Pros
Manila office has nice benefits, Manila officemates are nice and collaborative
Cons
I would say there's a fundamentally opposed set of objectives between UK personnel and the shared service center in Manila. There's no cooperation there, only an almost combative relationship. It makes for a very uncomfortable and charged working environment. Understandable though because they are seeing jobs there being migrated to Manila; but Manila is left holding the bag. Manila has become the proverbial punching bag for all and any roadblocks and mistakes when it is the one site doing its best to actually keep the company engine chugging along. And there's indifference from the top. They let entrenched UK personnel dictate the pace, and everything else, even if it is already detrimental to the company's operations. I didn't leave WHG (now evoke) because I was looking for perfection, or anything unreasonable really. I was looking for baseline respect. I know dysfunction exists in all companies - but there's acceptable level of dysfunction vs dysfunction with almost zero level of professional respect. Everyday felt like a fight for what should have been the bare minimum granted to the Manila team, professionally speaking. But distrust and blame became the daily reality. Because one side of the equation are pressured to prove they are still relevant and necessary, whilst the other side of the equation are mandated to operate in an environment where the people they need to help them and, yes, transition tasks to them have no incentive to do so. Whom actually have more incentive to do the opposite. If you're in Manila, I would highly caution anyone against joining this company.
