Long hours expected just to keep up with clients demands in a stressful, fast paced, chaotic work environment. They big up their ‘platform’ when systems are not in place to project manage efficiently, (spreadsheet tracking is a main way of doing this!)
People don’t value time off with the pressure to still feel ‘connected’ and check slacks etc. this contributes to very high expectations in the work culture.
Role responsibilities vary with each team you work with so this adds variety but also is not fair amongst teams. Operations staff are not valued in a similar way to rest of search team. Bonus potential was cut whilst workload increased, constantly getting added to other colleagues projects mid way through, due to many members of the team leaving the company, and I still see people leaving regularly today. High turnover and a lot going to competitors as true underpay their staff significantly.
A number of colleagues were laid off and management try to cover this as performance issues when that’s not the case, they want to look financially stable in a downturn when they’re struggling and sadly that’s seeing some of the longest serving members team being cut with little notice as a result. This was not communicated transparently which increases the distrust feeling towards management. Small performance issues were given such a great emphasis instead of the encouraging the great work being done in a stretched and stressed environment. People in operations particularly are not given the incentive to want to stay. Salary did not increase at all over the time I was there, I was given more responsibilities and told I was lucky to have a job in the uncertain environment. I know other colleagues were given pay rises (though very small) and hired in on a lot more money than myself for very similar experience level. This decreased my chance of promotion. They easily hire in at more senior levels, particularly partners, lots of partner hiring has occurred with lack of operations staff to keep up.
For people starting out in search it’s not the worst place to work with some fun colleagues and opportunity to learn but it’s not a place I’d recommend for operations staff and people wanting to progress career and feel valued.
