GMAC Reviews in Detroit, MI Area

Pros

Lot of hiring. There's gotta be something that suits anyone.

Cons

Highly mismanaged. By far one of the least competent teams made up mostly of contractors

Advice to Senior Management

Shove it

Pros

Gained a tremendous amount of experience in a short amount of time. They are not cheap with technology investments and treat their employees fairly well.

Cons

Flip flop too much between in source and outsource technology models.

Pros

close knit group in the tax department

Cons

other departments are less willing to assist other depts.

Advice to Senior Management

allow more interaction between the departments so information flows easily and accurately

Pros

People were great. Relocation package was awesome.

Cons

Relocation package no longer exists. Growth is now extremely limited.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the Director of Credit Analysis.

Pros

Historically broad range of work assignments are were possible though the contraction of the business have made that less possible. Still potential to see different industires within the same company

Cons

Favortism to Bank of America employees is sad.

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a strategy and a location and stick with it.

Pros

I worked with some really nice, knowledgeable people. It was a nice office in the Renaissance Center. The pay and benefits were competitive.

Cons

I had some major issues with my supervisor. She was a real micromanager and would never admit when she was wrong. I also got a raw deal with my contract house. They called me salary so they wouldn't have to pay me overtime, but if I took a day off, they would take it out of my paycheck. That isn't the definition of "salary" that I am familiar with.

I was never asked me to put in extra hours, I was told to. Even then, she said that "sometimes" I would have to put in a "few" extra hours. Ten hours is not a few, and it was needed every week based on the workload I was given. She allotted me 75% on one project and 90% on a second and said there was 10% for administrative - that adds up to 175% or 70 hours a week.

She made me commit to being there at a specific time each day. She would do spot checks to make sure I was still there after 8 hours. I left 15 minutes early once for a dentist appointment and she read me the riot act the next morning, even though I had been in early that day and had done over nine hours before I left.

I didn't have a lot of incentive to put in extra hours - I didn't get paid for it, I couldn't ever finish everything, I didn't get thanked or acknowledged - this was expected. Putting in extra hours wasn't going to get me anything - other contractors had been there for many years without an offer for direct employment, and others who worked insane hours were let go with no notice.

My supervisor would talk over me in meetings and correct me in front of the other team members and suppliers. She undermined me in front of others by correcting me, isolated me from senior management and business customers, gave me impossible deadlines and humiliated me when they were not met. I dreaded going to work.

I had other things in my life that prevented me from expending more than 45-50 hours a week - but she kept prying into my personal business to try to find out why I wasn't working more hours. I hadn't realized that I would not be allowed to pursue anything else in my life when I signed on. The Christmas party was really dull because no one had time for anything other than work, so that was the only topic of conversation. If someone tried to bring up anything else, she would ask them how they had time to pursue any other interests.

She was the only supervisor who wouldn't allow her reports to work from home unless we had a reason. So I had a commute everyday on top of the extra hours she expected.

She made me remove my name as project manager from all the documents because they hadn't funded a PM for the project, and she didn't want senior management to know they were double dipping for my hours.

She found fault with everything I did and never took my side. She always assumed that all disagreements were my fault and that I needed more training. She would ask me for the status of something, and if it wasn't done (which it usually wasn't since I was so overworked) she would imply that it was because I was incompetent or lazy.

Her feedback was useless - she would correct the spelling of names, but not provide the info I needed. I avoided coming to her for help because she would pick apart inconsequential things. I can count on one hand the times she gave me any encouragement or kudos, but she was critical of me in pretty much every encounter. Whenever there was a mistake, she wouldn't give me the benefit of the doubt. She didn't know Clarity or Caliber works, so she couldn't give me any help, but she still expected me to never make any mistakes.

I was never allowed to attend any senior management review meetings or tollgates for my projects, so they never saw me, just her, and heard her version of how the project was going.

GMAC treats their contractors like second class citizens. They are not invited to town hall meetings or "all" employee meetings. Then they have the audacity to discuss those meetings in the department meetings that they did include us in.

She kept telling me how important and high-profile my projects were, but they handed them to me on my first day. If they were so important and high-profile, why didn't they assign a current PM with some experience in their organization to them? There were other PM's who worked 40 hours a week who could have been assigned to these "critical" projects.

They treated their suppliers like garbage.

And to top it all off, they didn't include me when the entire department went out to lunch.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to treat your employees with more respect, or they will all go elsewhere as soon as they can find a new job.

Pros

Filled with many smart, hard-working and friendly employees who truly want the company to thrive. Challenging times bring interesting work. Some of (the old) managment still in place know how to run the ship and keep their eye on what's important and willing to stand up for what's right.

Cons

Continuous senior management shifts and business focus on what "the boss" wants to do rather than what's right for the long-term growth opportunities of the company. It's a who-you-know rather than what-you-know environment at the moment. Culture has shifted and employees need to shift with the new Chaos environment or leave.

Advice to Senior Management

Talk to the team members who've weathered the storm, ask for lessons learned before you jam things down their throats.

Pros

GMAC has managed to attain banking status. This may position it to survive in the auto finance world going forward.

Cons

The new management has brought in over 100 former employees of Bank of America and is in the process of migrating the corporate headquarters to Charlotte, NC. Legacy GMAC employees feel like their experience which formerly was an asset is now a liability. There is very little respect by the new management and employees for those who actually know how GMAC's business should work. The new employees seem to be set loose to create their own jobs which frequently overlap or conflict with the jobs of others.
There is no clearly articulated strategy of GMAC is going to thrive in the future.
As of October 2009, morale (at least in Detroit) was miserable.

Advice to Senior Management

A. Figure out what your strategy really is -- "being a bank" is not a strategy
B. Rein in the new ex-BofA employees
C. Evaluate if you really think that the legacy employees have nothing to offer.

Pros

GMAC has gone through the roughest part of a tumultuous evolution. They successfully completed their independence from the flailing General Motors, and they've made great strides in their early attempts to integrate seven different business units into a more cohesive whole. A management focus on common processes, standards, and governance should allow them to create savings through increased efficiencies, reduced effort, and a more solid bottom line.

Cons

Not everybody in the enterprise 'gets it' when it comes to the need for a speedy integration and standardization. Many mid-level managers are still entrenched in old silo thinking and territorial protectionism.

Advice to Senior Management

Building the still possible synergies will be difficult. They'll need to focus more on common business processes and technologies, standards, and governance to create a stable and efficient environment for future growth.

Pros

Even though I've only been aboard a short time, I'm impressed with the individuals I work with. The hours and benefits seem better than with other companies of similar size. New hires receive 27 days off between PTO and Holidays, which is rather generous given the turmoil with the business. Now that the GMAC is a bank holding company, I believe there's a tremendous opportunity in the future both near and long term

Cons

Not sure yet; have not been there long enough to know

Advice to Senior Management

None