- Many managers, no real leadership. The problem is middle managers are stripped of any power and upper management are expected to be “yes” men. We need our managers to be empowered to make the best decisions for employees and projects. But the priorities of the company perpetuate a cycle where upper management pushing their will down the chain and each layer of management in between essentially being order takers. Meanwhile the people who understand best how to handle the problems are on the ground floor. So problems aren’t being solved effectively or efficiently.
- They have broken the trust of their employees who once felt comforted by the idea that the company is doing well, cared about employees, there was no cap on salary or raises and “no layoffs”. Welp, they done laid ~10% of the company off so that positive vibe is extinguished. This decision created a ripple of negativity throughout the company and I’m certain it will haunt them for a long time to come. Don’t get me wrong - every company has layoffs. It’s not hard for people to grasp that if you aren’t making enough money, you need to make cuts. However, the message that has been peddled repeatedly is that we are doing great. The manifestations of that have been a multi-million dollar budgeted trip for the whole company to go to Las Vegas just 3 months prior to the layoffs, as well as continuously hiring new employees. Not just a few, tens of employees per month. So, you can see how it seems a bit contradictory to the “we don’t have money in the budget” story. If you read between the lines a bit you can see the real reason for these cuts. The company recently combined its brands into one. They started getting great traction on their job requisitions. With much more competition between people applying, they need not hold onto some of their more tenured and higher paid employees. They’re replaceable now. And that’s business. But where this is detrimental to the company is their culture was one that purported to “care”. When I arrived and people told me that I laughed. No company “cares”. At least once they get successful enough to have an opportunity to not care. And now everyone realizes that. So the special sauce is gone. Good job.
