Forecast has a clear hierarchy within its staff structure.
On the ground level you have enthusiastic hard working employees, who’s work creates and maintains the product. They market the advantages of its capabilities, and you also have a stellar sales team that peruse all available avenues with enthusiasm and gusto.
If you have recently been brought into the fold, or are currently interviewing for positions where you sit at this level, you can expect the following. Your work, approved ideas, efforts and contributions will actually be sustaining the company’s product and overall lifespan.
You will find yourself rubbing shoulders in the trenches, with some genuinely talented, friendly and hardworking people with great attitudes and a strong work ethic.
As an employee at this level (to begin with) you will most likely be awarded a fairly large degree of autonomy over you work, as well as how you approach it.
You can also rely on those helpful individuals mentioned above to aid you in orienting yourself within the company as you navigate through your first few weeks and get to grips with the product and it’s steep, steep learning curve.
Above this level of stature within the company and we start to have a serious problem.
The segregation of effort and accountability is split, in an obvious and rather heinous way.
This company as others have mentioned, does have a bias when it comes to senior management, and the amount of input they are automatically awarded, or favouritism that is shown towards them.
This is not just because of the nature of being ‘senior’, but you will indeed notice a lot of ex Workday & Peakon employees filling out the ranks at this level and the subsequent company ‘culture’ being carried over. This is undeniably creating a clique that is beyond reproach.
Myself and many others have had the ‘pleasure’ to work with those at this level who felt the compulsive need to weigh in on, and have final say on issues that arise. Even though it is arguable that their expertise was sadly in no way related to the department or specific issue in question.
This happens on a regular basis and whilst may not seem too bothersome at first, can lead to more serious issues. When demands are made and directions given, they can be followed to the letter, however if those directions come from a place outside of expertise, and results in unfavourable outcomes or failings, the blame never rests squarely on shoulders of senior management.
This has lead in the past, to drastic shifts or changes in direction in terms of targeting audiences, and potential customers.
So unclear is the chain of command, and misaligned the thinking of those in leadership, that much time and effort is wasted. Blame is cast on everyone but those who are responsible for these decisions.
Subsequently these parties couldn't stand the idea that employees hired based on experience would tactfully suggest that their ideas were largely unsound or misguided.
Im not sure why eyebrows have to remain unraised when the inexperienced have to dictate how other areas of the business need to operate, solely based on seniority.
One could argue that this is just the way of things and that senior staff have a responsibility to oversee and guide those under them, but unfortunately this kind of controlling behaviour can be witnessed at many levels, right down to minor or inconsequential tasks.
Sadly I came to the conclusion that this was more a personality trait of several people and subsequently poor professional behaviour that remains unaddressed.
I would advise taking a long hard look at who you put in position of power, but I can guarantee that will never happen. Those nearer the top rarely come under fire. Not with the expendable workforce sitting beneath them that can be assigned blame. It is a tale as old as time, with no beauty and only beastly behaviour.
This takes me onto the subject of hiring and dismissals. Forecast is indeed quite ruthless at getting rid of employees. With staff fired out of left field, sometimes quietly, sometimes not. Each time is arguably tactless.
Several employees in the past have been seen vacating the offices in tears. No forethought that employees are people and reply on our jobs. Some junior employees would no doubt have to rush to find new employment as with any early stage career you can be working paycheque to paycheque. This kind of thoughtless sums up this company’s leadership rather well as you’ll soon read.
Make no mistake, staff turnover is high. Astronomically high. From month to month you can expect to meet people and never see them again or hear what happened to them.
There is a false sense of transparency within the company, joiners and leavers were, at one point, announced.
Unsurprisingly, as more and more people are fired from one day to the next, and those employees sensitive to the obvious changes within the business notice, they make their own departures with all due haste.
Employees don’t want to work for a company that treats its people poorly, or fail to make business decisions that negate the need for layoffs. Nor do they wish to stay when ineffective management turns into reckless redundancies and dismissals. When the ship is sinking the crew will jump ship, they don’t need to go down with those captains whose command is found to be lacking and who fail miserably to inspire its crew.
This is when Forecast began no longer announcing the staff turnover, dead silence from the company in an effort to not appear to be failing in a downwards spiral.
Weeks can go by with the whisperings of the news amongst the employees, then, by the time everyone already knows, queue the surprise town hall where the leavers/redundancies are announced from a poorly scripted and crudely acted performance.
This kind of hush hush attitude is detrimental and undeniably leaves employees fed up and undoubtedly awaiting the axe. Not pleasant by any means.
Even staff members who have been there years can be fired on the spot from one day to the next.
Whilst they are, I’m assuming, all paid their notice period in exchange for not working that month, this leaves a glaring hole in the structure, especially in case of mid management/team leaders.
This shows a spectacular lack of logic or common sense no matter how you look at it.
Logic would dictate, that if you were to remove a person from a role that was still necessary within the company, you would do so, perhaps, with a plan in place to minimise disruption.
Not so in the case of Forecast.
The sheer lack of thought has, and no doubt will in the future, leave teams in the lurch. They often remain headless, and clearly awaiting instruction as to what should or shouldn’t be the new focus and strategy of the department.
This then leads to a senior management member stepping in temporarily to fill the role, whilst the hiring team frantically pan through applicants. Instructions given to look for that diamond in the rough, or often glorified/wish list applicant who’s obviously not going to leave a major brand.
