#1: The CTO: Toxicity has increased dramatically within Prod with the move to put the CTO in as CPO/EVP Engg (a move that utterly confounds every person I speak to). He'll fire people who disagree with him. I've seen it. "If you parrot back the things that he says, challenge him only so you can show backbone, but then swallow your pride and do what he says... you'll be fine." That was the advice someone was given! How does that show an appreciation of diverse thought? CTO has created a culture that is so bad, that most of the people who work under him have an average tenure of less than two years. Leads and manages like it's 2000. A mix of the worst of Microsoft and the worst of Amazon: Top-down, micromanager with an arrogant, "I could do your job" vibe. An uninspired "my way or the highway" leader who is trying to be Bezos but doesn't realize he's Ballmer. Mitigation: If you're in Engineering and you can maneuver yourself to be under the SVP of Engg, you could be safe. She seems like a decent human and has openly pushed back on him. She may be able to do this and get away with it because she's one of the few women (of color) in leadership. #2: Product. It's not great. There's constant talk about a product strategy, but it is veiled behind a curtain. When you say you don't know what it is, you get hammered for not knowing what it is. Things are mandated and we love "disagree and commit." But then people are blamed for doing what they were told to do if things don't work out. "You should have said something earlier!" I've also seen and heard of this happening far too often. Mitigation: If you are good at doing what you're told and executing it with excellence (i.e. don't ask too many questions, be prepared and positive about things changing constantly, excel at "disagree and commit"), you'll be fine. Get a couple of years here, use it as a stepping stone to something better. #3: Leadership. Used to be OK, despite the blatant cronyism. The culture is deteriorating on their watch right before their eyes and they blame people for not "being the change they want to see." Culture doesn't always have to happen top-down, but it feels like there's not only no responsibility for it, but no accountability for it either. Even things that are supposed to be "fun" for the staff are handled so sloppily. Case in point? Hack the Sheet. Sign-ups were low this year so our CTO threatened and belittled people for not participating. Classy. It is also getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that Leadership is beginning to protect themselves. They've become insular. With the recent economic downturn, the heat has been turned up and it is not looking pretty. The leadership has become ultra-defensive about their decisions and is not really listening. It's almost like they're just guessing and don't know what they're doing. The most recent example of this? Dennis Durkin. Beyond the glossing over of the serious allegations he’s facing, leadership was blind to the fact that this was going to look like cronyism/favoritsm. They underestimated the "appearance of shadiness" even if there was none. The latter exacerbated the former. Like Mentos dropped into a Coke bottle. All the communication around this was, "We've done our due diligence. Yes, people have told us that we could have done better. We need to do better, but stand by our decision nonetheless." It would have shown more backbone for Durkin to have been let go, but instead, we let the pressure build up until he resigned himself. Missed opportunity for leadership to act quickly and show that they listened to and valued the opinion of their staff. Mitigation: If you're good at ignoring the drama and chaos at the leadership level, if you don't want to get involved in matters of DEI, if culture doesn't matter to you too much, if you can generally just keep your head down... you can have a fine ride.
