During the interview process I was told multiple times, incoming Project Mangers would start out job shadowing for approximately 6 weeks and then be assigned projects, in reality, I was assigned 2 projects 2 days after joining (I barely knew where the restroom was let alone how the company or systems were structured), subsequently I was assigned another 2 projects the 2nd week and a couple more the next. One of the more seasoned PM’s complained that she was overburdened, that project was transferred to me with the comment “this project has been holding for a year! I need it completed” to which I responded, “I’ve been with the company for 2 MONTHS, that delay has nothing to do with me”
Everything is a number’s game, the CIO was told by the CEO she would have to complete 60 projects for the year in order to meet his strategic goals. There is no rhyme or reason in the assignment process or in establishing timelines, several times I mentioned I had not yet been advised of the completion date, the CIO looked up and to the right and gave me dates, apparently there is a calendar attached to the ceiling I cannot see.
There was an extremely uneven distribution of work, I ended up with 8 projects assigned in the first 2 months, several PM’s had up to 14 or 15, another had 1.
There is no formal training process, it mainly consists for being pulled into a conference room and watching the “trainer” click around aimlessly for an hour. We were told during one of the sessions, this folder is incomplete, go tell ** to fix it. (Um, not my place to do that, sorry). Since there was no written documentation, I made the mistake of asking the person next to me, where are the ** documents stored during the first week. The manager spun around and stated DO NOT ASK THEM QUESTIONS, ASK ME!! Which generally meant being advised to go ask someone else.
Much of the information regarding processes or systems were funneled through a VERY SMALL (2) group of SME/system admins, I found they provided off the cuff answers, usually not written, answers changed and denied providing certain information.
During a weekly PM meeting, I was told, if this project starts to go sideways, escalate immediately! I was approached by the business with a concern and a request to schedule a meeting with IT project team including the CIO. Within 5 minutes of doing so, I was chastised by the manager for scheduling a meeting and inviting the CIO. Was advised later, the project team was aware of the issue and “C” level had met the previous week. (Not something the Project Manager should have been aware of apparently).
During another weekly PM meeting, we were instructed to keep our business partners up to date. IT management likes to pretend they are transparent; however, nothing could be further from the truth. I was reprimanded for CC’ing my business counterpart when requesting approval from IT management. On the same project, I had been advised, the process for approval would deviate from established, I followed the amended process and received a reprimand for that.
Once I decided I would not convert and my projects were reassigned, I placed a notification on my email simply advising of reassignment and new responsible PM. I received a very nasty email from management stating “THIS SHOULD NOT BE SENT TO EVERYONE, TELL HER TO TAKE IT OFF” When I approached my manager about it, she said the sender was upset because her direct report had to apologize to me and she’s very protective of him.
C1B suffers from an extreme lack of available tech, all notes/documentation/meeting minutes are hand written and need to be transcribed during “downtime” Per the CIO, no other companies provide laptops to their employees. All project documentation is required to be kept in 3 different places and MUST be updated weekly.
The IT department is run like a totalitarian regime, the CIO is very much a bully and seems to appreciate the atmosphere of fear in her department, she directs her minions to do her dirty work so she cannot be held accountable. She makes derogatory statements about individual employees during meetings, vents her frustrations on any and everybody (watch out when she pushes her chair back and takes a deep breath cause it’s about to blow), thinks “they” are out to get her (whoever THEY are).
I was warned to NEVER complain about certain members of her management team (minions) as she is protective of them and it would end badly for me. Management spends time making excuses for bad behavior and has absolutely no interest in correcting the behaviors, they use excuses like being stressed, life changes or not feeling well.
I was approached multiple times once advised I had decided not to convert by upper management, up to and including the CIO, told they really liked/loved my work and would really hate to lose me, so please consider staying. I ultimately decided not to stay but was approached by a handful of SVP’s from other departments regarding positions they had available which they would like me to consider. In at least one instance, the CIO’s right-hand man was deployed to approach the hiring SVP and warn him off. Same can be said of HR, They called about another position, went through the phone screening and asked if I would be interested, I mentioned I had just completed a contractor position. HR asked who with and once I said IT PM …. “oh, I’ll have to check into that and get back to you”. *crickets* I’m taking that as notification.
Any plans to get in by joining IT and transferring to another department in the future should be abandoned, mindset seems to be, no matter how good a job you do, if you don’t want to work in this department, you’ll work nowhere in the Bank. Nobody is willing to stand up to her and is afraid it will result in retaliation.
The attrition in the IT PM group is abysmal, during my 3 month contract term, there were 9 Project Managers, 5 have left since February and they have trouble finding replacements.
The CEO has an issued a directive that the Glassdoor score must be raised, to counteract “bad” reviews, members of the management and Marketing teams are ordered to post glowing reviews so stay tuned for those to be posted. Generally, 1 bad review will be followed by 3 or 4 GREAT ones within a day or two.