These senior management members then start to run departments in circles or in some cases, into the ground, failing rather miserably to illicit any sense of leadership or confidence in their ability to perform duties outside their area of expertise. (Which is often unknown, possibly even to themselves).
Having no plan for six months or more, leaving teams headless, or worse, in the hands of someone who is above reproach and ultimately uninterested, or unqualified, leaves teams subject to criticism and sneers (and here’s the rub) from other senior staff members.
This kind of behaviour only makes your employees think you have but two brain cells to rub together (if that).
If you lack the foresight or common sense to have a plan, you in no way deserve the success that others are working hard daily to deliver for you.
Moving on to other problem areas, I also found the office culture to be non existent.
Honestly it’s an area of any company that should be so easy to implement, given we are all human and face the same experiences, and struggles, no matter the stage in your career.
It’s these adversities that company culture should aim to address.
Those with young children, life commitments, health issues, disabilities, in need of career advice, adequate training, bereavement leave, maternity/paternity leave.
How a company addresses these and other unforeseen life events is how you can evaluate if they truly have a good ‘culture’.
With Forecast it’s the usual eye rolling efforts, doing the least possible, and feeling they have gone out of their way to improve your quality of life.
‘Pizza Thursday’s’. Does this sound familiar? You are a working adult, pizza will solve all your issues and make us look like we care, right?
Unless you are an adolescent, mutated turtle, trained in the ways of the shinobi, or an utter muppet, I’m sure this leaves you entirely unimpressed.
Let’s continue down the culture list.
The aforementioned pizza Thursday’s.
Twice weekly Ocado deliveries.
A trendy central London office that is less than a third full on any given day. Which obviously justifies the gargantuan rental price for such a space, in the pursuit of looking larger and more successful than they are. This is peacocking of the most grandiose nature.
Just a thought, but would you be firing so many staff in this economic downturn if you downsized your unused office space? Would you save some money? Does this all sound like basic business advice for the betterment of retaining hard working staff?
Lastly, work trips that are disguised as activity laden fun. These are actually just thinly veiled ‘team building’ workshops to aid the company in generating ideas and having your ‘leaders’ patting themselves on the back for being so brilliant, and for being leaders who can’t actually lead.
To circle back to a previous point - please do expect at least a few employees to be fired after these work expeditions. You are after all representing the company, and any form of clowning around will reflect badly on this particular circus.
Sadly the product, even though it does indeed have some promise, is trying to be all things to everyone, all at the same time.
It’s a Jack of all trades, and as they say, a master of none.
Hold it up side by side with any of its main competitors and you’ll notice not only does it not do any of these tasks as well, it’s also the unfortunate ugly duckling, the one that’s a bit hard to look at and even harder to use. The learning curve is far too steep for even the most tech savvy.
How can the company address this you say? Refinement? Dial back the excess, the clutter and the bespoke features? No, just add more, that’s right, if in doubt, make it do even more. It’s the Homer Simpson car of project management software.
As with any product, there is often the talk of sales figures, targets, and goals to be reached. This includes my favourite, the incentives to do so (you know, outside of that being the collective goal of everyone in the company).
I am talking of course about the elusive ‘shares or stock in the company’.
That life changing, fabled source of extra capital that I’m sure we can all agree, is so much more appealing than say, a bonus, or, a performance based raise.
It’s worth noting here that senior staff are often already given this benefit from the start of their employment.
What do you need to do to be awarded this benefit if you are not senior? Something tangible and actually achievable you say? No, don’t be silly, an arbitrary target based on what we would like to see the company achieve in sales figures makes perfect sense.
Don’t worry though, those numbers are so far in the realm of wishful thinking, you may as well be running on the spot, carrot dangling above your head, securely out of reach.
In closing, with senior management members who are seemingly struggling to make good business decisions, you’l be working for those who in no way value your experience time and efforts.
Choosing rather to weigh in themselves of areas of the business they have no professional experience in. This obvious display of overconfidence and assertiveness is just the posturing of those aiming for a new abbreviated job title. Oafishly trampling over other employees in the race to stand out.
Sadly, those who talk the loudest may indeed be heard more (and often avoided in person), but as with so many cases of having so much to say, it frequently has any true value. With no one above them to call out this behaviour, it continues unchecked.
Of course when these poorly thought through and ill informed decisions are made by the unqualified, it doesn’t work out very well, failure, poor results, plans one-eightied.
You may find yourself unsurprised to hear that there is no fallout for these failed plans, there’s no repercussions for those at the top, god forbid anyone point out their mistakes or see them take responsibility for their failures.
No, if you are in the ruling class, you are faultless, clearly the fault lies with some department who did not interpret those plan’s correctly.
This lack of trust in employees is baffling.
We are all aware just how staff are hired for roles, you’re interviewed, the level of your work and the experience gained throughout your career is measured. You are offered the job based on those qualifications.
So why then, are there those in this company who will not listen to any suggestions or advice based on the benefit of your expertise? Once again, unless you are privileged ex Peakon cast off or hired directly into a senior role, your expertise is valued at absolute zero.
…to surmise, the forecast for this company is unfortunately very grim.
If Forecast wants to forge any kind of of future where it can be viewed as a promising place to work, it’s going to take more than a little collective oomph, and those in positions of management at the company will have to dig deep and truly, sincerely, care.
If you are looking to work here, I would advise you to consider your options. We both know you can, and do, deserve better.