Affinion Group Reviews in Bridgeport, CT Area

Pros

Great People, Good Benefits, great Time off plan

Cons

some workers taken for granted

Advice to Senior Management

Reward employees who go the extra miale for Affinion

Pros

The pay was decent and the office was a pleasant physical space.

Cons

Zero collaboration or transparency with senior management. Very "siloed" environment and very territorial managers. Information is closely guarded within and between departments. Goals and objectives never made clear. Number one objective seemed to be not to get yelled at by the CEO.

Advice to Senior Management

Share information more. Encourage collaboration between departments. Listen to your people.

Pros

I personally had a great opportunity to learn and advance my professional knowledge while at Affinion. There are some really brilliant people that work at Affinion. The work was challenging, and I was able to significantly improve my network in my particular industry.

Cons

I had a hard time finding the real value our products provided to the end client that paid for our products, and not just the money we earned for our marketing partners. It seems the overall business is struggling and unfortunately the extreme pressure to survive individually is cultivating a very politically motivated environment which distracts energy that could be focused on working together to improve the business.

Advice to Senior Management

The people that seemed to have good ideas eventually got laid off, so I’m not sure there is any value in adding any advice at this time.

Pros

Decent working hours. Good pay and benefits. Office space that looks good, at least if you don't look too closely.

Cons

Many people have been laid off in the last 6 months or so, yet the company continues hiring. A sizable number of the layoffs have been older employees. Promotions go to those who participate in "happy hours" and make influential friends rather than those who actually make money for the company. The overall morale is abysmal, especially since the move to Stamford, which created a much more stressful commute for many employees. Those at the bottom saw their work space shrink to an insulting size, while VP and above got luxurious offices. Everybody is looking over their shoulder to see if they're going to be the next one laid off.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat those at the bottom with the same respect you show those at the top. Stop acting as if all of the company's successes are solely the work of VPs. Give tenured employees who've done a good job a shot at changing jobs instead of automatically laying them off. Learn your employees' names and treat them with respect.

Pros

Good work/life balance
Fun environment
Fast paced
Intelligent People

Cons

Very clique'ish
Non-transparent leadership
Not enough rewards for hard work

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent!
Reward hard work!

Pros

Great business partners and customer base
Excellent line of business
Very good, sustained cash flow and reserve for the company
Potential opportunities exist in this space that Affinion can capitalise on

Cons

Highly political environment that starts from lower management and extends up the chain.
Zero opportunity for associates that are not involved in the political landscape.
Old boys club is rampant in the higher management tiers. Senior management are surrounded by old collegues making it increasing difficult for talent at lower levels to progress within the company.
Dangerous alignment with HR(primarily non-CT) and middle/upper IT management to effect measures designed to suppress complaints and issues concerning non-management employees.
Essentially HR is not working for the benefit of the employees as they fulfill the management agenda.
Management by fear accross the technology department
Absolutely no planning around mission critical projects.
A lack of technical leadership at the top results in millions of dollars in capital being wasted per annum over initiatives that yield little business value.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace management styles characteristic at the enterprise level. Affinion has grown out of its shell in Tech management and needs to shift gears to ensure IT is recognised as an added value to the business.
Step back and look inside your organisation. Understand one key element-technology enables the business via strategy. There should be no reason for the business to be making technology decisions.
Install succession planning internally to ensure you identify and retain key talent.
Full transparency.
All issues stated above are real and experienced by non-management employees. Ensure a proper framework is in place to address these issues.
Start thinking like an enterprise and less like a small and medium business. Empower your employees rather than engage in supression tactics.
Stop the brain drain. If the company was being run appropriately then employees would not have a reason to look elsewhere.

Pros

Work life balance
Good business fundamentals and financial results
Easy people to work along
Decent salary

Cons

Relatively speaking, for a company of this size, no major downsides. One needs to be patient in waiting for career growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Connect with employees more often.

Pros

- Benefits
- Work Life Balance
- Compensation

Cons

- Political
- Poor communications
- Not exciting work

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace change or you will not grow

Pros

Great employess. Very good TOP plan and benefits. Opportunities for advancement. Reasonable compensation plan. Good 401k. Open door policy for most mid-to-upper management.

Cons

Negative atmosphere. Limited training. Frequent reorganizations and management moves (typically 1-2 times/year). Management by fear.

Advice to Senior Management

Manage for the growth of the business, rather than for personal gain.

Pros

Besides some great people I met during my career at a Affinion Group I can't say there is anything else positive to say.

Cons

The line of work is unethical. Many a times in my career there I was unable to send emails to cover my tracks. Upper management frowned upon it because it was ok to speak of things but it was not good to put the proof in writing.

Advice to Senior Management

Rewarding/promoting an employee does not mean that you want to be best friends with that person or that you can manipulate them like a puppet, you should reward an employee based on their hardwork and different ideals they bring to the table.