A culture ripe for change - Anonymous employee Jamestown Employee Review

The biggest issue facing Jamestown is the senior management team, which has one dominant personality who sets the tone for the entire company. This executive has been extremely successful setting the creative vision for the firm, but lacks experience managing and leading an organization. The firm has grown rapidly over the past few years in terms of head count and assets under management, however, it generally operates as though it’s a small family-run portfolio. There are typically too many “cooks in the kitchen” and senior executives need to weigh in on decisions as small as paint colors. The culture that has resulted is one in which employees are not empowered to make decisions and the resulting bottlenecks frustrate everyone involved. Good design typically trumps speed to market and making the most prudent financial decision. There are conflicts of interest, with significant others of senior executives acting as third-party consultants, which only makes the decision making process that much more convoluted (and arduous). Recently a “culture committee” was formed and a book club was instituted. While having a book club is a nice extracurricular activity, it does not improve the day-to-day-challenges facing all employees. I would agree with the 2/22/2015 review below that notes senior management has favorites, which some days makes Jamestown feel like a middle school with small cliques. There are a handful of corporate apartments, some of which only select employees are allowed to use and as such sit vacant the majority of the time. There have been some employees who have advocated for change, however, most have since left the firm, which ultimately drives Jamestown toward a “yes man” culture. The result is a frustrated employee base that experiences high turnover.