Pros
The work that has been done at this organization over the past two decades was meaningful and impactful, though there is not much of it left. The organization’s brand Bedsider.org is incredibly respected in the field and was led by a brilliant staff for years. Lower level staff members are smart, collegial, and dedicated. The benefits package includes a lot of time off and great health benefits. However, good benefits don’t equate to happy employees or a healthy working environment, as explained below.
Cons
A phenomenal workplace has been driven into the ground by inconsistent, inconsiderate, and shoddy leadership. Since the new CEO came on board, nearly 25 employees have left, which is more than a 70% turnover rate since 2015. C-level employees and VPs are only concerned with their status and have no interest in the organization or it’s culture: lower level staff is seen -- and treated -- as disposable. Respected and long-tenured employees have been laid off due to “budget shifts” but the organization continues hiring friends of the CEO who work remotely as C-suite employees. The organization pays for travel and per diems nearly every other week for almost every single member of the C-suite, not to mention their phone bills and exorbitant salaries. Almost the entire senior leadership team consists of friends of the CEO: Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer: Friend of the CEO. Chief Development Officer: Friend of the CEO. Chief Program Officer: Friend of the CEO. Projects are regularly mismanaged (or not managed at all), miscommunicated, and changed at the last minute. Leadership does not take initiative of anything, but rather hodge-podges pieces together via various staff members with little to no advanced notice and scant direction. An organization that once had high standards has backslid into an organization that releases low quality products with no strategy or research behind them. Management is quick to take credit for staff’s good ideas but throw staffers under the bus when projects don’t go as expected. A long-tenured employee was berated by their manager for sending out an email praising another employee for a successful project and giving her credit for her work. Too much is expected of too few employees, especially since people have been leaving en masse over the past 6+ months. No one in management has any institutional knowledge, as almost all of them have been brought on within the past 2 years and almost everyone who had worked there for a significant amount of time has left. However, the current leadership doesn’t care about institutional knowledge and would rather complain about or push out long-tenured staff then learn from them. Regardless of the clear programmatic and financial problems, there are also various HR issues that are handled with dishonesty and deception. Management clearly does not care about concerns of the staff, but brushes them off as insubordination or baseless concerns. Employees have been told that if they don’t like the working environment, they should look for other employment. They are clearly doing so, as most of the staff has moved on. Various people have left because of the same manager, but no one in leadership seems to identify that as a red flag. In regards to the review “Different & Positive Experience”: That review, clearly written by leadership in response to the barrage of negative reviews, is incredibly misleading. Employees being able to work from home regularly does not create a positive work environment. Work from home arrangements are based on supervisor approval and can change on a whim, allowing the petty managers to play favorites. The review states that the new employees are “super talented,” which is absolutely true, with the exception of the high level employees, who continue to degrade lower level staffers and run a respected organization into the ground. The smart, dynamic, new employees referenced deserve to work in a place that is healthy and thriving, something that Power to Decide clearly is not. After all the reviews describing harsh, poor, and even hostile management, writing a review saying that the long-tenured employees didn’t work hard only reinforces that management could not be more out of touch with reality. This only goes to show new and prospective employees the complete lack of respect this organization has for its employees. To echo my former colleagues’ reviews and summarize: - Upper management is cattier and crueler than middle school girls. - A once strong mission has been replaced with pay-for-play assignments to garner funding, though funding is also in jeopardy. - Top down direction is scattered, scarce, and changes with the wind. - Everything is micro-managed. - The culture is toxic. There is no sense of security. Employees are not leaving simply because of change in leadership, but because of deep rooted issues that affect not only productivity but also work/life balance overall.