There's so much wrong here, but I'll only touch on the issues I had the most problem with.
-Youthful culture has turned pretty "fratty". Every company event includes handing out Bud Light and White Claws, if that's any indication. Fine for some, but maybe not for more mature individuals in later walks of life.
-I mentioned that almost everyone is hired without experience. Which seems like a good thing, considering how hard it is to find a decent paying position without 3-5 years of experience in the industry you're entering, but can you imagine how smoothly a company runs when everyone in it has no idea what they're doing? Not very. Lower champions that you don't have to have mortgage experience to work here, but it becomes frustrating when even the team leads and trainers are fresh to the industry, and QUALITY resources are hard to come by. We have managers making policies and processes that have been in the industry maybe a year, which is why everything is constantly changing (those processes are constantly failing). There are no seasoned experts here, and it shows.
-Marketing makes cool content for "Life at Lower" showing the modern headquarters, with a cafe, barber, upstairs outdoor balconies, large deskspaces, etc. What they don't show is that Operations as a whole was carted off to another office space, on the 3rd floor of a plain building. They're squished together in a call center-esque space, no barriers between their desks. There's absolutely no privacy, everyone wears headphones to cut out the sounds of their neighbors on the phones. Only the VPs have their own office spaces. It's a far cry from the fun atmosphere of the main office at Smiths Mill. This just furthers the culture of "us vs. them" between Sales and Ops.
-There is absolutely no job security here for the Operations department. Heroes, Lending Coordinators, Processors, and Underwriters alike are constantly let go, either in frequent mass layoffs, or in smaller groups citing "performance issues". Team Leads are not involved in these discussions at all until the decision has been made to terminate their team members. Everyone is terrified that they'll be in the next round, and everyone's anxiety is through the roof if they make even the smallest mistake, because they feel that management is just looking for a reason the let the next person go. The standard of perfection expected of everyone here is just absolutely mind boggling, especially with the overwhelming amount of tasks each person is expected to juggle. More and more responsibility and expectations are placed on the Ops department, while production standards remain the same (unreachable), and more and more people are let go without replacements so that "the remaining employees can reach their full potential".
-You may notice that reviews here have had a steep decline in the last year. Upper management has been asked several times about what is being done about employee retention and the general unhappiness of the staff. The answer in short to that, is nothing. The answer given was "everyone is unhappy right now", but since we're still somehow winning awards for being a 'great workplace', the massive influx of negative reviews are being taken with a grain of salt.. Managers are just repeatedly told to "celebrate wins", and "be positive", which honestly the teams see through as the fake face it is. Teams leads are coached on what they can say to their teams, and how to frame everything. For a company that preaches that they value transparency, they really tie the hands of the "boots on ground" managers on how honest they're allowed to be.
-This place is so incredibly stressful for no reason. It's a culmination of everything mentioned. Deadlines are tight, there's not a lot of support, people are expected to produce way more than is feasible with the amount of work that has to go into each file. If you complain about work life balance, you're told "if you don't have a work/life balance that's on you", but god forbid you don't hit your numbers each week.
-It seems each position is required to know their own, as well as the next one in line. For example, Lending Coordinators are entry level staff (no mortgage experience), but they're basically required to be Processors, meaning they're expected to catch EVERY SINGLE hurdle the loan could have. Loan gets suspended in Underwriting? Well why didn't the LC catch that? They're expected to churn out a loan in less than 45 minutes, but comb through every single word of every document in the file, and know every detail of the person's life on the loan. I know this makes the process frustrating for sales as well, when they're being asked for additional documents before the file even makes it to Underwriting, because LCs/Processors are afraid to push through anything that isn't completely perfect, for fear of retribution. Lower their expectations, or lower their goals. Same for Processors, they're expected to be able to anticipate every single condition or issue an UW will have. While it's helpful to have knowledge of the next position, it shouldn't be expected for you to hold up something in your part of the process because you know that it will be difficult in the next- why do we have Underwriters if Processors have to collect documents to clear conditions before they're even assigned? Borrowers shouldn't be bothered for additional documents at every step in the Process. The way upper management views the loan process needs a revamp.
There are some absolutely phenomenal people and leaders here that keep people around despite all the negatives, but in the end, the bad outweighed the good for me. Maybe as the company matures and management shifts, things will change for the better. But as they stand now, I didn't see myself with any future with Lower, if I valued my morals and mental health. Treat your employees right, or someone else will.
*This is a repost as my first review was removed.
