- On the flip side of hiring employees straight out of college, no one is trained properly. There is no onboarding, no required training. Thankfully, I was in a department where I HAD to learn, otherwise I would not be able to do my job.
- There is no standard. Loan advisors can work any time, any where, drink outside of work events. Other departments were expected to pick up any slack. Women had to look “appropriate” and business casual whereas men could show up in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on a Monday. There were multiple interdepartmental disparities that shouldn’t be occurring. All employees were told that Care can fix anything, and rather than handling any issues upfront, most teams allowed errors to occur and let Care pick up the pieces.
- Managers had no experience and were given positions based off of length of time with the company. Metrics were not taken into consideration when doing annual reviews, but instead solely based off how long you had been there. Managers micromanaged and did not take any leadership courses, nor took advice when multiple employees would let them know how to change. On multiple occasions, myself and my peers were gaslighted into thinking WE had the incorrect mindset. Managers are also so close with one another that no true communication would occur when an issue was brought forth. If you spoke to one manager about a situation, the other manager was immediately told, and no action would be taken. Multiple colleagues of mine went directly to HR in order to avoid this, and still no action was taken.
- The hours are truly awful and do not allow any work life balance. In most instances, work life balance is not even a thing, and is certainly not encouraged. I was an employee that showed up 20 minutes early every day. But if I so much as shut my computer off at 5:59, I was called out and told not to do that because “it will look bad to leadership”. Overtime was also not encouraged.
- The layoffs were not discussed by leadership at all, besides in a morning meeting where they were described as “not layoffs” and the the remaining employees were told to “just keep doing your job and you’ll be fine”. I’m fairly certain if over a 100 people are let go within a week, that is considered layoffs. The next week, more layoffs occurred.
- While layoffs were occurring, leadership and management decided to roll out new ventures yet there was no one in production to handle these and products were being taken away day by day. The same week as layoffs there was supposed to be the annual Corporate Challenge, which had to be cancelled. And then a “Party at the Pond” took its place. It was one of the most insensitive things I have seen a company do, and the marketing team took pictures and used for content. How can you lay off that many people and post pictures of a party? Gross.
- No room for growth, and not due to lack of talent. Managers appeared scared to let new talent and new ideas take over and would hold their positions so close to their chest and even take credit for other’s ideas.
- Sales was the only appreciated department. The awards ceremony was solely for loan officers and processors (but mainly officers) and yet all departments were told to show up. Friday morning meeting were sales hype meetings, but yet again, every employee was required to go/watch.
- Benefits and the 401k package were a joke. While Lower did cover insurance, it was terrible and had little coverage. PTO was managed poorly, managers rarely knew your balance and would blindly approve PTO to the point where you would discover in your check that you had unpaid time. No sick time was allotted, and as a person with an autoimmune disease and multiple doctors appointments this was genuinely not convenient. Vacation was not encouraged.
In all, while I am thankful for the people I have met and the opportunity for a job right out of college, this was an experience I would like to never have again. I am happy to have the chance to take a job elsewhere where I know I will be paid appropriately and given the care I deserve.