I don't hate it, though I'm starting to, but there's much room for improvement
Pros
Pact does some great work and there are a ton of wonderful folks who work for the organization. I'm proud to say I've met a few great friends here. There also seems to be a talent for hiring country office staff. In general, I find that there is SO much talent in the country offices and really wonderful people, too. I actually don't hate Mark V. as much as everyone else does. I think he's basically been relegated to being a figurehead and I think that's fine. It's pretty clear that the COO is generally running the show day to day. I don't have an opinion on that, really. I also don't hate the idea of transformation in the sense that when I got here I saw how flat the organization is and said to myself, this isn't going to work for long. Too many directors, not enough VPs. Transformation is correcting that, and I'm OK with it. This way there's actually more oversight on and attention paid to the teams, rather than the execs being pulled in 20 million directions and losing touch with what's really happening "on the ground". The benefits are a great perk. The pay is pretty good, although there's very little standardization between positions, experience level, and pay grades. Another thing I really like is that because there's so much work to do, if someone isn't pulling their weight they're weeded out really fast. You absolutely cannot hide here and pretend like you're working hard when you're not. That type of accountability is good.
Cons
Oh, goodness, where do I begin. A lot of what others have said. Wasted money on so many consulting groups that don't seem to do anything. Major functions like HR outsourced. Let's add to the HR thing the fact that there is no standardization to our job positions, which the HR consultancy was supposed to fix, and that hasn't happened yet. We have no idea what's going on with transformation because we haven't had an all staff meeting in 6 months. At first staff were involved with everything, now we're involved with nothing. I guess the consultants are handling it. In addition, our country offices pay consultants money for basically no reason - to do work that they never actually do and there doesn't seem to be any oversight on that. PD and AM know about at least some of it. I don't blame them for it at all, I blame the holes in accountability with the country offices, who basically do whatever they want (and you think granting them more autonomy under transformation is going to make this better?). Then we either send out shoddy work that angers our donors or someone else has to fix it, usually an HQ staffer, costing us double the money and / or our reputation. Pact is basically hemorrhaging money for no good reason and tanking its reputation in the process. Let's talk about culture. You're basically expected to work 60+ hours. And travel with minimal notice (I'm talking a few days). It's NOT conducive to a good work-life balance. Then more work with transformation and the quality sprints are piled on. Thankfully some of the folks with terrible, nasty attitudes have left. But, some still remain. I think a lot of this is on upper management. They're creating a culture of mistrust and people are just scared so they're protecting their egos and livelihoods. There's so much ambiguity, which seems to be par for the course for Pact. I kind of can't blame people for worrying about their positions and visibility in the company. I just wish they would understand that we're all in it together and treating other people poorly and gossiping behind everyone's backs isn't the way to go about fixing things. Overall, there are plenty of super terrible attitudes running around at all levels of employment and these folks need to go. No more making excuses for them. No giving them 2 years of chances with no actual direction on what they need to do to change. Just get rid of them already. How do you move up in the organization? I have no idea. I've seen the same people get promoted over and over and they're the people with the least positive contributions to the organization. Meanwhile, the hardest workers with the largest contributions are passed over for years, told that there's no money to compensate them or that no one is getting a promotion this year (I know of a few directors who were told that in multiple departments and clearly that wasn't true). Stop promoting the same people over and over again or the people who you then say are not pulling their weight. It's a total mixed message. Half the people you promote then leave a few months later. Clearly upper management doesn't have an eye for who really is a worthwhile employee. I've asked how to improve so that I can be promoted and I'm told that I'm already doing a great job and everything I'm being asked and going above and beyond. So, tell me, how does one get promoted if I'm already doing the things that you've told me I need to do to get promoted? That doesn't make me want to contribute much anymore. Meanwhile, we're understaffed. Disgustingly understaffed. See above comments on hemorrhaging money for no good reason and expectation for working 60+ hours. No wonder we can't hire the staff we really need. Half a mill to Accenture? That's a good few solid staff members we could have hired to help alleviate people's work loads. You're shocked I would recommend this place to work at, right. It's because there's actually a lot of potential good here and the work we do is really fulfilling. Plus, it's just as terrible everywhere else, but for different reasons. At Pact, you just need to be good with serious ambiguity and some attitude problems from your colleagues. I think I've said enough. P.S. Or not. Where are those spot bonuses Mark V. said at the holiday party that we'd be able to give to our colleagues? Are they being funneled instead into yet another consultant company?