Poor leadership - senior management is highly political and selfishly-driven, spending most of their time sparring with Cisco executive management for promotions or quibbling with other Linksys executives to avoid accountability for lack of results. When failures do come to light, senior management shifts the blame to middle managers who then take the fall (terminations and severances), instead of owning up to their mistakes and taking steps to correct them and strengthen their department.
Broken organizational structure - career development is a buzz-word at Linksys that is in reality another delusion of senior management. Talented employees go unrecognized, with the exception of a spot bonus (called Above and Beyond Awards) for those who are paid sub-market salaries, yet put in prolonged overtime (weekends and nights for weeks on end) to complete under-resourced projects. These poor individuals get a quick thank you from their manager and $500 gift card to Fashion Island, but receive no career development plan, no opportunity for advancement, and no merit salary increases. As the organization grew, new headcount went to executive management cronies, either from external companies or Cisco – ironic considering the GM held a senior management position at GE which is well-known for its culture of internal management training and development. Linksys is consequently very top-heavy, and add to that the poor leadership skills of this set, any individual looking for a place to grow and advance their career would be wiser to look elsewhere. Smart, talented individuals who do join Linksys often leave within 12 months, leaving behind two types of employees: those who try to resign but are given a raise to stay on, and those who lack the self-confidence and initiative to look for a better employer.
Functional silos – departments, even teams within a single department don’t communicate or coordinate with each other. Deliverables are either redundant or at cross-purposes with other teams. Confusion is the common vibe among employees, and frustration is often released through hallway or cube-side gossip chats. It’s no joke that meetings are frequently preceeded by pre-meetings to discuss what needs to be done at an upcoming meeting. And progress is usually made only by holding meetings that force other teams to present deliverables. Being double or triple booked with meetings is more common than not, making nights and weekends catch-up time, or you call a meeting to work in “real time” with others.