The MD has a very narrow view of what he considers good work- PwC has 5 dimensions of their professional framework, but Norm pretty much only focuses on technical abilities.
There are a lot of young, entitled Type A's working here, and there's a lot of crossover between people's personal and professional lives- which is fine, but it can lead to too much office drama and too many distractions. People will talk over each other in meetings and take credit for other people's ideas regularly. Many people are guilty of committing to doing things when they want to speak up in a meeting and get their name recognized, but then they won't actually do what they say they're going to do, which can be very frustrating and can lead to a lot of wasted time if you're relying on them.
Between the majority of the staff being very young and the reinvestment work (which are like your extra-curricular activities that you have to do as part of the office politics), the atmosphere feels like you're in high school.
It's all politics. Even if your'e doing all the right things to get promoted, you still may not because it's not communicated to management, and Norm will tell you "that's just how it is" and you can't appeal their decision to not promote you, even if you prove their reasoning wrong. You're expected to rely on professional "champions" to fight for you, but that doesn't mean they'll communicate all of your accomplishments- or that Norm will recognize them. Also, if you're not on a project for a while (which is beyond your control), then you're basically screwed when it comes time for a promotion.
