Great Middle Management, Toxic Upper Management & Retaliation
Pros
At the lower and middle management levels, the staff is excellent. My direct manager was supportive and professional, which made my early tenure very positive. Growth Opportunities (Initially). There is a clear path for promotion if you are a high performer. I was promoted from Team Lead, to Team Captain, to Assistant Manager, to Staff Manager based on my technical skills and work ethic.
Cons
Once promoted to management, the environment shifts dramatically. The current CFO (formerly the Controller) creates a hostile work environment. She is known to be verbally abusive, dismissive, and manipulative (documented for over 7 years). Despite my creating the automated systems for our data, the CFO would frequently make baseless claims about "not understanding the numbers," often expecting data to show things that are logically impossible (such as tracking email response behavior via incoming metrics). There is no "open door" policy here. When I formally complained to the CEO regarding the CFO’s abusive behavior and requested a witness or recordings for our meetings to ensure professional conduct, I was demoted two hours later. Rather than addressing the conflict or allowing me to self-demote (which I requested two weeks prior), leadership chose to strip away years of promotions—moving me from Staff Manager all the way back to Legal Assistant—simply for requesting a safe, professional workspace. The environment at the top is so high-stress and dysfunctional that it necessitated seeking professional therapy.