Senior management is t-o-x-i-c.
The last regime lacked the business savvy of the new one, but the new one is just as toxic as the last.
This summer, an executive issued a veiled threat to staff for posting (negative) reviews of the organization anonymously, citing cowardice in the staff. Yet, the truth of the matter is that employees are too scared to ever highlight the dysfunction in the organization directly to leadership, and if raised to HR/Culture exec, the employees are gaslit and just told to go back to/be grateful for their hostile and/or spiritually abusive managers. What executives refuse to acknowledge is that these reviews are left as the only recourse we have in the hopes it will make clear to leadership the damage and dysfunction they're flooding the organization with while we still work everyday to keep Awana afloat and reach our goals of serving the church. No one wants Awana to fail, but it feels like a Sisyphean task at this point.
A new executive was just “secretly” hired without a job posting, because cronyism is how leadership here grows its ranks. This is particularly discouraging as the organization just laid off 20+ dedicated employees, but then spent some good money sending the executives to a spa/resort retreat for half a week. Yet, employees are required to “Brown Bag” when executives require us to work through lunch, and our offsite/all day/team building meetings are held in the building or our warehouse facilities or in free venues, such as when generous churches open their doors to us.
All of this is a slap in the face for employees that have been promoted with little to no raises, or given a promotion of responsibility without title or pay. Many people have been doing the work of two or three for years, and even more so since this latest round of layoffs.
Budgets have been deeply slashed. Pharaoh wants his bricks, but supplies little to no straw.
How are we justifying this financial disrespect/mismanagement to current and potential donors? To the churches we serve? We want the donor model to grow, but it feels dishonest to ask for money when senior leadership is so wasteful. Should we thank the donors for your recent Lake Geneva trip? Or your ever growing executive team? Is the justification that 20+ employees were sent to the breadline to cover for your decisions enough to sate you?
Executives promoted through this same cronyism (at least it isn't the nepotism of yesteryear?) are allowed and encouraged to run amok, floundering at tasks left and right but being allowed to harass employees for pet projects or to pick up their slack. There’s severe anxiety when certain executives make their rounds.
HR turns a blind eye to hostility in the workplace if the aggressor is in a leadership position. Racism and sexism is addressed if the plaintiff is considered to have the means to defend themselves legally, otherwise, it is ignored. Fortunately for Awana, everyone below leadership positions are paid so little that no one could afford to be litigious when this hostility happens.
In previous jobs, I’ve never witnessed this level of backbiting, hostility or toxicity in leadership, nor lack of accountability for executive leadership. When conversing with friends/family at other companies, they are shocked and appalled that a Christian ministry could have this level of hostility and misconduct.
