There are some very toxic teams depending on your department. My co-workers, managers and I saw firsthand that our success depends on who you know and/or what you look like.
It does not depend on your talent and character. The most talented, nicest folks have left due to the workplace politics and toxic environment. Many people are promoted based on their tenure and who they know internally despite not having necessary knowledge and leadership skills. Tenured folks take advantage of relationships like knowing each other's families, friends, vacation together, go to church together and list goes on and on. If you're lucky to know someone at the top, that is your ticket to being in the right clique and having job security. Knowing someone at the top is your most prized possession. Not every employee is lucky like that.
People operate out of fear including managerial staff which creates tension, brown-nosing, toxic alliances, gossip, passive-aggressive behaviors. There are plenty of clique outings where people air the gossip and private conversations. There are wildly inappropriate conversations that range from microaggressions to full-blown racism every single day. There are many alliances, cliques and silos. That is the only way to survive. It resembles high school for grown adults. There are many "lifers". When you start, 4 things can happen:
1. People actively participate from the get-go
2. Learn to play the game
3. Stay quiet out of fear and look the other way when people are mistreated. Many of the nice people just keep their head down and secretly think they cannot leave because they are scared of starting at a new company. They are scared of the unknown. Sadly, it also affects their health.
4. Last but not least, you leave.
The toxic lifers still get their subordinates to operate under "work hard" not "work smart" mentality. They're constantly looking for ways to show worth. They manage and do not lead. They flaunt authority, power, relationships, micromanagement. They seem one way to leadership and turn evil behind closed doors. They are fearful of new employees instead of learning from them and working as a team. Employees are not treated equally and fairly with respect. Again, it is about who you know and that is your ticket. There is constant competition between teams and within teams. You are not empowered to work smart, you are just told to work hard which hinders innovation. When there is not enough diversity in thought or people, innovation impossible.
Unfortunately, many teams in this organization have not caught up to modern times and they are truly stuck in the past because they do not know what healthy workplaces look like. They only know BCBSA and negative behaviors have become normalized.
In reality, it's widely known that all of the Blue Plans are perfectly capable of operating without BCBSA. BCBSA knows that is true so they are constantly shuffling around to find ways to be important to the Blue Plans.
Collectively the Blues serve most Americans and if they worked smart, BCBSA could have repaired the Health Insurance industry long ago but it would have taken away from profits related to fee-for-service....so why would they fix it?
If there was proper leadership and open communication, they would find out there is no reason for almost half of the BCBSA staff several decades ago. There are many people who sit around half the day and make it their mission to look busy.
You won't learn real skills here other than toxic workplace antics. It is not worth even one year of your career. It is not worth an internship either. It is a waste of time for your resume. You might be able to get good content ideas for a sitcom similar to The Office but that's about it.
