1) Poor managers and senior leadership – Grainger spends more time with mandatory training and exclusive meetings for their people-leaders than any other role in the company, but it’s not working. No constructive feedback. Limited direction or coaching. Poor motivation. Most don’t trust or value their employees, who know the work. They spend time networking and are generally pretty lazy (even outsource performance review feedback), thinking delegating everything makes them a good leader.
2) Uneven work balance and accountability – people with knowledge base and work ethic get crushed with unrealistic expectations, while equal peers clock in a 9-4, are given much less, and it’s fine.
3) No advancement opportunity – Politics exist in every company, but unless you work in HQ and can schmooze, you’re going nowhere. Senior leadership claims they’re interested in development (it’s routinely rated low on annual Gallup polls) but they’ll simply throw too many projects on high performers, work them to the bone, and call them ‘informal leaders’ as a prize, with absolutely no expectations of providing future positions. Only those lucky enough with interim opportunity (ie. someone out on medical leave) will get offered any actual experience.
4) Large organization with rampant ageism – it’s difficult to navigate a company for any new employee, but if you’re not a college grad or intern, you won’t be afforded the same onboarding opportunities to set yourself up for future success.
