What used to feel like a purpose-driven place now feels like one where our leaders have stopped listening. The recent TG townhall introducing a senior leadership transition was, for many of us, a real letdown.
During the Q&A, the top-voted questions were the ones that actually mattered to people on the ground. Issues like:
1) The growing number of negative reviews on employment platforms (like this one)
2) Perceptions of biased and network-based hiring at senior levels
3) Anxiety around career stability
What we got back felt rehearsed and evasive. The kind of carefully worded non-answers that only make the concerns worse, not better.
The moderator made it worse. A pointed question about whether senior hires mostly come from leaders' previous networks was brushed aside. At one point, people were basically told by her to "speak like adults," as if the concerns themselves were the problem. Mind you, these questions were submitted anonymously precisely because staff don't feel safe raising them openly. There is also strong suspicion that many submitted questions never even made it to the screen.
What is most sobering is how the session is now being read on the ground: as a show. Theatre to make it look like leadership is listening, without any real intention to act. No commitment to anything concrete, like an independent review of hiring patterns, or a proper examination of the issues raised.
Just nice words, and then silence.....
The fact that staff have reached this level of cynicism, where most people now assume it's all for show rather than sincere, is itself the most damning part. Trust that has eroded this much doesn't come back from one well-rehearsed speech.
From conversations across teams, the overwhelming majority of staff feel some version of this. This is not a communications problem. It is a leadership problem.
