Concerning the benefits, unless you are on the inside, you are not treated too well.
Taking vacation requires you to get advanced approval such as requesting time off at least a month ahead. Approval to take the time off is not granted until a week before at most. Forget getting inexpensive plane tickets. Also when going on vacation, you are required to leave contact information and where you will be. There is an unwirtten rule that you are expected to make up the time when you take off for vacation and also do some weekend work without compensation. Also for next year, a day was taken for floating holidays. We use to get 6 floaters but only 5 next year and no holiday for New Year's Day either ! Management mentioned that we need to conform to industry standard.
You are also required to put in at least 45 hours per week before you are even considered for good performance reviews. People don't take Friday afternoons off as much as they use to. Prior to two years ago, it was common to walk around the office after 11:30am to see the place as a ghost town and parking lot empty but not anymore. Most people now work Friday afternoons and the parking lot is pretty full even at 3pm !
Things really started to go downhill when LMIT and IS&S combined into IS&GS and Linda Gooden took over as EVP. On dress code, they sent a memo out cracking down on it and then eventually a surprised visit by her where people were sent home for wearing blue jeans ! Word got out that jeans were not even allowed on Friday but luckily local management ignored it !
