Culture at Ferguson

[Zara Anwar]

I just joined Ferguson and i am surprised to find that organizational culture is not uniform. As trainees are placed in different sections and each sections has it's own set of rules and regulations which a trainee learns by trial and error. We are not informed of the rules in the initial stage and we learn them by committing mistakes and annoying managers and becoming the topic of the grapevine. Organizational politics is thick and complicated in the section that i have been placed.
Discrimination against women to some extent is also found here. One of my seniors asked me to recommend a fellow inductee for a particular job at the client. i told her that i was ready for the job but she informed me that the manager has told her specifically to bring a MALE trainee. hope it helps Ferguson aspirants.......

[iahmad]

Zara u r breaching the NDA, (Non Disclosure Agreement)

[iahmad]

u have joined the tough profession, your expectations should not be so high

[Pracs]

AFF isthe oldest firm and it does have quite the 'old management' style, despite all that it is also one of the best and the biggest of the Big 4 in Pakistan.

Take it this way, perhaps the job where a MALE member was/is needed is out station or a place where the Manger may not be comfortable in putting a female trainee (more so a start up). I know we had to face reverse gender discrimination, where all mae trainees in my group were always planned on out station audits and the females had all City audits ! I actually ended up staying out of the City most of my time in AFF. So it does cut both ways.

Having said that I agree there is a need of lot of improvement for a more 'professional culture' in all firms in Pakistan, compared to say the UK or even Dubai/Middle east.