Pros
1. Coworkers are phenomenal. 2. Benefits are unbeatable -- the ONLY reason why I would ever consider working here again. 3. Location.
Cons
Where do I start with the negatives about NWFCU? First and foremost, Chris McDonald is a conniving and manipulative person. He doesn't care about anything but himself and he will cut the rug out from under you at any second without reason. He consistently presents only a fraction of the financials to the BOD and convinces them that everything is great, when in reality, he's running another credit union into the ground (just look at the annual reports from Andrews FCU). He likes to cause chaos and uncertainty for his subordinates, which makes for an extremely stressful work environment. He has fired at least 2 fellow upper management coworkers because of petty disagreements and screaming matches in the executive suite. Chris (who prefers to be called Mr. McDonald, further establishing the distance between himself and all other employees), also gets a kick out of demoting and/or firing any and everyone who has worked for the Credit Union for 10+ years because he thinks they're all insubordinate and have ties to former CEOs, which is completely absurd and paranoid. Second, Credit Union profits are not allocated properly nor responsibly. CUs are member-owned, so profits should be returned to members in the form of lower rates, higher dividends, etc., but NWFCU uses millions of dollars to renovate the executive suite (complete with full gourmet kitchen) instead, under Mr. McDonald’s direction and approval. Recently, an on-site dry cleaning drop-off/pick-up was established -- taking Logistics, Marketing, and Consumer Lending's time and resources. I'm sorry, talk about purely unnecessary spending and a waste of the workforce's time. Third, HR has no idea what they're doing. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to job promotions and/or transitions. Some jobs will be posted for an hour internally (after someone has already been selected for the position) and some departments will go through complete reorganizations (some lasting the upwards of a year). Some people apply for a lateral move to another department, don't get an interview, don't get notified that someone has been selected, and then hear through the morning digest (daily employee communication email) that someone else was selected. NWFCU doesn't want employees to have careers that they're happy with, they just want people to do grunt work and not complain. I also had personal experiences with HR not being objective regarding employee situations, which is unacceptable. Fourth, the employee turnover rate is well over the industry standard of 12%. I believe there are multiple factors in play here: low salary/wages, poor work-life balance, understaffed to begin with, poor management, dealing with nepotism in the workplace, etc. Lastly, NWFCU has zero transparency among management and staff. Before I left, I had no idea what was going on company wide (minus what I heard from other departments). The gossip mill runs deep at NWFCU because there is no transparency. NWFCU is a good stepping stone for other career paths or getting your foot in the door, but definitely not a long-term place of employment. I couldn't handle working in the dictatorship environment that he established in 2013 anymore.
