Pros
My co-workers and direct managers are great people.
Cons
This review was solicited by executives of PenFed, and I was encouraged to leave a positive one. I think that might be the most frightening action as of late. You can see the review trend in the history feature here on Glassdoor and can tell when the push started to get more reviews on here. The worst point of PenFed in my tenure here was about a year ago. Some people in the Eugene location caused a big ruckus last August and ever since then, there has been what I can only describe as a political propaganda campaign to make people feel better without actually making people's lives better. There is a lot of "We're listening" and "You matter" verbalized, but hardly any actionable follow through. Upper leadership, specifically executives and the CEO, seems more interested in placating the masses with promises and token benefits rather than genuine content, effort, or useful benefits. There is a very real sense of false honesty. I can't tell you how many times we've been told things would get better, in response to complaints, and how many times there was never any follow through. It's a very unfortunate "corporate" atmosphere at what is supposed to be a member-owned credit union. On that note, sales targets are a real pain point. How inappropriate is it that we are pushed to sell each member call something? "I'm sorry you're calling to close an account for your recently deceased spouse, can I interest you in a credit card?" That's not a phone rep being unsympathetic, that's a phone rep that's job is on the line because they've been warned for not selling on every call. To be fair, that is the most disgusting example, but it's not a one-off situation and it happens because of the culture and atmosphere of this company. We have this company-level outrageously high goal that we are supposed to achieve in an outrageously short time frame, and the pressure is real and felt by many. I titled my review "Be... Wary" because I can't believe the majority of these positive reviews are genuine. With the internal campaign to generate more reviews, and my own experience at being encouraged to leave a positive one, plus hearing the same from others, it just seems fishy. I do know plenty of people that are happy enough at their jobs, but there always seems to be... a dark cloud hanging over, and it comes from our corporate office/executives. Some final thoughts: -Pay and benefits are below market. Not by a large amount, but they are below. -Internal advancement is not common place. Certainly not rare, but it is a well known practice that you can get a promotion, and/or pay increase, far easier by leaving PenFed and returning in six months than you can by remaining loyal. -There is also plenty of who-you-know that happens. I'd be lying if I said I didn't benefit from that myself, but I know plenty of people that got where they are that didn't deserve it, and plenty that deserve better but never get it. -There is a distinct difference in how the major locations are treated. The joke is that Eugene is the red-headed step-child of the company, and it shows. Eugene is the workhorse and is not treated as well as other locations. -Work-life balance in my dept. is... fine. More opportunity to work from home would be appreciated. There are other depts. where getting overworked is the expectation, though. In my experience, work-life balance is dept. to dept., and not something that is genuinely cared about at the company-level. -PenFed has a referral bonus system; refer a friend to work here, get a bonus if they get on board (side-note! because our turnover is ridiculous). I stopped referring friends here about three years ago, I would only recommend PenFed to someone that that couldn't possibly find a better option. It's not an apocalyptic disaster here, but I don't feel good enough about it to sell my friends out.
