If your "Toxic Ex Boyfriend" was a Company - Consultant Cognizant Employee Review

Let it be known there is a difference between a “workplace that wasn’t right for me,” and a “bad workplace,” unfortunately this was the latter. Let me preface this by saying I was at CS for nearly 2 years, during that time I won numerous accolades, consistently was one of the highest performers in my level, and truly made a name for myself across multiple levels in the organization. I say this not to brag about my resume, but simply to explain the fact I was not and am not a low performer or spurned employee. My time at CS can only be described as the same feeling you get after leaving a toxic ex. During your time together, you think it’s a good time, and that it treats you right even though the bare minimum is done for you. After the breakup, they talk bad about you and say “you’ll never do as good as me.” I want to point out specific instances and circumstances in my 2 years to grant perspective in my time here at CS between myself and friends who are former colleagues. 1. One of my coworkers was told by a C Suite employer on her last day that she was “making the biggest mistake of her life,” and that “she would be begging to come back within a month.” She is excelling in her new role and is up for a promotion. 2. I once had a lead that consistently blamed me for incorrect and inferior configuration, reporting me to Senior Leadership both within the project, as well as the organization (e.g. my manager). I was told on multiple occasions that “it was an issue that I was making this a repeated pattern.” Confused, I was able to pull down Audit Reports in Workday to prove that it wasn’t me making these consistent and repeated mistakes, it was the lead himself who was blaming me. During that time, I was consistently blamed and was able to prove every accusation false. When I brought this up to these same resources, I felt as though I was being shushed. I will give utter and total respect to an HCM Director in this instance. I believe she’s still at CS, and when she had heard about this she sincerely apologized and checked on me throughout the rest of the project to ensure I was doing okay. 3. Since I was hired, in the nearly 2 years at this partner – I consistently brought up my desire to get certified in Compensation. I constantly was aligned as a lower tier compensation resource, created internal decks and trainings around Compensation, and taught basics of compensation to others. However I was never given the opportunity to receive this certification even though I was consistently promised it. I was only offered this when I put in my notice as an attempt to get me to stay. Let it be known, I’m now at a new partner and currently have 4 active certifications, and receiving my 5th next month. This new company believes “if you do the work, you deserve the certification that goes alongside it.” 4. When I put in my notice, if other coworkers asked where I was going I mentioned the name of the new firm. Nothing more, nothing less, my response was “I think I have more opportunity for growth there, but have no ill will towards people here.” I was told by a higher level management to not mention I was going to another firm and threatened litigation if I continued to mention it. 5. After putting in my two weeks at CS, an exit interview was put on my calendar for my final day. No hard feelings, it’s pretty standard practice. Out of nowhere it was moved up from Friday to Tuesday. I gave an honest, sincere, and straightforward interview (very respectful, but gave actionable instances where they could improve from my perspective as well as what other coworkers had mentioned they were too nervous to bring to management). At the end, my interviewer asked if I had any questions, and my only one was “is the reason you moved up my exit interview because you were planning on firing me early?” Her response was “we have no plans at expediting your termination at this point.” The next day, my manager expedited my termination for EOD, after thanking me for “All the hard work I’ve put in with the company and getting all my projects ahead of schedule.” She tried to explain “CS wanted to do this for me so I had time to relax between this career shift.” 6. I truly believe at one point CS was a formidable Workday Partner. However, there has been such a huge loss of some of their biggest and best resources. So much of the people of what made the atmosphere that made CS what it is, was lost. So many of the great resources I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from left because they saw more promise in other firms from both a personal and professional support level. 7. Every employer says during an acquisition that nothing will ever change. Every time it’s a lie. Since being acquired by Cognizant, we lost our ability at a Roth 401(k), the workplace environments seemed to be “cheapened,” and the culture and quality that is/was CS seemed to try to be “mass manufactured,” because of our new larger parent company. 8. Utilization is a key factor in consulting. Many of us rely on it for bonuses and metrics. CS has a huge problem with disproportionate utilization. I had coworkers of mine that were consistently billing 40-60+ hours a week where I was struggling to bill 8. I even had coworkers that couldn’t consistently bill 5. This meant that a compensation point of why we are in consulting seemed unachievable. The employees with overly high utilization were burning out asking for help on their projects, while other resources consistently sat on the bench. 9. In my time as a Consultant, I consistently pushed myself to be better. I constantly referred to our Job Level Matrix for areas where I could improve and be more prepared for the promotion to Principal Consultant. When I felt like I was in a comfortable place checking off the boxes, I asked my manager in my next quarterly review how I could improve, and what I could do to be more prepared to be a Principal Resource eventually. She mentioned I was flourishing and doing things amazingly for my level, when I asked about next steps for promotion or a path to achieve it, I was brushed away with sayings like “oh we have so many principals sitting on the bench, why would we hire another one, that’s a waste.” I was stuck without a promotion because we didn’t have enough project work to sustain our resources. 10. I am a huge proponent of mentoring and teaching. Because as resources in Workday we will never all know it all. I would go out of my way to not only learn from resources, but also try to teach new ones as well and let them know I was there if they needed help along the way. There were resources hired at a Principal Consultant level that didn’t know the basics of Workday navigation even though they had bragged about their time in the ecosystem. I had resources making legitimately twice what I did that didn’t know the basics of the Workday system. I say all this to say I hope you find the best Workday partner for you. If that’s CS, I wish you good luck on your journey. I write all this as a way to have you make an informed decision as to why they are so actively hiring right now, when the time I left they had so many resources on the bench. I genuinely hope CS learns from losing so many great employees how to retain better talent. Some of my good friends still work there and I wish all the best for them as well. Good luck job seeker! I hope you make the right choice!