I felt from Day 1, Orientation, that the culture was odd. The way HR spoke to us sounded patronizing and like we were in school. And maybe it was the literal tone of how orientation started that all the new hires were raising their hands in order to be given permission to speak. I was confused. Were we not adults? Were we back in school? Even in college seminars, we were given the respect to know how to speak in turn...
At first glance, ie the first couple weeks, everyone seemed incredibly pleasant. But almost like Stepford Wives pleasant... where were the opinions? Why did it seem like only senior management could have an opinion, feedback, or critique? Only the certain few could say the phrase "I disagree" with pride and satisfaction.
If you are not part of senior management and decide one day to say "I disagree," there is a whirlwind of consequences, starting with a baffled look staring back at you. Then moving onto the discussion that you are being difficult by disagreeing, and suddenly being difficult is a problem in this case, whereas if a member of senior management is being difficult... well, they're not. They're just being right, and making executive decisions that no one else is privy to affecting and should just comply with regardless of all the sacrifices, damaged morale, dollars down the drain, etc.
Just when you think you can kind of respect someone and they can be your point of stability throughout this perhaps terrible decision to join the company, you are invited to a meeting with a couple members of senior management to discuss some challenges with a project. When you try to explain the simplicity of how in the future this can be rectified, you say that you can pull something out of your XYZ. No big deal, it's a common phrase. No one seemed to find it odd or react negatively. Alas, you are pulled aside after the meeting and told that when "you're the most junior person in the room, you should watch what you say."
I've NEVER been told that in my entire career, even as an intern in one of the more hierarchical organizations. And maybe you readers have, but that doesn't make it justified (at least in my opinion, which no one at SA would care about).
Why does some people think it’s appropriate to teeter totter around in expensive heels and clothes and talk about how they don’t know how to ride the subway and instead just Uber everywhere? Hi, just a note, you're speaking to 90% people who make less than six figures and are working in non-profit and come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Just a note.
There are seats of power, and somehow they are filled by people who have all previously worked with each other. Meaning regardless of if you're part of senior management, someone can and will overrule any decisions or opinions you try to make.
I've worked at many startup-style companies, and believe that companies will say "oh we're still like a startup in that we have to roll with the punches sometimes, and get scrappy, and process and procedures will always be evolving, so if it feels rough to you, it's just the growing pain" as an excuse for their ineptitude to manage a company larger than 10 employees while caring about all of the individuals who have chosen to work and provide his or her value and offerings.
And it probably stems from the top (aka CEO), whom management fears and will alter any decisions to appease and satisfy just so that won’t be shrieked at. This is the classic syndrome of a leader who cannot trust in their own leaders and stays too heavily involved in the day-to-day, thus stifling and suffocating any potential for organic growth.
This company is in the non-profit sector, and the internal politics (which is the most I've seen anywhere at for-profit companies) and unwillingness to let others help shape and evolve the company completely shadows the original reason that most people come to work here, which is for the kids. Every now and then when you can visit a school (assuming you work in the Network office), you are filled with a little bit of joy and remember why you do what you do.
But then, someone reminds you that you could be helping kids without losing your mental and emotional stability, without constantly having anxiety attacks, without finding colleagues crying in the bathroom or outside the building or in a conference room.
Everyone has the right to a safe work environment, and just because there are no physical punches or brawls happening, that doesn't mean that the culture is safe. The culture is the utmost toxic I've ever encountered, and I truly thought my previous company that oozed nepotism and cooking-the-books was the bottom of the barrel, but as they say, the grass it not always greener.
Because the toxin is so widespread, employees struggle to be able to escalate or voice any of the issues. Either there is no one to escalate to, because they are the ones throwing you under the bus day in and day out, or if you try to escalate, that will come around and slap you in the face. And they are ruthless in that they would rather keep you around and work you to the ground and berate you and demoralize you all day long, than just go ahead and say things aren't working out.
It's actually quite similar to what you would imagine a terrible high school experience to be like. Except I can literally count on 2 hands (amongst a 450+ employee count in the Network office) the ones who decide whether you're going to have a good day or a bad day.
There is no opportunity for career growth, you are led by the talentless with inferiority complexes, and by the time you get out, you will be grasping for ways to heal yourself and not be permanently damaged by what you've experienced during your short or long time at SA.
