Perspective from a Fraud Investigator II
Pros
I do believe Expedia is as good a company to work for as we can reasonably expect in this capitalist hellscape. Pay is decent, there are good benefits, and like most Seattle-based tech companies, there are considerable additional perks/stipends.
Cons
The Fraud team used to be a very desirable team to be on within the company. The pay bump was respectable and while the work was challenging, it was generally known that the employees doing it were respected and felt appreciated and up to the task. I don't know what exactly has happened to trigger it, but that sentiment has changed drastically in recent years. Where the Fraud department would once see numerous internal candidates for open positions, that well has dried up. I believe that's due in large part to word getting passed around about the very strict metrics analysts (now investigators) are expected to meet. In addition to these difficulties attracting new hires, attrition appears to be quite high in the department. Reviewing 10-12 bookings per hour at a 98% accuracy rate is simply not sustainable. Your staff are dying inside trying to meet these expectations while staying engaged enough from working in a production queue day in and day out. The ones who don't care enough to try find corners to cut. The ones who continue to hold themselves to a higher standard of work ethic just burn themselves out because it's futile and never ending and unappreciated. There is a hyper focus on mistakes and none at all on victories unless someone is fortunate enough to stumble into a way to recover millions. And even then, all hands meetings will never acknowledge Fraud analysts. For a technology company, the systems in the department are archaic and function poorly and unpredictably. The teams responsible for repairing and improving those systems are very unresponsive, largely because they're also working on bigger and more important projects throughout the company, leaving Fraud to limp along with subpar technology. In bullheaded efforts to save money, this once stellar example of a Fraud team has had tools and subscriptions gradually stripped away until now nearly all research is done only via free open source web searches. People in the industry will recognize this for the shortsighted and huge handicap that it is. Since so many of Fraud leadership don't have real Fraud experience, it is seen simply as collateral damage on a path to management excellence in improving the bottom line. While analysts /investigators understand that the insistance upon returning to the office is coming from the very top of the company, there remains a great sense of dissatisfaction and betrayal. I have no doubt that the numbers of analysts already seen leaving the department will steadily increase once the return to office occurs (even with the paltry compromise of this hybrid schedule.)
