To preface, this isn't out of bitterness or anger, but disappointment at what was once a great place to work. I was hired before the current CIO Kavita Rao came onboard -- so seeing the transformation of the engineering department was jarring and sad.
Before that, when I would explain to people why I liked working at CoBank I would always say "They treat their people really well".
Over the next year and a half, I was to witness constant layoffs, turnover, toxic office politics, and borderline illegal attempts to pressure employees to leave through demotion and/or pay cuts.
Three different director-level colleagues I worked with were all fired – this had nothing to do with what work was delivered, just a combination of scapegoating someone to blame for overpromised initiatives by the C-level suite that weren’t delivered on time (once again unrelated to any of the individuals above) or just not being part of the ‘inner circle’ that you have to please to feel you have any job security. I won’t even delve into the mess of entire engineering teams being laid off without warning or backup plans for their critical responsibilities.
It’s difficult to include all the issues here in any concise way, but I think hearing that people were told to ‘Manage people/teams out’ by upper management was enough for me. It was sad to hear that after all the people who lost their jobs and livelihoods for doing nothing wrong other than not being part of the CIO’s very, very expensive ‘vision’, when upper management was asked if they would have done anything differently at a department-wide planning session, they of course said ‘No’.
Please look at the job reviews from the engineering folks here and notice they are not all brand new. Additionally, weed out the reviews upper management has asked people to leave. Whoever left this post below, blink twice if you need help.
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Pros
Leadership, vision, camaraderie, feedback, mission, fulfillment. Having a blast while GSD! Best ever digital transformation!! Absolutely the best career opportunities here!
Cons
None. Always evolving, listening, growing, and improving.
Advice to Management
Keep up the stellar work!
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P.S As an added cherry on top, they officially announced to us that they are removing ‘DEI’ but not to worry because it doesn’t change anything culturally, which begs the question, why bother removing it?
Just a microcosm of how weird and shady things are there.
