Pros
Co-workers, I worked with so many dedicated, hard-working and friendly people. Health benefits were also decent for the most part. It was also nice to be given personal time on top of vacation time each year, something that I miss. And yes, there is growth opportunity. I started as a teller, left as an ABM.
Cons
After riding out the storm of the Fasseas/TARP era, many of us "legacy" employees had high hopes for the Parracchini team. Now, I understand there's a lot of "bashing" from the legacies on Glassdoor, but you have to understand we had had no raises, no benefit increases, absolutely no communication from the top, and had basically stagnated for several years, while checking Crain's every morning to find out if the FDIC was coming in to shut us down. Yes, Mr. Herencia and Mr. Paracchini did put a lot of work into rehabbing the mess that was Metropolitan Bank Group. But at the time I left over 2 years ago, there was still no change to benefits, no pay increases, and very little recognition from the top down as to the "nitty gritty" the retail employees deal with every day. That's my biggest issue with the company-employee recognition. I'm not referring to raises, Christmas parties and sales goal awards (but those would have been nice too). A branch near my location was robbed-at gunpoint and by two men acting violently. Nobody was hurt, but all employees working that day were told to stay home the following day to recover. I volunteered to manage the branch the next day( a security guard was assigned to stand watch). The teller involved in the robbery called to ask me to relay to the BM that she didn't think she could work the rest of the week. Poor kid could barely hold the phone straight, she was crying and shaking so much. Needless to say, she quit. I had asked if an EAP rep had reached out to all involved in the incident for counseling, considering the circumstances. The response was no, but employees are aware that the EAP is available for counseling and the number is readily available in each branch. That was it. This girl clearly could have benefited from help, but oh well, she never called herself? That's not right, and I told HR so in my exit interview. My other problem- when I was searching for a new job, I came across a job posting for a Teller Supervisor for Byline- entry pay $13-14 an hour. My Teller Supervisor- worked with the company over 8 years, made less than $11 an hour. Yeah, I get you have to offer competitive pay- but boy, my TS sure felt like garbage when he saw that. In a nutshell, I did establish a great banking foundation here, but I would advise any Retail Banking candidates looking for work here, to move on after you've gotten enough experience. It's only going to end in disappointment for you.
