Where to start...
1. LEADERSHIP INCOMPETENCE
I have never met such a band of merrymen who continue to play the harp while Rome is burning. All the warning signs are there. All the indicators are there. When the CEO was warned and briefed on the full extent of the problem, the briefer was fired. Shooting the messenger is the culture cultivated.
2. OSTRICH FOR LEADERSHIP
They sit in their ivory towers pretending everything is okay and give occasional speeches in some half-hearted attempt at trying to motivate. It is always recognized for what it is. Because of this the chasm between executive leadership (I use that term loosely) and the workers is unbridgeable.
4. INVESTMENT IS NEARLY NON-EXISTENT (certainly not for a company of that size.
This is a company who prides itself on being "cutting edge" and a "pioneer" and yet nearly all systems are end of life. They are hardly "cutting edge." For those of us on the inside, we used to laugh at hearing this as we put the proverbial tape on the system to get it going a bit longer. Investment in necessary equipment is done too late in an attempt to fix a problem rather than early so as to prevent problems.
5. CHEAP OWNERS
I hated to believe this for the longest time but #4 is all due to the owners. They turn out half of the flourescent lights to save money. That is not a joke. This is a $100 million company but our owners still treat it like its in their garage. I'm all for frugality but it has translated to not investing as mentioned before. Hinders us from doing our jobs and the customers notice it for what it is.
6. CULTURE OF FEAR
Yep, you read that correctly. Most of the VPs are actually really nice but not all. A culture of fear has been created and instead of fixing it, it is ignored and propagated. One in particular is terribly incompetent, totally controlling, and utterly rude and hostile. I wouldn't have believed the stories had I not experienced a taste of it myself.
I could go on but what is the point? I know the COO will respond to this with some silly notion of how none of this is true but I lived it. I saw it. I worked it. It was not compartmentalized. It is easy to believe it is a great company at first but the veneer wears off quickly. Anyone with a set of eyes to read and ears to hear will pick it up. There is a reason why there are so many job openings at Reston. One is they are only now hiring persons they should have hired years ago to get the job done. Also, people are leaving. Fed up. You have been warned.
