Our workdays have changed a lot since the Dallas office closed, and I really hope we don’t have to return to the culture of favoritism, ageism, sexism, and predominant middle school cliques.
Some staff on Cox Automotive’s dealer.com team get to work from 9-3 or 10:30-4. Others are required to be present from 8-5.
With the new quota system, some have to achieve 20%, others are at 50%, and others are expected to hit 80%. We’ve lost strong teammates when management has stacked their portfolios such that these ridiculous uneven benchmarks can’t be met.
Some are required to cover inbound phone service, while others get to use this time that should be available for customers for any personal impulse.
Leadership grants FaceTime to men who brag the loudest, or women who have the most biased opinions about other staff ( aka unsubstantiated gossip ). These people are the ones routinely fast tracked for the very few leadership opportunities and other privileges.
Mid level leadership are also the ones who get to answer the surveys from Forbes etc if this is an ok place to work or not. Wouldn’t it be amazing if these surveys were for people who did the work...
When promoted, these teammates are routinely removed from day to day availability for colleagues, sitting in conference meetings to complain about their perceptions with no apparent ability or opportunity to have a positive impact on the day-to-day operations. And they are paid more for the “privilege”.
Management is even permitted to not be available to the team during the normal work day time range, and then chastise team members for asking for help during their required shift.
Leaders will single out people to celebrate their personal events, while reprimanding others on their prearranged vacation or holidays. Leaders will order food for the team ( to promote not taking breaks ), and repeatedly exclude individuals from the food orders.
As for day to day, you can minimize customer interaction by phone or email if your manager likes you, or if you’re in your late twenties or younger. You can also play basketball, ping pong, or participate in yoga and other strength based exercise in the office and on the clock - if you are under your early thirties or a female that’s single digit size.
Some are able to routinely take two to three hour lunches or ‘smoke’ breaks. Others are reprimanded for leaving their desk to answer a colleague’s request for help on a case.
There’s a lot of hype about unlimited vacation time. Is it unlimited? Not when you have to put in the time off you wanted into closing your portfolio up for the month - with repeated 12 hour days and sometimes weekends. The work you have to do to take time off comes at a cost.
Without being around this toxic and destructive culture that doesn’t have the bandwidth to support development and collaboration, there’s no benefit to returning to that office space. It’s safer, and it’s smarter to stay remote, but I don’t think Cox can work that way.
