Culture of Chaos - Anonymous employee Ocean Spray Employee Review

Working at Ocean Spray taught me what to watch out for with future employers. During my time there, the company underwent a complete leadership turnover, multiple re-orgs, and several rounds of layoffs. While the changes initially seemed positive and geared at turning around a declining business, the new leadership has retained many of the issues from the ‘old Ocean Spray’ and changed the culture to a cut-throat, fear driven environment. Direction from leadership regarding strategy is not consistent or effective, which leaves lower level employees unable to make the decisions necessary to do their jobs and drive the business forward, resulting in frantic energy, wasted time, and missed opportunities. Most people are extremely stressed, all the time, which leaves them with a short fuse. I agree with a previous review that describes meetings as shouting matches – this was also a common occurrence for me. Leadership and HR put more of an emphasis on what gets done than how it gets done, meaning that several ineffective (and often toxic) managers go un-checked at the expense of good employees. On top of the challenging culture, compensation is below industry average, and the effects of the struggling business are passed on to employees. Last year no bonuses were paid out, and no salary increases were given (not even a cost of living increase). Many employees deserving of promotions are not receiving the promotion or recognition they deserve. A lot of talented, hard-working employees have already chosen to leave the company, and I expect more will follow.