Lack of Psychological Safety: One minor mistake early on (leaving at 3:59pm) led to long-term consequences and a reputation that never fully recovered. Leadership operated with minimal accountability, and negative perceptions seemed to snowball without context or opportunity for clarification.
Retaliatory Culture: Attempting to have an open, mature conversation about feedback was misinterpreted and escalated to leadership. This created anxiety, isolation, and ultimately led to termination without a clear explanation.
Opaque Communication: Despite being told performance was strong (“top of tenure”), the termination was labeled as “performance-based,” leaving confusion and hurt. Feedback lacked clarity, consistency, or fairness.
Cliquish Leadership: Favoritism and lack of professionalism were evident—feedback often came secondhand or from team members closely tied to leadership.
Toxic Positivity: A “work family” culture masked an environment where dissent or even constructive feedback was discouraged. Employees didn’t feel safe expressing genuine concerns.
Misalignment Between Values and Practices: While the company preaches “purpose over process,” innovation or alternate perspectives were punished unless carefully worded and extremely minor.
