Where do I begin? This place shattered my outlook on my personal and professional placement in the corporate world. When I began here, I honestly though to myself, I could retire with these guys. Laid back atmosphere and good people. Sure, at first there were teams that seemed to be more concerned with keeping to their own and not collaborating productively, but that exists in any company whose processes and procedures are immature - they were relatively small back then (3+ years ago). As Sr level management began re-organizing departments to try and be more efficient, they consistently missed the mark. But I don't believe that to be the real issue. It was easy to see that in order to place your people strategically in a way that allows them to naturally work together, you first have to get rid of the bad, dog eat dog culture and weed out some bad apples. That has largely taken place at a subordinate level, but is still very apparent in management and above type roles. I thought ok, I'll just give it some more time. Then I began to learn that multiple leaders in almost every business unit are what drives their internal processes; all while the vast majority couldn't solve a first grade math problem, let alone handle the logistics of pulling dozens of people and just as many suppliers together on the same vector. So it was still the Wild West show and Sr management continued - and still does to this day - to shoot from the hip. They will all tell you what you want to hear, great pep talkers, no real tangible action. All pomp and circumstance. Even still, I remained optimistic. After all, I came from a very mature company with well-oiled-machine-like processes and I figured I'd have a chance at real input to contribute to the future success of the company. Let's keep in mind, I'm speaking mostly from an IT dept. perspective. As I became more respected by my peers and also management, early on I began raising my concerns, presenting real solutions that would help not only myself, but the person next to me, knowing that would become contagious and start a movement that was on an upward trend. But I was crushed. My ideas were filtered at every ear except my peers. They all felt the same way yet our managers wouldn't bite. I never understood it. It was as if they either thought I was wrong or they had too many things in motion to change course. Let's fast forward a couple years, now it's 2015-ish and we had grown, our teams had grown, technically we were all a skilled bunch. But management had no technical abilities, and when they did, they were fired! (Not a "yes" man) This is where you see in other reviews the notion that those from the same company were placed in Sr management roles. Ones they simply aren't fit for. The vetting of these "talents" was woefully underdone and has led to what is likely to be the worst IT management team ever assembled. If you get them one on one, it's what you want to hear and hope to hear when you walk into that "open door." But what's not made transparent is there may be an open door, but most certainly a closed mind. Despite claims of transparency, I've never been given information as to the "why" things were being done the way they were. Only told that's the way we are doing it. I suspect promises were made to the owners and it was simply too late to go back to them and say they were sorry for making unrealistic promises with regard to project timelines and ways to improve their technical place in the industry. So instead of owning up to their mistake and leading by example, they used the technical teams - and 70+ hour work weeks - as their scapegoats and tried to make these ill-planned promises come to fruition at any cost. This was very bad, and lots of projects had to be reworked and retouched. It was a get it done now and fix it later attitude. We did so under duress, and if the 6th floor (owners) came looking for answers, we were scapegoated. So, to the present day, it is now in more turmoil than eve before. Mistakes were made on every front, from talent acquisition in HR, to Sr IT leadership, to business unit VP's, SVP's, etc. Bottom line, in order to make people come together toward one common goal, support one common vision, and strive to complete one common mission, you have to listen to the ones doing the real work, not just the one responsible for reporting mundane successes (such as reduction in Sev1's, closure of ticket amounts, etc). Their is no champion for the teams that ultimately do the work. Nobody that will stand up and relay the message their subordinates are sending. Too scared? I don't know. Not capable? Doubt it. Unwilling because it's CYA? Most likely. There are still a lot of great technical personnel there who deserve better and I can only hope for their sake, the owners take note and read some of these reviews. I'm by no means disgruntled. I'm professionally unbiased and just want the best for what I know to be a great group of people.
