Forced to go into the office during Covid /// Very poor Management
Pros
Free lunches.... Oh wait. Never mind, those were taken away.
Cons
The best option is to stay away due to aggressive facetiming, overworking towards meaningless deadlines, transparently fake leaders, uncompetitive pay, unimaginable turnover... these are only a few. In my time with the organization in the Capital Management Group so far I have experienced the following specific red flags. Red Flag 1 - Throughout Covid as cases continued to skyrocket my team has been encouraged to come into the office by Managers. Amherst wants to create a sense of normal in a world that is currently far from. Management thinks people are inefficient from home and it’s easier to keep tabs when everyone is visible and in the office. My Manager delivered this same message to employees with families without child care and employees living with medical situations. If you pushed back because you were not comfortable due to Covid, you were constantly nagged/harassed. At the end you give in, because the nagging reaches a point of exhaustion, and you eventually oblige for fear of losing your job / getting paid. This level of Facetime is something I have never experienced in any organization. Employees shouldn’t have to fear companies at the expense of their personal safety/comfort, companies should fear its people. The worst part is that after obliging, because office space is low, many are forced to sit with masks on the floor. The CEO meanwhile has carved out a new office for himself that is > 1000 square feet and recently touted how easy it was to work in the office during Covid. He could be a leader and split that obscene space into 15 rooms for his employees to work without masks if he so desperately wants them back. Red Flag 2 - The great state of Texas had a state of emergency that left millions without power, water and extensive damages via pipe bursts. Roofs collapsed. Homes flooded. Peoples lives were torn. Despite this my group was told to keep working.... which is understandable if it was actually possible. While there were Corporate messages that we should focus on families and be safe, they were negated by Managers expectations to maintain deadlines that could have been moved. We were asked to turn deliverables almost immediately after the storm as power and water just started to roll on for some, a time where we should have been encouraged to get our lives on track trying to find basic amenities. Red Flag 3 - The organization does not have any form of 360 feedback in place. There are no annual surveys about reviewing your manager or reviewing the company in general. Glassdoor is the closest medium of review. I did not understand why this was the case when I started a while back, but it was clear after spending time there. Everyone I spoke to on my team has had more negative things to say than positive. If we had any anonymous survey no one in a leadership position in the Capital Management Group would probably be rated well. Red Flag 4 - Revolving door. The organization and management know they can get away with treating employees poorly because people want to live in Austin. Management knows the revolving door will bring the next chump in, where Management will dangle the promises of a promotion or compensation, and make said chump work very hard, only to be let down and eventually quit or be pushed out. I’ve seen this happen to good colleagues. HR will write their standard message to respond to this review, but HR is not helpful. Writing an anonymous message via email to HR is not anonymous. HRs failure here is as severe as the failure of Management.
