Bad Management, Ineffective HR, Exploitative Outlook Of Employees - Senior Analyst DarkStar Intelligence Employee Review

It is disappointing that you’ve chosen this forum to express these feelings, but frankly it is not the only time you’ve done so. Your resignation letter arrived in my inbox well before your last day, and yet you refused to meet with anyone to talk it over. This time, I can finally respond to you. As Chief of People, I take it very seriously when someone comes to me with a grievance or concern of any kind. Further, DarkStar spent many weeks and many hours ensuring your transition from the old program/company was seamless, that you had transparency with all compensation and policy discussions, and that ALL of you got pay increases just for continuing onto the program after we won it. As I will outline below, you were never actually interested in discussing or solving the things you accuse us of here. 1) Toxic work culture Saying that toxicity is a systemic issue at DarkStar is an easy way to shirk responsibility for describing the specifics about your experience with us. Supervisors, both corporate leaders and Program Managers, are selected based on their alignment with our core values and trained to operate in a way that supports and furthers them: Humility, Passion, Ownership, and Agility. No other individual or group of employees has ever responded negatively to our culture and management layer culture on any engagement survey or discoverable place, and I have either hired or helped every single person at DarkStar Intelligence at this point. However, you chose to speak about much of this in your Teams conversations with the other team members you used to perpetuate drama and gossip, and I made a point to review communications on company material in order to identify the systemic issues you claim are running rampant at DarkStar. It is clear to me, based on these discoverable and objectively real conversations that you had this summer (particular on 6/2), that you had no interest in actually solving or escalating problems you perceived or experienced during your very short tenure with us. Out of all the opportunities and resources DarkStar employees are given to address concerns and to get the things that they need to be successful, you took advantage of none. 2) Sexism This is a very serious accusation to level in forum like this one, to the point where it feels like malicious intent in generalizing rather than providing date-specific, documented accounts of when you experienced sexist behavior. I gave you, as well as your 3 friends that followed you out of DarkStar around the same time, every opportunity to give me substantiated information about sexist behavior on your team. Not one of you were able to provide any clarity on the events you point to here, nor have any of the people remaining on the program (including women) experienced anything you have described (I interviewed all of them after you left). I know the workplace culture you had before coming to DarkStar impacted you well after you left, but that is not an excuse to project that onto us. 3) Compensation This one is easy: every single employee that joined us after the incumbent company lost the bid was given a substantial increase to rollover onto the new program with us. Our average pay, both for Junior and Senior Analysts, is higher than what was offered on the old program. All promotions and pay increases are standardized for all members of your team, and are granted after skills and knowledge-based assessments are made regardless of, say, gender. Monthly pay benefits our customers and gives employees the opportunity to flex their time across the entire pay period rather than just two weeks. These are all facts that can be proven had you just sought out the answers to your “questions” about pay. 4) PTO, Leave policies, and scheduling PTO and other leave is not discouraged at DarkStar, period. You signed up to work the same 24/7 365 watch floor job you worked on the old program, except with actual input into what the schedule looked like. Your team has the unique ability to coordinate internally about the shift rotations, and the only conversations around scheduling leave were about what days or times would least impact the team while you are gone. It is a responsibility to your team to coordinate leave with them, since you are not the only one who needs vacations on the watch floor. The PTO policy is included in the Employee Handbook, which you acknowledged and signed when you were hired. Had you cared to read it first, you would have known that PTO is only paid out after 1 year with us, and you were here for a fraction of that. Finally, regarding your schedule being untenable for months on end, all I will say is this: after auditing your hours, you actually worked the least out of everyone on your team. 5) Speaking badly of service members DarkStar Intelligence is over 85% veteran or service-disabled veteran. We were awarded the HireVETS Gold Award last year and are anticipating a Platinum Award in 2021 due to our expanded outreach and hiring of retiring service members as a part of the SkillBridge program. In fact, I sent out a very detailed introduction to the SkillBridge program and our first intern, but you had already left so you are actually unable to comment on the dialogue around the program at all. There is not a single person at DarkStar that speaks ill of ANY service member, except you apparently. I am sorry that you left the company the way you did. I would have liked to discuss and solve any misinformation, miscommunication, or grievances you feel you experienced at DarkStar. You sat for a Quarterly Review with us and said nothing about any of this to us. Even DarkStar’s CEO is regularly involved with improving or better resourcing the program. Ultimately, my assessment is that it is not DarkStar that is toxic. Since you left, your old team has received many kudos on their hard work and dedication to the mission, which I think is very telling.