Pros
They seem open to working from home, though there remain political reasons for not allowing employees to do so. Casual atmosphere. Breadth of resources is amazing. I worked in Shared Services, had normal(ish) hours, no billable hour requirement, and no weekends. (That said, there was no flexibility within those hours.) The people in my home office were great!
Cons
Oh so many. First: PARENTAL LEAVE. Associates and other “practicing” attorneys are given 18 weeks, fully paid leave, while staff is merely given short term disability (which, when I was on leave, was 8 weeks at 60% pay, but increased to 12 weeks by the time I left). The more you know...Second: TREATMENT OF STAFF. As an attorney but also as a staff member in this position, I’ve seen both sides of the coin. The way many attorneys (and staff, for that matter) at GT treat their staff and shared services is appalling. I’ve been cursed out by paralegals and patronized by attorneys licensed for a mere 6 weeks. There is a culture of entitlement among the attorneys, and it shows in its treatment of staff. Third: RED TAPE. It is near impossible to make any changes within the culture of GT, though I tried my darnedest. Red tape everywhere, and nobody cares enough to do anything. Fourth: MANAGEMENT. In my department, “ROI” was everything, at the expense of staff’s overall well-being. Ironically, they couldn’t ably quantify ROI because they kept taking on large non-billable projects and pressured us to do more billable work. More support from management is necessary.