Unrealistic expectations for billable goals and financial results puts the focus on money, not clients or employees.
Pros
Benefits are average to above-average. The people (colleagues) are terrific; mostly professional staff that are dedicated to their profession and passionate about what they do and the clients they serve. There is an ambitious, aggressive mind-set that is focused on growth of markets, revenue and profit.
Cons
US company is based on acquisitions of similar companies resulting in a culture that is not unified and can widely differ from one office to another. Whereas benefits have become more competitive in the last few years, the business systems are still lagging firms of similar size. The upgrade to a new project management program helps, but business management of the company still depends on manual spreadsheets. Turnover is relatively high and lay-offs occur often enough to result in staff protecting their job rather than fully engaging in team efforts. Financial and quarterly results impact management decisions, making the job a daily grind of achieving aggressive billable and profit goals. Managers have little time to cultivate staff or focus on their own development -- both are viewed as an employee responsibility. Corporate support is minimal with high turn-over of primarily non-professional level staff.