Empower reviews

-Lack of cooperation across departments -Senior leadership disconnect from the work -Difficult to get approval to move departments (Got a new job internally and I was required to work 3 additional months at my old pay in my old role despite far exceeding the minimum service requirement and being an excellent employee). -Subpar pay and raises with no real visibility into the pay structure, a raving review and top of team performance does not equal a significant raise. -Constant cost cutting and outsourcing -Changed pay scale for my role while being told by leadership that the scale would not change, resulting in a very low yearly raise as I'm now nearing the cap for my role. -HR resources are digital and unreliable. I bought a house and the most difficult part of getting my mortgage approved was trying to get verification of employment from Empower HR. My lender refused to accept the digital proof Empower provides, but I was told there was nobody in HR they could call to confirm my employment. My direct manager ended up having to confirm my employment with Empower, not HR. -No real connection between the organization and the individual contributor. Very much so a corporate, cog in the machine mentality. But they will use the cog relentlessly until it breaks to bits and then they'll toss it in the trash. -We are being incentivized to share this review for a chance at Empower branded merchandise.

Now, as Empower Personal Wealth, we just learned we're moving from salaried to hourly, losing flexible PTO in favor of a few weeks a year of vacation+sick together, and will receive on average less in bonus and book AUM payouts. Bonuses are also moving to be paid out annually instead of quarterly. In essence, even senior advisors are moving to a call-center environment, being asked to do the same job for less pay and with less flexibility. This is a move for corporate Empower's sake alone, pursuing a rather hollow goal of trying to be the next Fidelity or Vanguard. As this post is titled, it is just a reversion to the mean. Great companies and poor companies alike, given enough time, eventually drift to the mediocre middle; in the mediocrity, one neither loves their job nor hates their job; one just settles into what is.