Pros
A very stable 140+ year company with good management. This is a medium-large sized company with about 2500 employees spread out in 3 major sites (Omaha, Aliso Viejo, and Newport Beach). There is a reason, Pacific Life has been around for this long. Management does a great job anticipating changes to come in the industry. There are many exciting things happening over the next several years. It's a great time to work for Pacific Life. IT is, for the most part, at the cutting edge without sacrificing stability. We're mainly a Microsoft shop with emphasis towards mobile devices recently. Colleagues for the most part are very friendly and professional. There are office politics like with any other company but a lack of professionalism is not tolerated. It's a business casual dress environment. We have many long time employees, some who've been here for 35+ years. The good: We keep knowledge and experience in-house and we show that we value their efforts. If benefits and compensation was an issue, they can go elsewhere but they don't. There are a lot of policies and procedures with selling insurance so naturally Pacific Life wants to keep turnovers to a minimum and keep good knowledgeable employees longer. Hiring contractors is the new trend but know that this is happening with other companies too. There is less risk for the company and it's easier to let them go if they are not performing up to standard. If they work out well and are a good fit, they will be hired as a permanent employee. It's funny how many new hires don't even do the little things right like being on time(or even a little early), working hard(instead of streaming videos or texting at their desks), not socializing too much, etc... (This applies to all companies so take notes for all you contractors out there). Overall, it is a great place to work. I am fortunate to be in a good department that keeps work fresh, interesting and challenging. We are always looking to improve all aspects of the workplace. It's not perfect but I've been here 4 times longer than I have in any other place I've worked for. There's a reason for that. I read a lot of reviews about bad employees and bad management in here but keep in mind there are many disgruntled ex-employees.
Cons
It's not a fast growing small company so expect the same type of bureaucracy that comes with a medium-sized company. the philosophy here is minimizing risk, whether it's with investments or with employment. Because of Pacific Life's ability to minimize investment risk, they've been able to better weather the 2008 recession and be better prepared for opportunities. This helps us to not lay off as many people as we would have and keep more people employed. Long time employees. The bad: HR makes every effort to be on the employee's side when performance slides making it somewhat difficult to fire people. Poor performing employees often get multiple chances to correct themselves. It's true that the bad apples still around are very difficult to remove because of how HR sets up their employment policies. It's the price to pay for when HR errs more on the side of employees rights. It's unfortunate because it does have an adverse affect on morale. Growth opportunities are limited by, well... opportunities. Timing is very important when it comes to opportunities for advancement but management doesn't often take risks at times to advance high performing workers and give them the training and mentoring they need to take them to the next step. Of course, different departments are run differently, some better and some worse, but in general I've observed this to be the case.
