Partners in Performance Reviews

The company gives significant monetary incentives to post in social media and promote the company to peers. I would take that into account, more so than with other companies. The CEO built a fantastic business model, does a fantastic job and is a great role model. However the CEO sits very far away from North America, and North America, even in this day and age and despite best intentions, can be very discriminatory. At first glance, and during the initial years working here, it seems like a lovely diverse place. Diversity is especially strong at the lower levels. It is all fun and games at the lower ranks. However, as I tried to promote to upper levels, there was a sense and many clues that some white males have a much easier time to the top. 100% of the cohort above my rank was white males, which statistically should have happened only 1 in 3700 instances. Young Directors in North America are all white males. The few Directors who are more diverse typically had to pay much longer dues and/or seem more talented at selling and math. The hurdles can manifest themselves in multiple ways: In different pay for the same role, in different contractual terms, in lower initial rank offered to join the company, in racial derogatory comments that you never heard before in your career, in different attitudes towards mistake forgiveness, in individualized pressures to spend extra years at a certain seniority, in lower likelihood of being transferred to a country or continent of your choice, in lower likelihood of working in certain more desirable locations or special comfortable projects, etc. The CEO, at some point, had to send a company-wide memo about racist comments happening way too often in the company, which is sad, given that the CEO is from a minority herself. The meat of the issue is not so much the superficial racist comments. The potential inability to be invited to the top ranks in equal terms is what it's really damaging, not only to egos and confidence but also to families. Fortunately, the CEO is on top of it, and that has inspired the fear of God on some of the bad actors, who at least will cover their tracks better. Potential professional pigeonhole: The firm has the image of mining consulting boutique, and the experience might not easily transfer to other jobs or industries. The main focus is to implement an existing specialized methodology, running on proprietary software. The job does not necessarily involve fancy thought processes from scratch. On occasion, it feels like your job is to push and sell software implementation. Potentially dangerous: There is a strong emphasis on safety, as many engagements are in dangerous locations, where other consulting firms won’t go. However, safety might just be part of the marketing strategy, because mining clients are very safety conscious. Some of my colleagues had serious infections or serious near misses, and some of the North American Directors don't have a strong safety background (they come from traditional consulting firms) and have a strong incentive to dilute or hide safety issues. A low daily probability of something happening, when compounded over a long period of time becomes a high probability, so please be safer than you think you need to be. Travel: Worse than your average consulting job. Sometimes it resembles an offshore platform job. If you are not single, make sure you have a supportive, and loyal spouse or partner at home. For someone who might need an excuse to be away from home often, this job is ideal. Mid and lower-level consultants don’t necessarily get as much exposure to delivering client presentations and accessing more senior client members, as they could in a traditional consulting firm. Some Directors complain in private (and in Glassdoor) that Director pay is significantly lower than the market rate, due to the company structure. The competition has been catching up to this model, and firms like McKinsey offer coaching and implementation practices. The company has tried to transition away from mining, and into other industries in North America, but some of those projects had poor results and triggered a local crisis. North America had to go through a turnaround exercise and refocus in mining projects (better for the bottom line but less attractive to employees). Maybe the company was not successful in expanding to other sectors in North America partly because of a lack of diversity. Some research suggests that lack of diversity is more likely to concentrate B level players at the top, because of the smaller talent pool. A redeeming or karma factor of potential career path inequalities is that the CEO, being from a minority herself, retains a large percentage of the economics of the firm, which partially explains the relatively low Director pay. Good for her!

Whilst I was there, I knew partners in performance wasn’t the greatest of employers, but the people I worked directly with were great and that clouded my judgement. Since I have left I have gained a new perspective on what I would consider a psychologically safe environment looks like. Where you feel safe to feel heard, to voice your opinion, and you feel secure. Interestingly I have heard the same from other former employees. I didn’t realise at the time how insecure I felt in my role having seen many colleagues walked but it would be a constant fear that I could be next despite fully meeting requirements and being generally liked (as were the colleagues who were walked). The common theme appeared of all the people I’ve seen walked, was that their line manager didn’t like them or felt threatened by them. Bullying is rife at the firm, at all levels, and it starts at the top and is common across all layers of leadership who emulate this behaviour. What exasperates this bullying issue is that there is no one employed who is qualified in dealing with these issues. It surprises me that a company that prides itself on academic excellence has a clear absence of qualifications or any familiarity with employment law, hence why such things like bullying continue, and staff getting dismissed without cause. The sheer fact is, if you have any issue you would normally go for support for, you have learnt to know there is little point, as they give you a bit of lip service but ultimately will side with the more senior person despite the kind of allegations you may be raising. This effectively means, if you want to keep your job, you stay quiet as there is no one you can actually talk to. This, as you can imagine, can be very stressful and harbours a really psychologically unsafe environment. Internal surveys are completed on a regular basis so that you can submit “anonymous” feedback and have your say on your experiences. I have brought up in these surveys, at every opportunity, that there have been some very serious public displays of bullying to myself and other colleagues. This feedback in the surveys goes directly to the directors. Apart from the acknowledgement of “we need to do something”, not once in my tenure has anything ever been done. There appears to be a serious lack of care at the top unless it affects the bottom line. I always had my doubts working there, but upon leaving it is so clear how toxic the company is. My advice to anyone seeking employment here is to proceed with caution. Complete your own research and connect with other members of the firm outside of the people you are spoon fed to you at the time of recruiting. And to reiterate an earlier Glassdoor review, do not believe all these “positive” reviews. Whilst I’m sure there are a handful of genuine ones, majority of these reviews are linked to current consultants receiving “firm building points” (ie their bonus). Having spoken to many former employees I can say that they all reiterate this view. It took me a few months of my new job to get my head around the fact that my boss and my colleagues are nice! At the time of writing, I understand times are tough and being picky about a job is a luxury, but if you accept a role with partners in performance, please go in with your eyes wide open as to the environment and role that you have been sold.