Procter & Gamble reviews

Too many mid-senior levels, there are reviews with B3 (band 3), B4, B5 and sometimes B6. Every manager wants to have a preview with your before going to the next level so lots (if not most) of your time is spent on modifying your Excel or PPT documents. Way too many conference calls (and night calls) and meetings with NO Clear Objectives and Decision Making. You often get meeting invites with just a general title and no agenda. If you look at any manager's calendar I bet more than 60% of his/her time is blocked for routine meetings and 1:1 cachup with all kind of mentors, friends, sponsors. The real time spent on real business is probably no more than 3 hours a day in the end. Management do not like decision making. For those senior managers who are taking 200K-500K (some even higher) annual salaries, they hate taking personal decisions. There are all kinds of processes or systems they prefer to rely on - unfortunately more and more often those tools do not give them a clear answer in the current dynamic market situation. Result? Brands like Olay, Rejoice, and Pampers losing market share in a straight line.

Pay progression system is relatively easy to progress through until level 3 of 5. After that, it becomes difficult. Swing shift life makes effective work/life balance difficult for techs. Watching your CEO get $26 million in compensation and your management get bonuses while your annual COL raise gets eclipsed by your increased share of insurance cost gets hard to swallow year after year.