Relationship culture, but it's a culture of bullying and silos (and IT's on bottom and farthest away)
Pros
Nice building with plenty amenities, including a subsidized cafeteria. The grounds are also lovely with nice hiking trails. They want you to feel comfortable in it. Good benefits, such as health insurance, 401k match (if you stay through December 31st), and a fair number of holidays and PTO days. If you fit into an in-favor clique, don't mind getting walked on, or can be a yes-man, you have a chance doing well. Good company (with bad management). Could be a good first job for IT. The internship program is well run.
Cons
There's lots of talk of a bedrock of a relationship culture, but they have a name for the brand of bullying, "West Bend nice", and it's not meant in a nice way. A longer description for it would be time travel to 1950's company, with middle school bickering, with an alcoholic teacher who can only slur at the students to be nice. Management style is old-fashioned: commands come from and blind obedience is expected. At the same time, re-organizations are almost constant and the buzz words are modern. Managers are generally lacking in emotional intelligence. They've brought in "Living as Leaders" consultants, but all that's doing is turning managers into clones of each other who give the perception of having a conversation but without them saying much but at the same time not listening. It's almost funny to see the progress over time. The basic vision of selling insurance is there--providing peace of mind for policyholders--but beyond that the vision and strategy is very chaotic. That, combined with the old-fashioned management style, includes an IT project management style where everyone is nothing but a notetaker for someone later in the process. Control freaks everywhere. Advancement is a tool for subservience, despite finally have a skills chart. Work outside your pay grade is just an invitation for more work outside the pay grade and repeated delays for promotion. The business moved on from relying on a revolving door of IT consultants, but hasn't grasped that associates can't be treated as poorly. Not diverse in ways that can be uncomfortable even to people who aren't a visible minority. Very little trust. Ask a question in a private group chat, and you'll likely only get responses in a direct message, so lots of tribal knowledge that is managed with buzz words. Even less trust across silos. To repeat, over reliance buzz word management style. It's one thought terminating cliche after another.
