1. Don’t believe the hype. They will talk about cultural values but if you have an issue, prepare to be given lip service and nothing be done about the actual issue.
2. No budget to make things better. We are constantly told to innovate and make things better, but when we ask for the tools or people to do these things, there’s no money.
3. CEO much too involved in the day to day. There are horror stories about how involved the CEO is making day to day decisions on staff, marketing strategies, sales strategy, etc. he clearly doesn’t trust his teams and there’s a reason the org has been through so many VP of Sales, can’t keep a marketing team, and the general unhappiness. He loves to surround himself with ‘Yes’ men and women who won’t question or stand up against any of his (usually bad) decisions.
4. People are over-worked and stressed because backfilling positions is non-existent. They let people go (or people quit) and they don’t backfill. This leads to workloads increasing while they keep touting work/life balance that doesn’t exist.
5. Too many cliques. The old saying holds very true here, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Friend of a senior leader? You can get away with anything.