Hiring less experienced contractors to replace experienced employees. This is within many departments and in all divisions.
Upper management and board make mistakes on large scale projects but employees are made to suffer those consequences by reducing head count over time. The management mantra of "do more with less"echos through the hallways. Management is top heavy while the workers have to suffer the consequences and take the brunt of these failed initiatives.
Career Opportunities: Little to none. Folks used to be around for many years. Now, (at least within non-core departments) you will be replaced by contractors and temps particularly in IT. There is a false projection that employees are the most important asset to the company and highly valued. Morale is very low right now and we are only at Phase 1 of 3 with outsourcing efforts. If you're an employee, you've got to be looking over your shoulder to see if you're going to be next in a year or two. If you are an experienced qualified IT candidate looking for a good company, Pacific Life used to be that company but is not anymore. Instead, if you are a freshman "Fresher" or just starting out in your IT career, this would be a great place with the understanding that you will be a short-timer and every 2-3 years, you may have to look for another job (if not sooner with our Agile approach).
Compensation: Good benefits if you're a full time employee. Not so much if you are a contractor.
Work/Life balance: It's non-existent. There are sponsored charity events (the Good Guys) and various extra-curricular company sponsored events but that's great for folks that have lots of time on their hands and get to do very little for the company after hours. For the rest of us that keep the lights on, we work grueling hours in order to "do more with less".
Sr. Management: They put on a good show and say all the right things but the proof is in the pudding in the actions they take and the results that occur. People are more intelligent than what they give them credit for. Pacific Life is losing market share to various types of competition. Management has taken many initiatives and even created the Innovations team to course correct, I applaud that. But they are taking bigger and bigger risks now more than ever. Over the years, some initiatives have succeeded, while many have failed costing the company millions. Strangely Sr. Management do not suffer when things fail. The only folks who suffer are the worker bees and the chanting of the "doing more with less" mantra whenever we lay off people. We are still expected to innovate while doing our current roles even as our teams suffer staff reductions annually. I hope the bonus some Sr. Management people are getting this year to save IT costs by laying off 80+ employees is worth it.
