Having come from an organization that was acquired by Enterprise, it was an eye-opening experience to feel swallowed by a corporate behemoth. Whereas before work felt mission-driven, it became so sterile and corporate that staff burned out quickly. Even many that stayed are still going through the motions just to get a paycheck, and I don't blame them. Every decision seemed to first involve two questions - cost and "does this make us look good". It felt like there was more focus on putting on a good face rather than actually helping. Senior leadership - for the most part, but not universally - was so certain they were always right that if you sent out a survey and 93% of the company said the sky was blue, they'd announce the survey results and say "it's actually yellow, but we understand that you don't quite get it." Or they'd blame it on something completely unrelated. There were meetings where we felt dressed down for not being able to solve generational, systemic issues in a few weeks. We would be tasked with exploring multiple large-scale programs, writing proposals, and then either told, "Why did you do that? I didn't ask for that," or simply, "Eh, that was a thought exercise. I wasn't really serious about that." We spun our wheels so much we ended up stuck deep in the mud. Additionally, within a few years, I was doing the same amount of work that previously was filled by 3 full-time roles, and for the staff that are still there, it's only gotten worse.
There is no culture to speak of. Multiple companies with their own very distinct cultures were brought together on the fly, and never was there an attempt to incorporate the various groups. That sowed distrust and ultimately, disdain. There is no HR - literally, there were periods where we had no one in HR. Before, I personally felt that even in rough times, the organization cared about us. There were staff recognition days, outings, spot bonuses, and even little random "thank yous". Post-merger, I felt like another cog, and when you are in a field and organization that deals with incredibly difficult situations, especially during a pandemic, a little could have gone a long way.
I also saw sexism run rampant. Not even disguised. It was awful. I brought it up to HR, filed ethics complaints - nothing. One particular senior leader who is a President in the organization was so transparently sexist that it often made my blood boil to be in the room with him. Same with diversity - while we had quite a diverse staff and many females in lead roles, when push came to shove and decisions had to be made, it felt like the male voices were the loudest, and diverse candidates were given token titles or recognition.
It's sad that with the resources at its disposal, this could be an incredible organization. But until leadership gets out of the way and trusts the staff they have, it'll continue its downward trend (hence the quickly falling review rating of the organization on here).
