Benefits are good but work life balance is going downhill
Pros
Company has great benefits. Flex days, pension, employee shares, etc. Management in my department is amazing. No micromanaging, you get to do your job and they trust you'll go to them if they are needed. There is a survey done each year on engagement and the company feely took the feedback to heart and increased increased mental health benefits to significantly higher than industry standard.
Cons
The work life balance was great at Intact, you went into the office on an as-needed basis. This spring is was announced that there is now a mandatory 2 days in office requirement each week, no exceptions. I started with intact during Covid and the work from home arrangement was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to join the company. When the announcement was made there was a lot of back lash from employees, so much so that the forum was removed from our site as there were too many negative comments. For me personally, the back to office mandate is going to cost four hours stuck in traffic each week, $150 in parking a month, $60 in gas, and $300 in daycare fees for the additional childcare I'll need. This is a significant cost in addition to taking time away from my family. Raises were handed out and the measly 3% increase does nothing to make up for these costs, let alone come close to provide an appropriate adjustment for inflation during this cost of living crisis. It was disappointing given I'd received "exceeds expectations" on my review to find out that it didn't really matter. It seems like Intact is going down the same rout as a lot of companies, if you want to see any significant growth in your pay you either need to move to a different role in the company or jump ship and work somewhere else. It's unfortunate because I genuinely love my team and the work that I do. I can easily see myself working here for the rest of my career. But with the salary not keeping up with the cost of living there will be a point where I need to leave for better pay. As I said above the benefits package is great, but it doesn't put food on the table.
