I am honestly saddened to be leaving Netsmart. This company has (or had) so much potential to be honest and good. The work that Netsmart does and the services that we provide to clients are heart-warming and notable. I am leaving because of a lack of interest from leadership in supporting the staff that supports the products that drive this business. From my POV, they are more concerned with mergers and preparing to go public then they are with the heart of the organization: the product and the staff that supports it. This is evident in the number of staff that are provided to support and develop the products, and the treatment of these associates. Overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, and not listened to. I really do enjoy the work I do, and I enjoy knowing that I am making a difference for clients who provide wonderful services for people in need. Unfortunately, my job and most others in support with me have turned from improving the NTST-client relationship and preventing issues with the products, to fire fighting the constant and numerous problems that arise. Client escalations are now common and frequent and the focus is only placed on placating the client in the moment and not on preventing these issues in the future.
NTST is also a matrixed organization which means teams have multiple roles that overlap other teams’ roles. This results in chaos. Finger pointing, blaming, passing the buck, volleying cases back and forth between teams, not knowing who handles certain issues, having new issues that we’ve never seen on our team land in our queue and we’re expected to work them, constantly changing team and individual roles, and a scope of work that is too wide to be manageable. As an example of the chaos, even now, after many years in the business, there is still not an easily locatable indicator of whether or not a client’s environment is live and supportable or still in the implementation phase.
There is also a very strong “Good ol’ Boy’s” club among the leadership, especially in Plexus. Friends and friends of friends move up. There are obvious power plays in the SDM team and at the director level as leaders fight for power rather than focusing on what’s best for the client and associate. From my POV, these individuals are the leading cause of good associates leaving, myself included, because they write the policies and rules and have direct influence over the teams that are suffering.
It really pains me to leave as I really cared about my job. I am unwilling to sacrifice so much of my life, energy, and stress for constant issues that are preventable while being unappreciated and unheard in the process. I mean more to me than that. I have learned a lot at this job that I will carry with me and there is much I am grateful for in the past 20 months here at Netsmart.
