Poor leadership and tone at the top
Pros
Casual dress code (jeans) in the office, ability to work remotely
Cons
Most of the leadership is extremely hands-off. Senior Staff are expected to act as managers and basically do 90% of the work, Managers act like Senior Managers (only involved at very high level), Senior Managers act like partners (barely involved) and Partners play golf and are generally offline. Partners rarely if ever visit the clients. There is not a feeling of being a part of a team from the staff to the partner. There is a team among the Staff and Senior Staff and then we have bosses. They do not regard us or treat us like members of a team; rather like we are just the grunts. This is regardless of the hours you put in or how many ways you prove yourself as intelligent and capable. You are not treated with respect by upper management. Year-round we go from one busy season to another with only brief weeks here and there of a slower place. Firm leadership speaks of their interest in us being "deeply specialized" but they continue to staff us on a wide variety of engagements leaving us far from specialized. Leadership makes little effort to get to know the staff. They never "fire" clients; they will take any work as long as it is work, regardless of availability of resources. We have a lot of review engagements during busy season that are more trouble than they are worth in light of the fees involved, and only serve to overburden and burn out the staff. They do not hesitate to schedule people on out-of-town engagements for weeks on end. I have experienced multiple instances of being out of town for 5-8 weeks straight. Pay is NOT competitive in the market. Expectations are NOT clearly communicated until you FAIL to meet them. Then they act as if you should have known all along.