Where to begin. The CEO fancies herself a Silicon Valley-style startup founder, but often mistakes impulse for inspiration.
Overreaction to less than ideal financials will often bring sudden, wide-sweeping changes, disrupting team dynamics and channels of communication. These changes are usually made at a distance, as Wrage travels to 40+ countries per year, staying at Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons around the world. Not surprisingly, given these conditions, Wrage comes across as tone deaf and out-of-touch with rank and file workers in the Annapolis office.
These changes include sudden firings which have a huge effect on employee morale. The current work environment can only be described as one of paranoia and morale is significantly lower than in previous years. It seemed like not a month went by in 2018 without someone being let go, hastily escorted to the exit, not allowed to say good-byes, followed a couple hours later by an email announcement wishing them well. In an office of about 60 people, turnover has been astronomical. In response to an employee question about turnover at a recent company meeting, Wrage quoted a slightly-above industry-average turnover percentage. My own research of org charts and email archives, which include all hiring and firing announcements, indicated inaccuracies (deception?) in her answer and a higher true figure (significantly higher when only counting managers).
One employee was fired two weeks before Christmas and their replacement started the next day. To me, there’s no clearer way for the company to communicate that they do not care about employees. Wrage acts paranoid of her own employees and has a hair trigger on firings. It’s impossible to feel secure in your job at TRACE, and loyalty to TRACE goes largely unnoticed and unrewarded.
Lastly, Wrage asked current employees to counter recent negative Glassdoor reviews with positive ones. The results are the two recent positive reviews that are even worded as responses, one with no cons listed, the other with a “con that’s not really a con.” Some skepticism about these positive reviews is advised. They were solicited.
