Pros

The salary, bonuses and benefits are tremendous. I know of no other company that is as generous in these areas. Although the culture is changing, the culture at CG has been one of the best of companies that I've worked for. They have been very people oriented and collaborative in nature. They do not tolerate extreme negativity or 'public' verbal attacks. You can be certain that meetings will be civilized, even when there are disagreements.

Cons

CG IT culture is changing. Some of it is actually for the good, because it's large enough now that it needs some hierarchical decision making. But so much of the senior management in IT is from outside the company, that IT is no longer able to maintain the overall company culture. In addition, there were some significant strategic mistakes that (in addition to the current economic downturn) seriously affected the overall financial health of the company and CG laid off over 1300 associates as a result. The morale of the remaining associates is very low, and people right now are very uncertain of the direction and whether or not there may be another layoff. There's a lot of concern about the latest layoff, since a great majority of the expertise about the applications and business is now gone. Years and years of experience are gone, and the remaining associates are trying to pick up the pieces.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider bringing some of the expertise back on at least a temporary basis, through temporary contracting positions.

Establishing common IT process and procedures and ensuring that just ONE group of people are working on them at the same time needs to be a priority. Many different people/groups of people are trying to independently work on them, which only causes confusion.

Also for management, consider obtaining 'review' information from subordinates, not just peers. A great number of the recent management positions have been filled with people that 'manage upward' very well, but they are not respected by ANY of their subordinates at all. This is happening in both IT and the business. This is not just a few disgruntled subordinates - it is well known in the 'worker bee' community.