Pros
- Friendly, welcoming atmosphere for all types of people. - Flexible hours and ability to work from home one or two days a week (may differ by department). Good support for remote workers. - Good benefits package - During large layoffs, they offer good compensation packages and are generally fairly humane about it - Convenient location with attractive facilities - Comparatively stable company for the industry (parent company is one of the top two insurers in Canada and they keep their investments generally conservative) - Ethically-run company (important in the insurance/financial-services industry) - Technology has improved significantly over the years and is looking forward - They've paid out the annual bonus every year since its inception, even during some years when, technically, we didn't meet the required profitability threshold, because senior management felt that it was due to the general economic environment and not a failure on the part of the employees.
Cons
- Too much of US operations is being taken over by Corporate in Canada, which decreases some flexibility and makes for a more bureaucratic atmosphere. Feels more like the US is just a "remote site" rather than the "US home office" we used to be - IT has become too centralized, bureaucratic, and controlling - Needs more opportunities for advancement for "individual contributors" -- if you don't manage people, you can be fairly limited on how high you can advance, in most areas. Two things that are probably true of most companies in similar situations these days: - Rate of change (of various kinds) has been high since it went public and the rate has been accelerating steeply since then.Generally feeling of insecurity about the future of operations in the US (what it will include and whose jobs might be affected) - Pace of work can sometimes be a bit daunting and can require sacrificing some quality in favor of speed.
