American Institutes for Research Reviews

Cons

Personally I prefer open office and chances to meet work work alongside others. Currently there are a lot of remote working.

Cons

2 percent raises yearly even for good performance was devastating morally, especially when CEO makes over 1M annually. They also keep hiring VPs and its unclear what any of them do and why so many are needed.

Cons

no benefits or room for professional development

Cons

Less transparent promotion criterion.

Cons

They have institutes a new policy in which Research Assistants cannot be promoted without a master degree. Poor communication with staff about this policy and no real backing to support it.

Cons

Inflexible Management, No Telecommute option

Cons

There are silos throughout the organization that AIR is trying to break down.

Cons

Top level mgmt is bloated due to a restructuring that is still being reworked and reworked. Focus on the immediate bottomline forces short-sighted decision making. Snr leadership and snr managers not accountable for how they treat more junior staff and 360 reviews would be illuminating. Some brilliant people should never direct/manage projects and there is no way to communicate this in a safe and meaningful way. Some snr staff are incredibly abusive of more junior staff. Work/life balance can be tough for jnr staff if they feel they can't say no to unrealistic deadlines. Mentoring of staff can be haphazard depending on who is assigned as a staff manager, or which projects you are assigned. Furthermore, there is no safe way to communicate concerns of how your needs and management is being handled (a confidential ombudsman would be helpful). Issues like ethical behavior or violations of policy (e.g. sexual harassment) do have processes and are somewhat successful. However, if you are with a team, project or manager who are not supportive or effective there is no way to make changes for your own career goals, let alone personal and emotional health. Mobility salary wise is constrained. A new performance review system provides very little in the way of determining what the it is that needs to be goals.

Cons

A lot of boring work

Cons

Lack of diversity in leadership/top management positions. Friends promote friends who are not qualified, do not have advanced degrees and no very little to nothing about managing people. Difficult to be managed by someone who knows less than you do!