Lots of potential, poor execution - Manager RPX Employee Review

After working for RPX for over a year, I have come to realize this company has many flaws and its problems begin at the top. Many of the people managers at the company are in their roles because of their close relationship with senior execs and NOT because of credentials, knowledge or experience. This is the root cause of the many problems the company faces today: 1.) Lack of Leadership & Attrition– there are virtually no true managers at the company. Few managers know how to set goals, execute them, and get things done. Motivated people want to see their careers progress and want to learn. This cannot happen when you have managers who are in charge of teams and have no substantive knowledge or experience in the discipline they’re managing. At RPX, it is quite common to have people from business/sales/humanities backgrounds calling the shots for a highly technical team. When employees have managers they can’t learn from or respect -- they leave. 2.) Lack of trust – When you repeatedly see people being promoted or hired simply because they are friends of senior management, it creates a deeply flawed culture. The general feeling at the company is that hard work won’t get you promoted but a few beers with the right people will. As a result, employees have no trust in management that spending the time to do great work will move them up the ladder. The disincentive to work is further reinforced because many managers are not knowledgeable in the field they are managing. If a manager can’t discern between good work or bad what incentive does an employee have to do good work? As a result, many employees at RPX spend their days “working” from home, enjoying the great view from the office, and waiting out the days until they hit the one year vest. 3.) Low Morale – the problems listed above combined with a business few employees have a genuine interest in has lead to low morale at the company. It’s common to see the same downward spiral occur over and over again. Many employees come in motivated and excited to change things. By month 3 they start to feel that nobody cares about the work they are doing. By month 6 they start to join the others by “working” from home multiple times a week, “working” from the slopes during ski season, or “working” from a coffee shop in the afternoon when they are really interviewing for another job.