Pros
There are many good people at Slalom; they just tend to be in the wrong roles, including leadership. Old joke: How can one tell the difference between heaven and hell? “Heaven” is where the French are the chefs, the British run the government, and the Germans are the engineers. “Hell” is where the Germans are the chefs, the French are the police, and the British are the engineers. Slalom Atlanta is the latter… Lots of good people in the wrong roles, as well as a few bad people protected from pushing in the wrong roles.
Cons
Like another older post, it’s true the office has ‘lost it’s soul.’ That fun-loving environment is now replaced with a transactional sentiment toward employees, which is in contrast with the repeated mantra ‘people come first.' While the Big 4 re-invent the review process, Slalom Atlanta upweights it in a way only the Stasi could appreciate (go ahead, Wiki that) all the while claiming it can be on the cutting edge for clients’ needs. This is just one example of the office dysfunctionality. To add to the suffering, leadership is intent on creating an echo chamber, sitting in an isolated room off the main floor and eliminating those who disagree with their views on office and company strategy. These actions then lead to the required promotion of several people deemed less than ready for their senior positions, reinforcing an unenviable vicious cycle. The result? 1. A harsh ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately’ mentality now dominates 2. Systematic disengagement in many teams. All those ‘fun’ activities promoted by recruitment and during monthly calls quickly lose their luster when people drown their disengagement with drinks 3. The much-hyped People Management system is a charade; you will enter Slalom Atlanta at the peak of your skill set 4. Much higher turnover than in the past and relative to the industry 5. A loss of challenging voices (and females in leadership… until a recent promotion of females into leadership) 6. Subpar performance and lower bonuses Slalom national leadership is not much better. While there are 1-2 leaders who can point the org in the right direction, the others are lost, spouting various mantras and metrics with a short-sighted view on directing the organization. The result at the office level is, well, unfortunate. Some teams continue to do well. It’s essential to do your home work beyond the recruitment team if you’re looking to Slalom for a career move. Reading these posts is a good start, cautioning some of these are glibly fraudulent. Or fraudulently glib. If you are looking for a “career” here, be EXTREMELY careful about which team you join. With the short-term focus on results and no infrastructure for development, your most likely outcome of joining here is: work on average for 2-3 years and exit unhappily with lower valued skills than when you entered.
