Disappointing mix of incapable politicians and contemptible managers - Vice President State Street Employee Review

State Street was (and in some areas still is) a sleepy custodial bank, concerned with the boring parts of financial services. This meant you could survive by doing the same mediocre job year in year out. You could advance if you knew the right people and politicked effectively. The typical senior exec was a lifetime employee who grew up understanding a narrow operations role and assumed their "dont mess with the flow" style could expand to running a global financial services business. Then the company realized that mediocrity wasnt going to help the stock price and they decided the antonym of mediocre was cruel, uncaring task masters, and proceeded to hire "change consultants" as senior leadership in the hope that shouting at people who had made a career of mediocrity would right the ship. It did not. Instead you end up with a toxic mix of institutionalized incompetence, political battles for promotion and HR turning a blind eye to division wide reports of unacceptable bullying behavior by executive vice presidents who laugh at the idea that there is a balanced norm between mediocre and being demeaning to their inferiors. It used to be the case that you could survive and enjoy work by ignoring the politics and finding a niche to grow your technical prowess. But with the company reeling from bad investments, poor strategy and decades of poor management, it is now everybodys responsibility to rectify the decline, meaning that even junior staff are exposed to harsh, uncaring managers who believe belittling their failing staff is "The Way Ahead".