Tremendous potential greatly hindered by poor leadership and burnout - Anonymous employee NCM Associates Employee Review

- Issues reported by employees as far back as 2014 are still being discussed in 2025. The fact that many of the same concerns continue to surface year after year demonstrates a lack of commitment to meaningful organizational change. - Hiring often appears reactive rather than strategic. Instead of addressing root causes and identifying what the organization truly needs, additional staff are hired to relieve overloaded teams. As a result, talented employees are brought in for one role but quickly find themselves performing the work of several positions while also trying to fix long-standing foundational issues. - Employees spend countless hours building processes, structure, documentation, and systems that should have existed years ago. For a company that has been in business for more than 70 years, much of this foundational work remains incomplete. Rather than recognizing the complexity and effort required to establish these foundations, leadership often responds with micromanagement, criticism, unrealistic timelines, and shifting priorities. - Senior leadership, including at the COO level, creates an environment where employees often feel undervalued and unheard. Public criticism, dismissive behavior, eye-rolling during meetings, and belittling employees in front of peers erode trust and psychological safety. Employees quickly learn that speaking up can come with consequences. - Leadership frequently fails to leverage the expertise of the very people they hire to improve the organization. Employees are brought in for their knowledge and experience, only to have their recommendations ignored or dismissed. - Promotions and leadership decisions often appear to prioritize tenure over demonstrated leadership capability, strategic thinking, or people management skills. - The company speaks frequently about culture, but there is a significant gap between the culture being promoted and the one employees experience. The focus often feels centered on maintaining the perception of a strong culture rather than addressing the realities employees face every day. - A leadership mindset of making clients happy at all costs has created an unsustainable environment where employee well-being is treated as secondary. Employees are expected to absorb the consequences of broken processes, inadequate systems, and unrealistic expectations. Burnout is common, and those struggling under impossible workloads are often viewed as underperforming rather than unsupported. - Even highly engaged and dedicated employees eventually become exhausted, discouraged, and disengaged. Many are left feeling set up to fail despite giving their best effort.