CoBank Reviews

I got caught up in the last round layoffs? I'm not sure what they are calling them but the options that they gave hard working employees weren't really options. It was cut throat and it was brutle. A lot of former employees are hurting... Honestly, management should be ashamed of themselves. They should have treated the employees they were going to seperate with a lot more respect. We deserved that much. In IT, there is a new sherrif. She knocked down the old way and replaced it with her vision. Some of it, I agreed with, some of it I didn't. It doesn't matter now... My opinion doesn't really count much anymore as the new structure is fully in place and the old is just a faint memory. I wasn't a huge fan of SAFe Agile, but overall it is just Agile with a lot more metrics and eyeballs looking at those metrics. In my opinion, CoBank is going to be a corporate shell with no real personality. It will be a job. Maybe you hang out there for a few years but you will move on. Not a lot of career opportunities there and there is no psychological saftey there anymore.

The new IT leadership have ruined a once great place to work. When the CIO repeatedly states "Don't retire at CoBank" you know she isn't invested in long term success for CoBank or IT. The CIO and those that followed her religiously change jobs every 3-4 years, which is about enough time for their incompetence to catch up with them. Other directors parrot the latest buzzwords ("No rules, rules" and "Growth Mindset") without providing any real leadership or technical value. Communication is often lacking or misleading, with demotions framed as opportunities. All of these toxic leadership traits have contributed to declining morale and are driving talented employees away. Without significant improvements, the organization will face ongoing instability and compliance challenges for the foreseeable future.