Very political culture - Anonymous employee Barclays Employee Review

2.0
Oct 23, 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Employees can be well compensated (depending on your manager). It is a collegiate place to work with nice people. It's an intellectual environment with focus on scientific investing and not much focus on leadership skills such as ability to effectively communicate, ability to challenge the norm to resolve issues and ability to manage people. The company has good medical, dental, family leave and vacation benefits compared to other US companies.

Cons

The company has become very hierarchical and senior managers are improperly incented to protect their expense lines rather than to focus on overall company profitability. The company culture is also very non-confrontational so managers are afraid to give direct feedback and employees are afraid to speak up or question authority. There is a great deal of inconsistency in how employees are incented, compensated and treated which leads to different cultures depending on which group you are in. Senior management is very weak and unable to make tough decisions. They make layoff decisions, budget cuts and budget targets at a high level and then spread them evenly across all groups rather than taking into account true growth or non-growth areas. This leads to a tactical approach and disparate infrastructure.

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Pros

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Cons

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2.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Can’t think of 1. Not even 1.

Cons

Pay is the lowest compared to similar company with the same role. Upper management speaks to staff with a patronizing tone; cutting them off, and talking down to them. At times it felt like they purposefully were attempting to find things wrong instead of working together as a team to meet objectives. Understaffed. Fully expected to do the work of a team of 6 despite being a team of 2 for example.

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