Worst Executive Leadership Ever - killed a once Great Company
Pros
(Years ago) Some of the best and brightest Engineers and Business folks I've ever worked with. Great, entrepreneurial atmosphere with high energy. (Now, since 2016) Low energy, dictatorial, ivory tower Executive "leadership", "go along to get along" environment, where any disagreement with leadership or their cronies results in dismissal under 'created' circumstances (I was not fired - but witnessed this many times).
Cons
Absolutely reckless Executive leadership. The CEO is, and always has been, the root of Zayo's poor culture and inconsistent performance. A true sociopath. In fact, he and his pet "President" Mr. Waters score off the charts on the Dark Triad of personality traits - Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy. Anyone not in Boulder is treated extremely poorly. No advancement possibility whatsoever, no raises, no recognition. The fun part is -- those in the field and acquired during acquisitions are the very people actually doing 90+% of the day-to-day work. Dan and Jack sit in their ivory towers in Boulder making decisions without regard to any employees. Boulder is full of feckless "yes" men and women, who fear the petulant temper-tantrums of these two Executives if they don't go along with 'the plan'. Those that don't are verbally assaulted, publicly 'shamed' and cast aside. This has led to a fearful, complacent, blindly compliant monoculture in Boulder -- and the systematic exodus, removal, or complete dis-engagement of the 'doers' and 'thinkers' at this once great, powerhouse of an infrastructure company. Dishonesty is abundant here. There have been many times where corruption, mismanagement, misfeasance, malfeasance and other serious situations have been knowingly and willingly 'shielded' from the Board. Meanwhile, the employee base has developed a hyper-efficient 'rumor' mill (trafficking in real, first hand knowledge of 'what happened') and derivatives-style speculation on the 'next move' and bets on 'will the Board finally act?'. Zayo needs to be bought by a strict PE firm - who has the backbone to set aside Executive Leadership and bring in a few core folks to nurture this once exceptional company back to health. Maybe, just maybe, there are enough knowledgeable 'doers' remaining in the ranks who could be groomed and grown into the next generation of leaders required to save this company. With assurances, they might even be able to coax back some of former high-performing middle management that built this company in the first place. The current crop of 'leaders' would need to evacuated, or at minimum, endure some re-education and de-programming from the years of poor practices forced upon them by the current Exec staff.
