The company has gone significantly downhill since the appointment of Malcolm Roberts as CEO in 2022. Despite record profits, the company is squeezing clients for every penny they have, cutting head-count, and losing talent left and right. Micro-management has taken a grip of the organization; employees are no longer empowered to make decisions, but instead are expected to convey the decisions of management as their own. The end result is that management can take credit whenever the decisions work, and let individual contributors take the blame when things inevitably go wrong.
It’s no secret that salary at FM is woefully trailing behind their competitors. The company would have you believe that they make up for this with incredible benefits, but unfortunately this is no longer the case. While it’s true that many roles qualify for a company car, most competitors offer significantly more salary for equivalent roles/experience, which is more than enough to cover the cost of a car.
And then there is the fabled pension… while it’s true that pensions are rare in this day and age, here’s a dirty little secret about the pension… it’s just money! Not only is it just money, but it’s money with more strings attached to it than any money you could earn at any other point in your career. In order to realize the full benefit of the pension, you have to keep working at FM no matter how much they under-staff, under-pay, or over-work your department…
… and they will! As a result of the pension structure, executive management pushes employees to (and beyond) their absolute limits. In recent years, workloads have skyrocketed and wages have stagnated, all while the company has ended the formal hybrid work policy. Cutting carbon emissions by reducing commute hours? Valuing the personal lives and family time of employees? Trusting employees to get their work done without the constant supervision of middle management? These frivolous things have no place in FM’s “office-based culture”.
If you’re willing to blindly devote 30-40 years to FM, and you live long enough to collect enough pension payments, you MIGHT one day break even… but you’d be better served working for an employer who will adequately compensate you, value your time, and respect you as an adult.
