Management has no clear direction.... period. Due to the lack of management direction, politics ensue, followed by land-grabbing and casting blame. Most managers over products are not subject matter experts. The end result: creating features and refactoring aspects of a product customers do not want, nor need. The hurried cadence of delivering features and enhancements that will later be refactored due to product manager’s inept ability to grasp their very product is burning out employees.
Great, brilliant talent is wasted on voicing inevitable outcomes, only to be faced with said conclusions weeks or months later. Voicing courses of action are in some organizations considered showing initiative and growth. At Gordian it is better described as labeling oneself as a scapegoat for when something, anything goes awry.
Marketing is a vital aspect to every organization. It just doesn't need a staff of 30 to serve an employee base of 400. How do you effectively manage 30 employees in a Marketing department? By giving every other person the title of "Manager" or "Director" and layering employees (some of who have duplicitous roles). Marketing is constantly fighting with Sales, who in turn is constantly fighting with Product Management. Finger pointing results in a non-cohesive vision, and each department looking out for itself.
HR is a joke. Confidential meetings with HR? Confidential if you consider the end result is almost always shared with executives. Wonder how you are doing as an employee? Wonder how you can better yourself with corrective criticism and be measured by it? Look elsewhere my friend. Each year at Gordian I asked for a performance review. Something to go on record in reflecting my performance. Something to aid in meeting and keeping on pace with my career goals. What I heard back from HR was the same story time and again, "We're working on a performance review and appraisal system for next year." I literally heard that exact statement each year for three years.
So what does that afford when you aren't evaluated often, and direction from management is lacking? It allows upper management to cut staff not fully aware of the implications, as they do not know the entirety of the responsibilities of the employee being reduced. After all, employees are an expense, and financial models might not support that expense no matter the talent level, or dedication the employee shows to the company.
Work/Life balance…. Such a term is nor mentioned, or acknowledged. One product release in recent years had developers staying until 10pm each night for months. They do have product releases on weekends, although they are trying to streamline and deploy before or after normal business hours during the week.
