Pros
- Remote work (no matter if you hear otherwise, the company has adopted a 100% remote telecommuting policy) - Feel good that you work for a company dedicated to its members, they have a community approach which has served them well in the South Bay area over the years - Diverse workforce
Cons
They try to do well on the work/life balance, but that's not the case in reality. You have to fight for it on your own. Unfortunately, most people across the organization seem overworked and/or overstressed. The biggest con (and why I am now a former employee) is what happened in the Marketing team. In Mid-May, they hired a new CMO who seemed very promising at first. It appeared that he would value Kinecta as a credit union and the Marketing team as a group of solid professionals with vast knowledge, diverse backgrounds, tons of experience, handling over 200 projects (tickets) at any given time. I was wrong. He seemed to say that he valued the opinions of others but quickly realized that it was "his way or the highway." I've never experienced someone creating a chaotic work environment like this new CMO did. He added a lot of "busy" work for all of us (such as filling out endless spreadsheets daily instead of using the project management tool we had in place [at least until a new one was implemented], or using a PTO Outlook calendar with all of these additional housekeeping steps just for requesting a day off, or asking people to come into the office physically when everyone agreed to work remotely; or that we had to join the Zoom meetings 3-4 minutes in advance when he would keep us overtime in his meetings and he would almost never sign-in to a meeting on time. It was exhausting to keep up with these controlling rules), not focusing on tackling projects, building the team, or getting to know us as people. I realized that the rules he was imposing on the team were just rules to control us. He wasn't leading by example nor displaying the soft skills needed to be a good leader. I highly recommend looking up "leadership soft skills." He is missing: motivational skills, empathy, compassion, mentoring skills, emotional intelligence, to name a few. He prided himself on bringing in a few agencies. The answer to all of our problems seemed to be more agencies. While this is a good short-term solution, it didn't seem like he was interested in working hands-on or rebuilding a solid team. The new CMO lacks respect for others' time. I don't think he can listen actively. I remember on many, many occasions sharing with him the same information over and over and over. Still, he would act as if he heard it for the first time. As a marketer, I don't think that he is a strategic thinker. I don't even think he understands many of the marketing processes. With presumably so many years of experience, what did he bring to the table? Honestly, not much. It's very baffling that someone like this can rise to a chief-level position. The company lost many competent people because of the new CMO, such a loss for Kinecta. Overall, I would qualify him as a difficult person to work with. I don't regret leaving. There are so many other companies with incredible cultures and people who are a pleasure to work with. So why would I get myself stuck in a place with a toxic working environment, where the attitude when someone leaves is "well, everyone is replaceable." However, I regret that the info shared with HR doesn't seem to go anywhere. So this begs the question, is the CEO part of the problem as well?
