The Beverly office was straight out of the movie Office Space, cant speak so much on the Woburn office. Giant outdated cubicles, desk phones, technology and computers from the late 1990s/early 2000s. and filing cabinets filled to the brim with old lease documents. Absolutely zero Zoom or Microsoft Teams capability in their conference rooms. A kitchen/breakroom with three seats for an office of 30+ people. Despite coworkers being friendly with one another, there was always a sense of rock-bottom morale and negativity and that the company culture would never evolve and continue. It truly seems like nothing has changed since the 1970s...oh for the exception of no longer having to wear a tie which I think only became a policy in the mid 2010s. Some of the posts on this page from 10 years ago might as well have been written 10 hours ago. It sounds like the culture is ingrained and will never change.
Some of the longer tenured staff have been there so long (and for the vast majority of their professional career) that they know no other way how to work or deal with people. Sometimes, longevity is the not the best thing for a company culture, and promoting staff who only echo what senior executives want to see or hear is the wrong way forward.
Micromanaging is off the charts, even going as far to proofread basic email communications up to 3x or 4x before sending out to a client, only for the client to give a 10 word normal response. The policing of communications, even internal communication (you always need to bcc yourself) is outrageous and is a way for managers to constantly ensure the "Cummings Way" is enforced.
Rampant firings and stern talking to's were always a thing. I saw senior level male staff reprimand female staff for wearing too tight of clothing or showing too much skin, as well as male staff being spoken to for having too much stubble on their face. Let people live and let people work without feeling self-conscious.
No flexibility, specifically for childcare or hybrid work. 8-5 or 9-6 butts in seats schedule, zero exception. I knew of colleague's spouses who wanted them to quit before having kids....because of the lack of time and support the spouse would receive because of the Cummings work schedule. That's a true story. You'd think the pandemic would wake up even a commercial real estate firm that the "future of work" is not M-F for a 9 hr in-office shift, but not Cummings. I know so many people who spent hours "checking in on clients or prospects" when in reality they were hiding or crying in their cars or a vacant office suite. Despite the company doing a ton for charity (and they do a lot), that's unfortunately the culture that exists within their own walls. And I don't foresee that changing. Ever. It's sad. People here are legitimately brainwashed, and those who leave while they can are lucky.
