The pay here is low and the raises are so low they are basically insignificant. For the most part they keep pace with inflation so you're effectively making the same amount every year. New people that have been hired recently have had their pay increased to 10-50 cents below what it took me and others to reach over the course of 2-3 years.
Raises are supposedly dictated by performance reviews but the review system is largely just for show. Managers are told that employees cannot ever receive the highest rating possible for specific sections of the review. A self-assessment is performed by the employee to rate their own performance and justify their rating. Even with detailed examples and being publicly recognized by the department my most recent raise was lower than the one prior. My manager also was talked about how everyone needs to work on doing a certain task that I outlined that I did multiple times within the last year, which suggested to me that she didn't even review my self-assessment.
Generally the hiring practice is to grab people either still in school or freshly out of school who do not know their value so the company can keep their pay low. Occassionally, older individuals with a lot of work experience are hired regardless of if they've done anything similar to the work that the company does. These older individuals are paid more than people who have earned degrees and are more qualified and capable of doing the job.
There are virtually no opportunities for advancement here. Title and pay increases are constantly something that you will be told senior management will not allow. It's also something you will be told that management within the building are fine with or actively fighting for. How much truth there is to that is unknown but I wouldn't be surprised if it was an exaggeration.
Communication here is pretty atrocious. It is not uncommon to be spending as much as half the day waiting for higher ups and management to figure out what they want or what they want you to do. This often leads to long days where you are expected to still complete the work. They will say that they will be flexible if you aren't able to stay at work because your work will keep you here a long time. They will also in the same conversation aggressively inquire about why you can't do that assignment today. You will be scrutinized over everything you did so they can try to find a way to make it your fault. This is despite it frequently being their fault either from trying to unrealistically push things through for deadlines or frankly not having any knowledge of how long things take. There have been times where I have said I can't do something been scrutinized and then the next day got a passive-aggressive comment on how I can't do what I was originally scheduled to do that day because yesterday's project is behind. This is despite plenty of time being available on the schedule before the deadline is missed.
Management want as much as 2 months notice for vacation requests. There have been instances where I have notified my manager 2-3 months in advance only to have the schedule still not changed a week before the vacation. When this was brought up to my manager she said she didn't have an email about it, but a couple weeks later I found the email I sent her months ago.
Passive-aggressiveness and pettiness are fairly common here. Overall, the work culture is pretty toxic with certain people that talk poorly and bad mouth other people constantly. Some of these people are higher ups or friends with management or higher ups which insulates them from being reprimanded or from people even complaining about these people in the first place.
