Lack of transparency:
Lack of communication and transparency in timelines for promotions, transfers and expectations (from upper management). Although my direct line manager tells me what she can, upper management is not sharing enough details with her and the timing of promotions/transfers/merit, etc. are continually pushed out without warrant. There is also no 'you can improve on this' before you can be promoted, etc. It is very much who upper management simply likes.
Compensation/benefits:
This week the company cold turkey took away merit and bonus from those who used extra work from home time. This was not communicated in any sense over the last year and WFH time has generally been at manager and employee discretion (unless there were performance issues). It would have been understandable if employees were informed of this mid-year, however we were not and were instead blind-sided with news that we do not qualify for merit/bonus. This affected not only entry/lower-level employees, but also director level employees and above. Let's also talk about pay and merit in general. Medpace pays significantly below the industry standards. HR will tell you otherwise, but that is the truth. Merit and bonus are also not applicable if you take the 12 weeks you are LEGALLY allowed to take for maternity leave.
Maternity care and rights:
Do not become a mother at this company. You will not get paid during your maternity leave (outside of FMLA, which is 60% for either 4 or 6 weeks depending on the type of delivery). You can only use the amount of PTO you have accrued (although if you were not on medical leave, you could use ALL of your PTO right away and if you left, you'd just have to pay it back later if not accrued). You will also lose PTO during this time, so when you do come back it is prorated based to only the time you truly worked that year. In addition to this, pumping in the office is nearly impossible. People book the designated rooms for calls, naps, and other unnecessary things. HR will not address this issue and will simply tell you that they cannot help. Despite the fact that Medpace is legally required to provide ample time/space/allocations for a mother who requires to pump breast milk while at work. They do not care.
Work from home/remote work:
Industry standard is that most of these roles are fully remote or mainly work from home. Initially after COVID, Medpace was improving their WFH policy, however they have suddenly taken this perk away by adding mandatory in-office 'Together Tuesdays' which require you to take sick time/PTO if you cannot physically be in office no matter the reason (i.e. sick child, dr. appt that requires you to flex time, inclement weather, you are sick enough to not come in but not sick enough to take PTO). This has resulted in unnecessary use of valuable PTO/sick time and we are only in March so far. As of this week, they also revoked all merit and bonus for anyone who used too much WFH time. This was determined based on badge swipes. It has nothing at all to do with employee productivity, performance, etc.
Discrimination:
I think it is clear from the above that this company does not value females with children. As soon as I became a mother, my value and sense of appreciation in my role has severely diminished. Kids get sick, coming in office everyday (when it previously wasn't a requirement) is challenging sometimes. This company does not care. The fact that you are ineligible for a bonus simply for taking maternity leave should be illegal.
