MetLife reviews

Much of what I have to say has been shared in other reviews. I was recruited to the company under the promise of working in a startup environment, building the new culture in Charlotte, providing new ideas for products, procedures, etc. and helping to rebuild the U.S. Retail organization. The job I was hired for was pitched as an exciting, multi-faceted role that would make use of my nearly two decades in financial services. Reality could not have been farther from the truth. Met doesn’t want any advice for improvement, as the people that transferred here from other locations already know everything and do not expect to be challenged in any way. My role consisted of things such as copying/pasting between documents and creating basic spreadsheets and could have been performed by a high schooler a few afternoons a week. Fortunately, I wasn't there long enough for my skills to really regress, but they would have if I would have stayed for any length of time. There were some good managers there that understood that they looked good when their teams performed and developed their people accordingly. However, for the most part, the low-mid level managers are brand new at managing people, as Met let go of many of their experienced staff as part of their move to North Carolina. The ones that were left either didn’t know how to manage, or they were so arrogant that they weren’t aware that they didn’t know everything. Don’t fall for the “we took the best of the best to NC” line they feed you in interviews, many good people left the company after the move was announced or took severance packages. Many of the ones that were left obtained managerial roles by process of elimination. Managers treated people that weren't part of the in crowd like imbeciles that couldn’t handle anything other than the simplest tasks, despite years of quantifiable experience to the contrary. It made for entertaining theatrics – the managers were soooooo busy because work couldn’t be delegated to the incompetent subordinates. Some managers wouldn’t even make eye contact, let alone talk to, anyone who wasn’t on or above their level on the org chart. People were constantly set up by management to “make errors” by scenarios such as doing what they were instructed, only to have managers come back and swear that they never gave such instruction. Pettiness, politics, grandstanding and backstabbing are how one gets ahead there. I know of at least three things my manager looked me in the eye and lied about – I have not had a manager do that since I was a teenage retail clerk. The culture reminded me of how kids interacted in middle school – you were either part of the in crowd or you weren’t, and forget quality assignments, promotions, or fair performance reviews if you weren’t. Speaking of performance reviews, Met uses a forced distribution review system, which means that a certain percentage of employees in each department receive unsatisfactory reviews each year, per company policy. This was never relayed to me despite my asking several questions about the review process while I was interviewing. When I questioned this after being hired, I was told that they were thinking about getting rid of this policy at the time that they interviewed me, so they didn’t mention it. It was pretty obvious who in my department was being set up to receive the unsatisfactory reviews. Many of the transfers seemed to have developed a hobby of pointing out all the ways that the South, and Southerners, are backwards and ignorant. One even started a departmental meeting by telling a story about how backwards everyone here is (the story actually made this person seem like the one who was a bit backwards). As a native Southerner, I am used to hearing things like this and brushing them off, but the way it went on and on and on during my time at Met just became really, really, old and exacerbated the entire situation. I could go on and on about my time with MetLife. It was one of the worst experiences I have ever had, personally or professionally. In closing, this company may be worth considering if you fall into one of the following categories: - You are in the waning years of your career and just need income for a couple of years before you retire - You are really good at underhanded office politics and enjoy the type of culture I have described - You really hate your current job or are unemployed - You just want a job for the paycheck and don’t care about a professional culture or producing quality work I wish I had known even half of what I was getting into by coming here. I left after a few months, and I wasn’t the first person in my department to leave.