My experience at PBP started well with a leadership team that seemed empathetic, visionary, and inspiring. But things took a negative turn in 2022 when I noticed a significant shift in the executive team, which drove me to question its commitment to lead with integrity.
Some individuals were promoted to leadership positions and often brought in toxic elements like micromanagement, gaslighting and a striking lack of openness to different perspectives. Internal conflicts were brushed aside, making it seem like certain people could escape accountability while department leaders failed to support everyone equally and fairly. This made me feel like dishonest and disrespectful interactions were tolerated instead of encouraging open and healthy conversations.
From what I've experienced, the new exec team has consistently failed to lead by example and lacked accountability, creating an unhealthy and unsupportive work environment. Since January 2023, the organization has prioritized profitability above all else, resulting in frequent layoffs, often without a backup plan, causing immense disruption in our day-to-day operations. Interestingly, in 2022, PBP acquired new office space but contemplated giving up one of the floors, mainly used for entertainment purposes, to reduce costs. The fact that the space still remains untouched while our colleagues were let go raises concerns about the company's values and commitment to employee well-being and retention.
PBP is not a product-led organization, innovation is lagging and lacking. Projects are often assigned in a reactive mode without careful consideration, leading to more disruption and confusion within teams. When concerns about workload or feasibility arose, they were usually dismissed or met with superficial suggestions to be more proactive, even though leaders were not displaying those proactive qualities themselves.
Additionally, I observed some questionable practices when presenting revenue figures during global meetings, where important context was excluded and incomplete information was shared across the organization as a result. It seemed to me that PBP deliberately wanted to paint a more positive picture than what was really going on. They also made sudden changes to the calculation method for the Pulse Survey (which measures employee engagement) after we completed the survey and without offering a clear explanation. These actions left me with the impression that important information was possibly being withheld and/or manipulated.
Regarding comp and benefits, PBP isn't all that competitive and the commission plan is capped. I also felt that there was a lack of transparency in salary setting: It is widely known that employees will eventually discuss this topic amongst themselves and I’ve witnessed disparities in annual salary increases between departments, with some being allocated larger budgets to distribute than others. It leaves me questioning how PBP determines which departments receive more favourable compensation.
Finally, there is no RRSP matching and PBP does not increase vacation time based on tenure.
