Being in the Operations Department means you are a mix of data entry and customer service. With nearly 200 associates the Operations Department of Capital Bank & Trust in Irvine alone makes competition for advancement opportunities very difficult. This is a large company nearing 9000 associates worldwide and career advancement is nearly impossible unless you are among the top 1% or well liked among senior managers. The operations department is strictly service, so lateral company movement to other departments such as Accounting or Information Technology is nearly impossible even if you have the qualifications. Whereas in a smaller company of 100 or so, it is much easier to get recognized for your skills and efforts and lateral movement is easier. In the Operations Department, I've noticed that many associates received career advancement opportunities who may have not been most qualified compared to other associates.
The next major downside is the micromanaging. They have a system called Realistic Expectations (RE's). To process certain documents or paperwork, they have a Realistic Expectation to complete the assigned task. Whether its 1,2,4,6 per hour, this is all recorded on how efficient you are and that is used for your annual review. Sometimes you receive only Beneficiary Changes that takes realistically a minute to complete but they give you an RE of 6/hour. It is good that they give you all that time to complete it but it gets repetitive and redundant doing the same thing for an 8 hour shift. They want to know how you spend each and every minute while working there. Whether its time going to the printer, fax machine, surfing the internet, correcting other work, asking other associates for help, or going to meetings, this must be recorded at the middle and end of day.
I'm sure it’s great to work in other departments of the company as what I've been told from those associates, but working in Administrative Services, Shareholder Services, Retirement Services or Dealer Services, it is all about micromanaging and keeping you in within that same department and if maybe moving to a different service sector listed above.
