* Micromanagement? 1)Your schedule is always pre-determined 2 weeks in advance by the scheduler (usually are the managers) on behalf of you, meaning your lunch break time varies from day to day, and you may not even have any OFF helpdesk break time if you don't get well with the scheduler; 2)No option to WFH for the first 6 months because they don’t trust you; 3)Your toilet break time is counted as a part of your “efficiency” metrics; 4)some language groups face an excessively bureaucratic process for booking annual leave, requiring approvals from 3 different managers that can take 2 weeks.
* The job itself?
1) You are just in the glorified call center, a help desk robot, who spends 6 hours a day constantly responding to 3 client queries at the same time. In the 1st stage, you will handle those minor and often trivial questions such as “why does the BBG terminal keep making the sound” / “How to change my chart color” / “CALL ME NOW”. In the 2nd stage, you are expected to guide clients on retrieving data through unnecessarily complicated pages, as well as do their work for them, such as “Can you complete all the data in my Excel file for me?” / “Can you replicate this chart for me? I don’t know where does it come from though”. When you are finally OFF the helpdesk, you are required to make at least 3 cold calls per hour to bother clients about outdated functions with minor updates.
2) Every communication you have with the client is constantly monitored by senior colleagues and managers. You may be marked down for reasons such as: a)you did not call the client when they went idle or left the helpdesk chat room (not fast and thoughtful); b)your greeting messages were deemed insufficiently empathetic (not clear answer); c)you took over 5 minutes working on a solution rather than immediately escalate it to your colleagues(not fast and thoughtful) etc.
3) They only care about your metrics, rather than you as a person. They constantly compare your KPI metrics with the "peer average level," but you have no idea who your peers are or how the calculations are made—despite their emphasis on “transparency.” You are treated like a robot, judged solely by KPI performance metrics rather than as a real human being with talents in different areas. As a result, some people game the metrics and form nepotism.
*Leadership & Management?
Leadership quality varies widely. While some leads demonstrate strong leadership and support, others create an exclusive and unbalanced work environment. Favoritism can be a serious issue at Bloomberg, with certain individuals receiving faster promotions and higher bonuses despite having below-average KPI metrics. Opportunities will be blocked for those who don’t engage in favoritism, preventing victims from advancing within the department
