I desperately wanted to work at the company that lived out these core values
Pros
My sub-team and its leadership were fantastic. I developed lasting relationships with the people I worked alongside day-to-day. Beyond my own team, I learned so much from working with a group of developers that valued doing things with excellence and who understood the impact that each line of code could have on the people we were trying to help. I believed in the mission of the organization and was excited to play a role in giving people hope.
Cons
Ramsey Solutions prizes its set of core values. They were printed on the back wall of the conference room and throughout the building for the team to see each day. They have been displayed at events where the company teaches business leaders how they should lead their own companies. Over time, however, I saw a drift away from these values in some of the decisions being made by leadership. On a regular basis, a core value would be presented during the weekly team meeting. The "Crusade" talk would typically conclude with a rousing appeal to the team: if you're not still on this crusade -- if your heart has left the building -- you should take your body with it. I dreaded that particular talk. I firmly believed in what we were doing and I desperately wanted to work at the company that lived out those core values, but I knew that I was eventually going to have to decide whether I believed the company still held to those core values. I believe that the "No Gossip" core value played a large role in this cultural and moral drift. In the beginning, I do believe that taking gossip very seriously led to a healthier workplace environment. However, as the company grew, I believe that it served to make it difficult for individuals to express concerns or criticism about the company's direction and choices. Expressing such concern to a peer could be interpreted as gossip. Expressing it to a leader was the only acceptable option, but if that leader didn't have the authority to solve the problem themselves, their only recourse was to, in turn, tell their own leader. Every team member submitted a weekly report that included their personal highs and lows for the week. They might, therefore, include their concerns there, however, on at least one occasion, my team was told to be careful to not include anything negative in our weekly reports that we had not already discussed with our leader so as to not harm our own reputations. Several years ago, Ramsey Solutions did not win best place to work for the first time in several years. The following year, a board member stood in front of the team and expressed their frustration at this loss. Several individuals had filled their survey in negatively and had included criticisms in the survey comments. The board member made it clear that if individuals had concerns, they should raise them with their leader. If after doing so, they were still unable to fill in the survey positively, they should evaluate why they would choose to work somewhere they could not review positively. Each year I submitted my survey as quickly as I could so I could honestly answer that I did not feel pressured to answer the survey positively. I had come to fear that if I waited, something would be said from stage that would make me feel pressured.
