Atmosphere of distrust and disconnect - Consultant Barrett Business Services Employee Review

--There is no opportunity for promotion unless you're part of "the club". I've recently seen 2 corporate-level promotions for which I would have been excellently qualified, however, no one has ever asked me or cares about my (or any number of my excellently qualified colleagues) resume, experience, or skills. I have asked multiple times about promotions or things to do to increase my responsibility and no one can answer the question. Positions are NEVER posted. --Our office is ruled by dictatorship. If you don't agree with the office manager, you are wrong. (As a side note, our office manager is completely unqualified, has no experience or degree. She's ignorant of basic rules and laws and regularly spreads misinformation to both clients and employees. She's just there because she's been around for a long time and part of "the club".) -- There are no raises. They tell you that's because you're eligible for a bonus program. It apparently based on nothing more than profitability, specifically what profitability, I have no idea and it seems to change depending on whom you talk. When you ask for the bonus program criteria in writing, good luck, there isn't any documentation. I've asked repeatedly. (The office manager is, unfortunately, incapable of even explaining it accurately.) Which is how when quarter after quarter, even though the company is "profitable", you are always given some ridiculous and arbitrary reason why you won't be receiving one for yet another quarter. Better luck next time. --We regularly play favorites. If you are a favorite, you get treated like gold. If you're not the favorite, you're rewarded with having to pick up the slack created by the favorite. Also, if a favorite chooses to "tattle", there's no investigation or verification of truth or accuracy. You're just immediately wrong and must be treated like vermin. I've observed an incredible inconsistency in terms of how we treat employees. I've watched favorites get away with anything while non-favorites end up terminated. It's sad to live in fear that any day you could be fired. --Benefits are laughable. I've heard they're "working on it". --We often give advice to clients that we don't do ourselves. We have incredibly talented professionals working out in the field, however, whenever the question comes up from a client about "what does BBSI do in this X situation" I find that I often have to deflect. It's embarrassing to share that as a company we have so many terrible practices. --Deflection and blame is a finely tuned sport here. Ask questions and be prepared to be redirected. Our decentralized nature means that corporate isn't responsible when the branches mess up and the branches just simply blame corporate. --I recently heard the Director of HR admit that she hasn't paid attention to company culture in a long while. Perhaps that explains the incredibly low morale. --Experience and expertise mean absolutely nothing. You are hired for your resume. However, even if you have years of experience, you'll likely be subjected to someone who has no idea what they're doing and literally doesn't care about your experience because they're right because they've been with BBSI since the dawn of time. --There's an incredible lack of transparency and a culture of non-communication. My office manager regularly has no idea what she's talking about. It's obvious she doesn't pay attention. She NEVER trickles down information. She doesn't answer questions. My colleagues and I often feel in the dark. --We don't respect or value people's time. Managers regularly run late and it's common practice to be sitting there waiting for a meeting to start only to find out it's been rescheduled. There's never agendas for meetings. Meetings always run long; there's no clear purpose for them and no information is ever disseminated. --There's an incredible lack of professionalism. It seems like there are 2 or 3 people who regularly show up professionally and take on the bulk of the responsibility while the others play a game of how much they can actually not do and blame on others. It's amazing to me how much time is wasted by the favorites and it's just accepted by managers who turn a blind eye. --Finally, post-COVID, we're being asked to return to our offices. There seems to be no clear cut, thought-through plan. It's been mentioned that there IS a re-opening plan, but we've never seen it. We give great advice to clients, then treat our internal staff differently. Remote work is discouraged because we've been told that "corporate" doesn't trust us to be productive. (What?! Haven't we provided that we can be productive remotely?? Most of us in the field already worked remotely before this even started!) Because of our new payroll system, we're required to sit in cramped conference rooms for "training". Individual protection is more or less up to employees and their personal beliefs. There's very little opportunity for social distance. No matter what they say, my colleagues and I have noticed that there is no "increased" sanitation, bathrooms are shared with the rest of the building, and masks? Good luck with your co-workers who think it's all a hoax. Wearing masks or asking for other common-sense guidelines result in ridicule.