Middle Management Nightmare - Political Reports Specialist Nielsen Merksamer Employee Review

-The structure of the firm puts an enormous significance on middle-management. This creates a sort of vacuum in which managers work autonomously from one another given their respective client load. From this vacuum comes a lack of cooperation, as everyone is simply focused on getting "their" work done. It also allows for some managers to abuse staff. Some of the behavior I saw from management in terms of abuse of staff is an HR nightmare and a lawsuit waiting to happen. Managers that aren't abusive, are lazy. Any new manager that is not lazy or abusive is scared to address the others. . -There are weekly department meetings that are almost useless. Managers sit around and tell you what you're dept. is not doing well on or is behind on, remind you of stuff you already know. There is almost never anything positive shared, thanks given for hard work, and if there is, it is a fleeting moment. The irony of all this is that you're falling behind on your work while sitting through these meetings, and more work is coming in as you sit there. -You have to bill for your time, however some attorneys want you to bill as long as it takes while others get upset for billing too much. You have to get your time approved each pay period which takes up time as the process is antiquated, if you make even an innocuous mistake you get a phone call from the accountants, an email from your manager...it's a mess, far too much bureaucracy, depressing, and the abusive managers will mark down your time then tell you you're not billing enough. -You will be expected to work 60 to 80 hour weeks AT LEAST 4 months out of the year. It became almost every month for me, and even though billing 8+ hours a day I was told I wasn't putting enough time in. The amount of hours has much to do with respective client load. Some get to go home early, others are EXPECTED to stay until 9pm or later. -Some of the attorneys are lazy and take forever to turn work around. However if you happen to be slow to get something to them you won't hear the end of it. During meetings we were asked about what issues we had with some of the attorneys and were later informed that we, as support staff, had to address the attorneys directly and tell them they take too long. You can't make this stuff up. -Attorneys have their own assistants, each one is different, some are more territorial than others. This all adds to the myriad of layers of bureaucracy and management nonsense you have to deal with. -The culture is awful. Veterans essentially justify abuse and mismanagement by citing the fact they had to go through it as well. "That's just the way things are here" is a common phrase, yet no one seems compelled to change that, at least no one in a position of power. -I could go on and on. Bottom line, this place needs an absolute overhaul in terms of management personnel and a restructuring.