When I first joined, Outlook seemed impressive from the get-go. But as time went on, I could see the company's decline happening right before my eyes. A lot of unnecessary job cuts happened because leadership started creating what came across as competition between departments by setting their own targets instead of fostering collaboration to serve our clients well. This issue only got worse over time. Leadership could be better, always leading from behind instead of the front. They pretend to be open to ideas but shut them down quickly. The projects were dull and never really challenging. Initially, I was told that the projects in the DI department would improve over time, but the promises of new and exciting projects never materialised. Instead, we were handed MS email builds and AEM work, which were totally outside our job roles. There was no chance for growth. We were offered training courses multiple times, but nothing ever happened, they never followed up with them. This was a common issue across Outlook. In the DI department, we needed top-notch equipment for work and testing, but some of the gear was over 10 years old and never replaced. The saying goes, "An agency using Macbooks is doing well, while an agency using Dell has cash issues." This seemed accurate. No overtime was paid, and getting time back for extra hours worked was a battle. For instance, I once worked 14 hours for a meeting set up by Outlook. I was promised compensatory time off but was made redundant two weeks later and told I wouldn't get that time back. So, if you tend to work extra hours, don't expect to be compensated for it. Outlook really falls short in this regard. I can only mainly speak for the DI department, but the production manager given the role was clearly overwhelmed. They were cold, had almost no people or management skills, and never admitted to their mistakes. This poor management led to three people losing their jobs in the digital department, which could have been avoided with a skilled and experienced production manager who could have steered the department effectively. Bad scheduling caused project delays, and often the blame was unfairly put on the developers with remarks like "they must have rushed the code." It felt like being thrown under the bus just to keep the Digital SPM from being blamed. This behaviour lost the team's respect. Over time, it seemed like the bigger issue was the higher-ups allowing this to continue.
