Legg Mason Reviews

Pros

Simple/light workload, apathy in the office leads to a haven for underacheivers

Cons

Salary well below industry standards, confused management, archaic procedures, extreme office politics/bureaucracy at hand.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop reacting to random, intangible one-off events and take an educated initiative to solve problems. With all the executive rhetoric about being "best in class," we should be focused more on actually rewarding/compensating talent, rather than trying to improve margins by settling for mediocrity.

Pros

Had a good location which allowed a short commute

Cons

Company could provide better training opprotunities

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

In my circle of colleagues I have had the privilege of working with smart, friendly people who are out for the greater good. Managers root for you to succeed because they see you being successful as beneficial to everyone.

Cons

The corporate culture can create stagnation when it comes to access to technology. For example, Office 2007 is being deployed almost four years after it came out. I feel that this puts me at a disadvantage versus companies who keep their systems more up-to-date.

Advice to Senior Management

Centralization of commonly used resources was the way to go and deviating from that path will likely mean higher costs at the affiliate level thereby decreasing the overall revenue stream which appears myopic at best.

Pros

Legg Mason provided an excellent work balance life. The atmosphere was laid back but you were required to perform. Salaries and benefits were excellent. Bonuses were reasonable.

Cons

To much whispering between management and other employees. You were made to feel like you did not belong. Some managers do not know how to draw the lines between work relationships and personal relationships.

Advice to Senior Management

All managers need to be held accountable for their mistakes, not just some.

Pros

The leaders in many cases are truly decent people at Legg Mason, and this shows in their willingness to flex with employees on work-life balance needs and requests for support. To boil it down, the people are great.

Cons

The processes lag at Legg Mason. And overall, the organization structure and tenuous dynamics with the subsidiary firms makes it a challenge for Legg Mason to move forward and progress. Employees can easily feel that the post-Citi structure hasn't lived up to its potential to create new efficiencies and effectiveness.

Advice to Senior Management

Mark and his team need to more fully figure out how to deal with subsidiaries to help outside analysts see more value in having such a stable of affiliates. Find commonalities and group them accordingly, and possibly divest of a few or buy others based on this scorecard. Then, play to these common platform issues to drive more unity and push for progress.

Pros

They pay me well to do nothing

Cons

Management has no idea what they are doing
They are concerned with only themselves and not the growth of their employees

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your employees

Pros

If you want to work somewhere where you have a lot of free time and don't mind not advancing your career, then this might be the place for you. Compared to other places I've been employed at, the workload was lightest here.

Cons

What I listed as a pro is also the same thing I would put here as a con.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to take stock of their employees and resources, determine what's not necessary and cut the fat. They need to run a much leaner ship.

Pros

The benefits are about standard and they did give yearly increases when the company was struggling, albeit very small it was still better than nothing.

Cons

Little to no opportunity for advancement or training. Lack of integrity in Executive management and Board of Directors (6 months after laying-off 500+ people and 3 months after giving promotions without pay increases the Executives received 7 digit bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your employees! Hire a Co-CEO with the experience to run all aspects of the company. Someone that people are willing to follow.

Pros

Colleagues are very friendly and nice.

Cons

One of the largest asset management firms in the US, but also has one of the largest overhead costs compared to other competitors.

Advice to Senior Management

Decrease the overhead costs.

Pros

- The people are great. I genuinely enjoy my coworkers
- Compliance and integrity oriented culture.
- Intellectually stimulating work

Cons

- Legg Mason is a large company with the typical issues that come with cubicles.
- Sometimes the Commute can be a pain

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the focus on integrity. As a Financial firm we understand that confidence in our firm is everything. Keeping the chalk off our shoes is extremely important, especially during down markets.