I’m not sure where to start…but as with most companies with problems, it starts with leadership, which is severely lacking in high executive experience. It’s entirely composed of men, who have no experience on a company Board or in leadership at an operational business (most came from consulting ie. McKinsey, Deloitte, EY) or directly from the military to graduate school pipeline, which prevents them from having a sense of reality operating a business (vs. spreadsheet data and think pieces).
Unfortunately this is unlikely to change, as the Board isn’t read in to the day to day, and there’s vast amounts of nepotism in leadership.
Because of the unrealistic expectations that have been set by the executives and presented to the Board, there is a magnifying class on every employee and there ability to “perform.” Any perceived lack of performance means immediate dismissal. There’s no real opportunities to grow into a new position, or obtain skills to ascend to the next level, which is a bit demoralizing. Everyone seems to be a “Manager” or “Senior Manager” or “Director” which doesn’t make sense- but don’t expect much too, because there’s no organizational development professional. Titles are just given loosely to make people feel self important.
There’s an expectation to work as long as it takes to accomplish the goal- which can mean through the night, over the weekends, etc. We all know these sort of things happen at jobs, but at Shield, it’s a regular occurrence. It’s frowned upon if you’re not clocking at least 50 hour a week at minimum- this was said out loud by multiple people on Exec. Employees aren’t treated well. There are a few favorites and then everyone else, who are expendable and know it, which creates a sense of paranoia. Many people will lie and throw others under the bus to make themselves look better, which is just the result of the environment leadership has created.
Not sure Shield excels at much in terms of workplace; the amount of work doesn’t match the compensation, no chance for growth or learning, layoffs happen every single year, hostile workplace for women, precarious finances, and micromanaging executives. But hey, there’s a cool mission so I guess that makes it all okay.
