First Command Financial Services reviews

While they have several classes and opportunities for growth, as well as tuition reimbursement, most of the management discourages use of these, or in many cases, denies an employees ability to utilize these resources. Money is spent as if it were growing on trees for technology, supplies, training. After they do all of the spending, there is absolutely no follow through. Millions of dollars with nothing to show for it, nothing purchased is fully implemented afterwards someone will just purchase something else to do what they want. First Command has a "Family focus" but this is just in talking. When there is a situation or emergency, there is NO SUPPORT. Sending flowers does not make you family oriented. I have seen several women go through miscarriages, in each case the woman is expected at work until the time of their surgery, and then expected in the day following the "Procedure" as they call it in Human Resources. Donation of PTO is not allowed when serious circumstances should permit. It is against company policy. First Command has the biggest Business Information Services department (IT) I have ever seen in a not IT company. The turnover rate in BIS is worse than any IT department I have ever seen. Even senior management changes regularly. Positions are so hard to fill, that HR is offering double incentives if you can get someone in to be hired. All positions pay fair, but raises are below 3%. Feedback is a joke. Feedback is given to employees but never to management. Some managers severely lack in people skills, other managers feel that you cannot speak to them unless you are at their level or above. While it is well known that the management style of these people is unacceptable and causes turnover, it is ignored. If you have worked there more than a couple years, you are the way you are and people have to deal with it. If you are new, you must take whatever is given to you. In order to be promoted, you need an MBA, even if your bosses do not have more than a Bachelor's degree.

Advancement or stability, however, are genuinely difficult, there. Sadly, the company is no longer in the hands of the founding family, and the Peter Principle is epidemic at practically every level from the bottom, up. Returns on savvy investments of generations past are drunkenly spent on glitz while basics like toilet paper and light bulbs go un-replenished under the guise of "going green." Due to controversy in the 2000s, the company's reputation is absolute mud with its only real clientele source-- the military. It is increasingly difficult to garner new clients to help replace those who are beginning to die-off. Even the sales force is dropping as the company resorts to indebting salespeople just to retain them. As an extremely closely held private company, there are questionable goings-on without check, promises that cannot be verified and are reneged at the drop of a hat, and a blatant boys' club modus operandi; moreover, routine measures taken by-- and demanded of-- publicly held companies are delayed and quietly brushed aside, with compliance occurring only when fear of scrutiny prevails. The only perceivable way this company moves forward is by hiring temps and contractors specifically to fix specific problems within a specific time frame, then finding reasons to terminate, then utterly blundering maintaining momentum in-house, then seeking a wind change by again turning to outsiders.