"Common Sense Is All Too Uncommon At AIG"
Pros
- More competitive benefits package for current workers than is offered by the Industry. - Work-From-Home option given (if needed). - Lower-tiered managers/team leads are responsive to staff concerns/input. - Opportunities are given to transition laterally across the organization if satisfaction is not found with current segment.
Cons
- The Biggest Con - objectively and literally - is the Forced Rankings System (FRS), whereby employees are judged against those of their same grade level across different teams. Additionally, there are only a fixed number of rankings to give (i.e. 10 As, 20 Bs, 30 Cs, etc.). In other words, you could deliver superior quality work compared against your entire team, yet still receive an inferior ranking because the maximum number of As, Bs, and Cs had been reached. In a way, it's like playing Yahtzee, where the higher value spaces are already taken, so you're pigeon-holed into playing for the lower value ones. - The 2nd Biggest Con is that management is very keen on "enhancing efficiency" (i.e. cutting cost, raising profit) by transferring as many functions overseas as quickly as possible. For now, it's the more 'menial tasks' (low-severity issue resolution), because that team is still relatively inexperienced. However, the 'Great Onshore Concern' is that the overseas team will take on the larger tasks once it gains more experience. Management has remained curiously mum on that point. - The 3rd Biggest Con is that none of the lower managers/team leads place any emphasis on proper project planning for any task - great or small. This results in poor utilization of resources, cost-overruns, late deliveries, a burnt out staff (that was never properly staffed to begin with), and angry reactions all around. - Following #3, the 4th Biggest Con is that none of the staff have any knowledge of or appreciation for proper project management methodologies. Everyone wants to immediately start execution of a task without ever planning the work. That results in the above-outcomes in #3 roughly 99% of the time, with either "too many chiefs, and not enough Indians," or a scenario of "the inmates running the asylum."