Where do I begin? Avid used to be a great place to work. It still could be, I don't think it's too late, but the end of the line is in site. Executive management is a disaster. They don't understand the business and refuse to provide a clear vision for the future. The first year most customers (and most employees) were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. We're now _Four_Years_ in. What is the board thinking? Today the customers are (rightly) beginning to question, and most of the employees know that there is no real long term plan. They didn't have time to slice Avid up and sell it before the financial crisis struck and unfortunately the Executive team has proven woefully unprepared to build a working, profitable, on-going media technology enterprise.
Executive management believes in the latest B-School theories. Well, at least they give them lip service. There's a quiet pool running on which of the latest HBR articles they'll try out. Of course they don't fully implement them - they just talk about them to the employees. A good example was "employee engagement" a couple of years back. All the articles said that having engaged employees would improve share price. Unfortunately talking about it, and then completely ignoring what your employees have to say has the opposite effect. In fact, it's gotten so bad that they've stopped publishing the survey results. They ask your opinion, but they really don't want the answer - they've already got their plans and you are relevant only if you agree with them. Don't talk back, just hunker down and execute "the plan" even if you know it's not going to work. The engineering staff is beaten, cowed, overworked and outsourced. The quality assurance staff (what little is left) is overseas. Marketing is leaderless and floundering. Sales is beaten, threatened, bullied and overrun with process and paperwork - I often wonder how they manage. Finance is over represented and has entirely too much control. HR appears empathetic but helpless. Not a recipe for happiness or success.
Too many lay offs, too much process, too many ridiculous rules. And the corporate culture? What a tragedy. It used to be a fantastic place to work - even when management asked unreasonable things and even when they were downsizing - people pitched in. We were all in it together. We worked hard and when we had to sacrifice, people weren't happy but they were willing - it was all about making it work for our customers and the long term. Today there is little real contact with the executive team. The sense of community and trust is gone. The CEO flies first class (it's in his contract) and stays at 6 star hotels while the rest of us struggle to fly at all and stay at the Courtyard. The COO appears to like conflict in her hires. The E-team hire bullies and marginally competent people who are friends of the execs or who have "big company" resumes - often with little or no industry or customer experience. Even when they are competent they're an HR and employee nightmare.
I've never before worked at a company the size of Avid where more than 50% of the staff were actively searching for new jobs and where even more would accept one if it were offered. At this point talented people are leaving for less money and (in some cases) with no job to go to. It's that bad. With the current E-staff in place I wouldn't wish a job here on anyone I thought was any good and I wouldn't wish anyone who wanted to work here (understanding the environment) on the good people who are left.
