Fidelity Investments

Salary is okay. Perks are okay.

My rating is purely based on my experience in Fidelity’s IT department, specifically in the plan admin group.

I had horrible experiences in this group, primarily because of all the politics that goes around. The modus operandi for this group is traditional command and control in today’s world, where openness, collaboration, and teamwork are paramount for being successful in a competitive world. There is reverse discrimination (discrimination based on ethnicity by Indian managers toward Indian workers), ignorance of the meaning of the word ‘leadership’, age-based discrimination, and disregard for a person’s ability, skills, and experience.

Reverse Discrimination: I have experienced a constant reminder that I am Indian and shouldn’t forget where I come from. Don’t think you would be treated equally just because you are working in the US along with US workers. They still latch on to fear tactics, which are based on the fear of numbers (i.e., ‘I don’t care what you bring to the table, I would replace you with cheap labor from India’), to make you submissive. Only when you are submissive will you be given anything (responsibility, promotion, raise, bonuses, etc.). Otherwise, forget about it. How can you be creative and realize your potential when you are being forced into submission by your leadership? What a paradox!

Leadership: Middle managers (VP & Below) don’t get the meaning of leadership. Leadership is about bringing out the best from each individual, not forcing him/her into submission and then using them as labor. They are uninspiring, have no stewardship, have no contextual awareness, and bully. I have seen people going into clinical depression who have worked there for many years and gave their best lives to the company. These managers have no regard for that and have no idea how to inspire people to actualize themselves. They are micromanagers because they don’t know how to create value for businesses, which would create value for themselves as well as value for the people working for them.

Age-based discrimination: Managers discriminate against people with higher age because they can smell nonsense from a mile. Uninspiring leadership would naturally resolve to tactics of command & control, carrot & sticks, and God knows what else. One weapon in their armor is to fire aged guys 35 & above and hire younger ones for cheap. Instead of leveraging the experience and skills of senior persons, they are condemned to dark roads after giving their best years to the organization.

Disregard for skill/knowledge/experience: It doesn’t matter how highly educated you are, what skills you have, or what experience you have; you are still treated like labor. There is no decentralization of decision-making, empowering the team, or chances given to advance your career.

Politics: A highly political environment. Sometimes it felt like we are not in the business world but in a political world, where pulling one another down by any means necessary is fair game. In my opinion, the deep reason for such behavior is the fear of losing one’s job. Subconsciously, that fear brings out protectionist tendencies and creates an unfair environment. Below are tactics for harassing people:

• Don’t let them talk to business folks – red tape.
• Don’t let them have their vacations when they want.
• Don’t communicate expectations from the job. Keep vague definitions of roles and responsibilities so that they can be mended and used against people to break them down mentally.
• Act like a bully toward people who don’t agree with your idea. Typical Indian way of working. Create a gang of unskilled sycophants to intimidate others by show of force.
• Always criticize, never appreciate.
• Don’t clearly communicate goals, vision, or strategy for the group. I most certainly think that they have no idea what these means or how the value creation process works.

Have a 360 review system. Rotate Directors and above in different groups every three years. Decentralize. Create an agile delivery method.