They were acquired by a couple private equity companies 6 years ago. Private equity has a standard playbook (which they will deny.) This is:
1. Drum up sales
2. Squeeze costs
3. Sell the company
The PE companies got stuck on part 2, due to covid, rising interest rates, and the markets turning sour on PE deals.
They did land a bunch of sales. They then gone through repeated layoffs, hiring freezes, and changes to upper management. A decade ago, these were an "A team" of people who were motivated and experienced. We were paid well, and the company seemed to care about us.
My office has 1/10 the staff that we had a decade ago. Most of the experienced staff were laid off or have left (and not replaced). The few replacements hired have been grads, or work shifted offshore to people with little experience. Deliveries have slowed, and have been plagued by issues.
Our management complains that we have "change fatigue". This is true. The executive suite seems to have a 100% turnover rate. Each new executive has their own spin and changes to processes, tools, etc. These are all band-aids, something quick and cheap, because there's no budget or appetite for more.
Meantime, "at the coal face", we're all overallocated, don't have time to fully retrain, or attempt to re-engineer the work and tools. (Nor do we have the authority to do so.) Most haven't had raises in years, while cost of living goes up. There has been a position freeze in effect for years.
