight when it comes to being overworked and underpaid. In addition, from speaking to my fellow coworkers, there seems to be very suspicious gap between how males and females of the same position were compensated. As a woman who spoke up for fair treatment, I was treated as though I was just a “bossy” female.