Pros
- Free umbrella's. - Interesting lectures by academics and notable people available to all. - Hammersmith is an unusual area for the head office.
Cons
-Environment of constant change was exhausting and without business justification. -20 question review given to all employees as their only feedback mechanism from their manager once per year. Poor fit for most employees and not tailored to the role or department of the employee. This perhaps perfectly demonstrates the level of thought given by the CEO to employees in his firm (he wrote all the questions - including my favourite 'Does this person work hard?') - 'Build not buy' attitude to software has left an unsustainable maintenance and support legacy. -Refusal to employ contract staff (in any department other than the siloed data crunching pit in Oxford). This inhibits new techniques and ideas, majority of staff have only ever worked at Winton. Difficult to get anything other than the 'Winton way' approved. -All decisions are made by the CEO, even hiring of a junior analyst, there seems to be a real lack of trust from the CEO even in senior management. This filters down through the company. -No working from home opportunities (see above - no trust). Happy for employees to have remote access in order to be continually contactable and able to extend the working day often through the weekend, when it suits Winton. -Free food = weight gain and a feeling of being trapped, no reason to leave the office. -Free private GP - over medicates strong drugs for minor ailments. Prescribing sleeping tablets seemed to be commonplace and indicated to me an unhappy, stressful work environment.