Freddie Mac – “Where is work-life balance?”

Pros

The people are very nice and the physical work environments are generally good, except for contractors who labor in cramped rooms. Benefits and salary are competative. Formalized training is good. There is much to be done and the company is hiring.

Cons

The IT environment is high pressure to the extreme with no regard for work life balance. Employees regularly work long hours and over weekends and holidays just to keep up with their own work. People show up sick for the same reason which spreads illness (remote work is discouraged). Collaboration tools such as NetMeeting are not used so people must walk between buildings (outside) to attend face to face meetings. This is a big time waster. Tools and processes are outdated and excessively bureaucratic.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a good look at the costs incurred by lack of collaboration tools. Substantially trim and improve the SDLC and PMLC processes so that they are manageable for users to learn and utilize. Understand that working people to death leads to a lot of corner-cutting, poor decisions, hiding of issues, and mismanaged efforts. You reap what you sow.