Executive leadership needs overhauled - Senior Software Engineer Hy-Vee Employee Review

There’s very little recognition of individual thought and analytical thinking and one could argue that you’re actually punished for it. From the VP level and up, it’s all “yes sir, when do you want it done by” and there’s zero transparency into how and why decisions are made. The entire strategy of the IT department can and has changed on a dime whenever the CEO comes up with a new project idea. Completely useless projects have side tracked quality improvements simply because the CEO wants it to happen. There’s no oversight into projects that are taken on because most of managements only care is to check a box that some integration was completed so they can use it for their promotion to keep climbing the ladder and playing the yes man game. It should be no shock to anyone that the IT budget is way higher than it should be mainly due to third party contracts signed and then engineering hours spent integrating all as an internal Hy-Vee resume booster. The layoffs that happened in 2022 and how they were handled can only be described as a complete and utter train wreck. Witnessing how that process was handled is something I’ll never forget. 3 full days passed from layoffs occurring to leadership acknowledging what had happened and attempting to explain and justify why it happened. The messaging from the top two executives in the company could not have been more contradictory. One was apologetic and admitting mistakes were made and then later that day the CEO was explaining that those laid off were too entitled for retail positions and not good for the company. Multiple times it was explained that the layoffs were over and everyone still in the room was someone they wanted and needed to be part of the company until about a month later when more layoffs happened. On top of a lack of trust in the executive leadership and their decision making, the compensation was not competitive at all, even in comparison to other smaller Des Moines area tech companies. Same level positions at other companies offered at least a 30% or higher salary with comparable benefits.