CME Group reviews

After two rounds of lay-offs, removal of naysayers, the organization has been left with an out of touch upper management supported by a middle management layer paranoid about its future in context evaporating opportunities. The other recent reviews speak to this reality, no communication, no career progression, middle-management comprised of screaming alcoholics, etc. The once interesting opportunities are drying up quickly as the company has focused on “organic” growth and switched to cost-cutting and maintenance mode. It boggles the mind watching such a profitable company drive itself into the ground. The company maintains a cash balance of 1.8 billion dollars, margins of an incredible 61%, almost all of which is returned as a dividend to shareholders and barely a dime is reinvested in any sort of innovation. But why?! Do Google and Apple pay all earnings out as dividends and not re-invest to innovate? Would their shareholders like all cash returned as a dividend, I think not. Last time I checked, CME wasn’t a utility company, so what gives? This “organic growth”(a euphemism for 0 re-investment) focus has left what remains in the middle-management layer scrambling to justify its existence in an ever shrinking pool of opportunity beyond business as usual work. The doer level employees are left with the scraps, despite having more to offer, while the management put themselves in front of meetings scrambling to drink from the ever drying well of opportunity, desperate to keep their spot. Ground level employees are left doing monotonous tasks and have no meaningful involvement, no opportunity, zero progression. The resulting environment is one of resentment, indignation, boredom, and apathy among staff, and massive career insecurities at the middle manager level. Survival for the management layer is priority 1 and this only brings out the absolute worst in people, translating to back-stabbing, petty politics, abysmal management, no career development, lacking communication, and flagging employee morale. Meanwhile over at the ED/MD/Sr MD rainbow unicorn palace in the sky, things couldn’t be better! Their middle management yes-men reports do what they’re told, never complain, and deliver their ever shrinking workloads with a smile. For the executives in the high castle, costs are being cut, profits are flying in(thanks macro-economic environment!), a reducing workload is being delivered, nobody is complaining, and bonus checks couldn’t be better, all of their efforts are a resounding success! Or are they? And what about those Engagement Survey results? What Engagement Survey results, Engagement Sur? Engage-a-what? Never heard of it. Career development? Oh yeah, just go to that online tool thingy and fill it in, yeah it’s real real important guys, we care.

Lots of favoritism, especially towards remote Belfast and India offices, and frustrating organizational politics. Additionally, there isn’t any transparency from upper management on how decisions are made or if there’s any data to back those decisions. These points, as well as all the “security” related policies, which just end up wrapping everything in red tape, ultimately drove my decision to leave. Also, there exists in CME a know-it-all culture among senior management, where they seem to bury their heads in the sand in regards to pain points and the insane bureaucracy. This attitude of “everything is great and we have no problems” results in nothing changing and all these pain points only becoming more and more painful. Another huge frustration is the “throw some stuff at the wall and hope it sticks” mindset, with zero accountability when projects fail and it doesn’t “stick” (and usually it doesn’t). From a technology perspective, lots of talk about “innovation” and “hiring the best” but that’s mostly just talk. The tech stack is a quite boring in most teams, with a few exceptions. In fact, when it comes to tech, the company is really just playing catch up at a brutally slow pace (mainly due to extreme red tape brought on by “security” measures, many of which are excessive and have nothing to due with real security). From a hiring perspective, the technologists that are hired tend to be picked based on either industry experience or just the gut feeling of someone with a big shot title, and rarely on the applicant’s actual technical skill. Too many hiring decisions are made from the top down.