Talent comes here to die. Skill comes here to get rusty. Why? because this company lives in 1980s rather than 2018.
The Assoc. Dir, HR, who so graciously took time from their busy schedule to respond to the reviews, and I seem to be working for different companies. Either that or they have been so numbed by their surroundings (senior management) that they can't tell the difference. What they said is all a big corporate speak for "I will tow the party line and if possible will put the onus on the employee."
In a response to one of the reviews it was said, "Recently we have had more opportunities to work on IT projects and our staff has embraced those projects." The reality is the staff has no idea how to handle IT projects. Simple trivial tasks are over-estimated. The technology leadership has no idea it is 2018 because they are still living with FORTRAN and SAS which btw is being put in operations on a programmer laptop not even centralized servers. They are hiring external vendors to stand up internal corporate tools, while you have qualified people to do that work (and have time to do it by the way). The real IT staff you have hired, do not get pulled into the right conversations because your VPs and CTO and “Supervisors” don’t want to lose their control.
In response to another review there was mention of “exciting time of change”. More like don’t know where the card will land. Even after numerous re-orgs, the key structure remains the same. Its all a matter of who knows who and not who is the best person for the job. There are senior personnel reporting to supervisor on a junior level. Mind you, this is a matrix org so the supervisor is not the task manager. Here supervisor is supposed to be a mentor to help you find your place in the organization..
Steve jobs said - It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.
What this company does is the exact opposite or even worse. They hire smart people and then make up stuff without their input. (External world still thinks its becaue of all the smart people they hired). Then they go in town halls and chest thump about the future and use cool jargon. Anybody remember Enron? Their town halls were full of chest thumping till the day they closed.
The monthly project reviews are a farce. There is no mentoring of Project Directors. Mostly because they don’t have a clue or just care about their own fiefdom. Asking lame questions in a 15 min session does not give you the picture of the project.
Coming to the, "Mathematica’s Diversity Council" Just by hiring diverse people does not stop your company from being racist. You need to embrace their difference in mannerisms which are culturally motivated. Not everyone speaks/ acts like a white person. Do you even know the ratio of non-white senior management or even Project Directors? One white project director handles multiple projects when other capable personnel are relegated to the shadows.
BTW, your management does not share forward looking information or strategy. They share their past performance, and strategy decisions they have made without the employees' input.
Finally to the CEO. In my years here I have yet to see him walk down the hall talking to people. Who is your company Mr. Decker? the senior managers who hold their nose high or the staff member that is prioritizing the work they do for your company, over their families, their illness, their children, their life? Why don’t you stop by the desk of a staff member and ask them how has the day been for them? What is it that you can do to make their jobs easier? Please ask your senior managers to clear their calendars and stop hiding behind pretend busy schedules. After all if they don’t work for their staff who do they work for?
