They evaluate your compensation based on a Total Rewards package. This means they calculate you benefits into your salary and severely dock your pay. The bonus is supposedly based on your performance, but that is not true. It’s pretty much a popularity contest between you and the other employees. If you are popular, get along with your manager, and fit in with the click, you will do well for yourself regardless of the quality of work performed. They tend to give favoritism towards the “seasoned” employees that have been there longer. It’s the kind of place where you want to make sure you document everything you do that way you can argue your case if need be. If you don’t do these things, you will just blend in and not advance which may be fine for some people. I don’t think they ever fired anyone in the department I was in eventhough there were people who simply did nothing all day. It's a very "know your place" type of atmosphere and I don't think it's possible to advance into management unless you are hired in as one. There were people there 20+ years that did not get promoted when 3 new supervisor positions opened.
As far as the work itself, it was boring telecom work and no one seemed to know what was really going on. Employees only knew their little piece of the pie and wouldn’t take responsibility for anything else. Management was a little more knowledgeable but were basically just acting the part. You really have to be a self-starter and not rely on people give you the answer. Once they find out you are capable of figuring things out on your own, they will dump more and more work on you until you are buried. They redistribute the workload by letting the slackers coast by and dump it on the performers. A lot this has do with favortism and personal relationships but it's pretty sad when you get the same review as the idiot next to you who did absolutely nothing all year.
