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The Options Clearing Corporation

Engaged Employer

Distrust, Mismanagement, and Burnout Masquerading as Innovation - Principal The Options Clearing Corporation Employee Review

1.0
Aug 26, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A paycheck. Some talented individual contributors still trying to do the right thing despite leadership. If you enjoy constant re-orgs and new team names, there’s no shortage of churn.

Cons

Upper management (COO, CEO, CSO, CIO) have lost all trust in employees, which prompted invasive monitoring like ActivTrak. While they now claim it will be “removed for employees,” they’ve openly said they have other ways of tracking. Leadership’s obsession with surveillance shows exactly how broken the relationship with staff has become. There is still a relentless focus on Ovation milestone dates—even though deadlines were supposed to be “a thing of the past.” Corners are cut, and quality suffers as leadership chases delivery at any cost. The infrastructure is equally neglected: versions behind, best practices ignored, and poorly managed. Re-orgs, renames, and reshuffling are used to bury accountability for past failures, while creating confusion about who owns what. Instead of stabilizing the foundation, leadership diverts attention to flashy AI initiatives (e.g., “agentic” solutions) that the environment isn’t even built to support. Work-life balance does not exist—late nights and weekends are the norm. HR’s heavy push on “wellness” feels like damage control for an overworked, burned-out staff. And let’s not forget: when employees post honest feedback here on Glassdoor, leadership expends energy trying to figure out who wrote it, rather than addressing the truth behind the reviews.

Explore other reviews about The Options Clearing Corporation

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Recent changes have brought the company back into alignment with security focused posture. Interim CISO under Ben Le has been a breath of fresh air and as we continue to return to security first as our mission and move into a better posture, the morale has significantly improved. Ben has steadied the ship, put more trust in our executive leaders, and given them significantly more of a voice in our concerns. Since the change was made to move the former CISO, a lot of our senior leaders on the security side seem to have been revitalized, less are looking to leave, and all are rallying behind Ben Le who was trained by industry stalwart and legend Mark Morrison.

Cons

Currently, things are moving in the right direction. Our departure from security as a primary function will take some time to gain full re-alignment.

1.0
Jul 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There is nothing great to highlight about. Just okay company. Average benefits and work culture. Lot of technologies and complex business domain, so good for anyone who wants to learn ignoring cons.

Cons

Small company but with over 100 Project and Portfolio Management resources. Many come from non-technical backgrounds and just create chaos when they are actually expected to improve coordination. They have no clue of what's going around. Overall, processes are completely disorganized, it is a mess. The company's small size also means limited opportunities to move between teams. With few management layers, some promotions to Director and Executive Director happen quickly, sometimes without the necessary skills and capabilities. Attrition is high at all levels, including executives, with senior leaders leaving regularly. As a result, each new leader often introduces a different vision and direction, leading to frequent shifts in priorities and a lack of organizational stability. This is often labeled as "continuous transformation". Communication and collaboration need significant improvement. Lot of people are attention seekers rather than being productive so you would often find unproductive meetings. The culture has become increasingly political, with some leaders driving their own agendas. Compensation is okay, but they offer no stock options, making the overall package less competitive than many comparable companies.

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