First and foremost, if you're female, get ready to not be treated seriously, acknowledged, or even as an equal. I had male direct reports and my leader was also male. Whenever I had meetings with all males, questions would only be posed to my male boss and direct reports. They would in turn look at me to answer, because quite frankly, I was really the only one who could provide the answers. This would happen about 3-4 times where I would not even be acknowledged until my boss would point out "Please ask her, she's the expert." This happened in every meeting I had with multiple departments across the company. I had a boss and team that respected me and the merit of my work, however I cannot say the same for the rest of the company. This went on for years. Even after leaving the company, I have heard more and more cases of sexism happening within the company perpetuated not only by team members but by C-level executives. It comes from the top. I have heard from other female coworkers who were passed up for senior level promotions for males lacking experience and tenure with the company. I would think twice about working here if you're female and wanting a leadership position.
The last straw for me leaving was quite frankly the lack of support from our executive team and baseless lip service. Whenever we would meet with them, they would openly lie to our face but also throw in our face that we had to assume positive intent. It was a joke. Where was their positive intent for us when we desparately asked for help on many, many issues? We were told "You aren't being very purple." Yes, neither are you. I feel like the founder of this company would be appalled at what "purple" really means these days. Purple means, let's just demand what we want, give no communication, no time, no good faith, and expect it NOW. If you don't like it, we will just run it up the chain of command to the COO. You can't run a company like that. There is no priority if everything is a high priority. The COO has said this in many a meeting, but doesn't practice what he preaches. When you ask for help when specifically told by him to come to him for help, know what I got? Give me a break. Eye roll.
The COO constantly promotes that as an employee (yes employee and not a team member, because you are not treated as a team member but just a number) you're owed 4 things. Never once since the COO started did any of those 4 things happen to me. In fact things got way worse once the COO started. Basically, he hired all his cronies to take over and has successfully removed anyone with any opposition. Telling a team that HIS hire was done by committee and everyone on the team had chosen the hire was a bald-faced lie. The entire team had said no to the hire, yet the hire had gone through. You can't built trust with an entire team when it begins with lies.
I feel really bad for the Wageworks folks who quite frankly did not know what they were getting into. They are lovely people with great leadership. I had hope for them that with the WW leadership intact, their employees and HealthEquity would be taken care of. However, I have seen many leaders resign since then and the future of the company seems rather bleak. The latest reviews here give evidence of that.
I pride myself on being a good employee. I work hard, I go out of my way to help people in need even if it is not my job. I played by the rules, did what I was told. In the end, I was just steamrolled by "purple" people and deeply unappreciated, with the exception of my team. They were the real reason as to why I stayed so long, hoping things would turn around but never did. So when I gave my resignation, it did shock a lot of people. Speaking up does no good because quite frankly, it has fallen on deaf ears time and time again and it isn't long before you have a target on your back. It used to be a great company and I am very saddened that it isn't even a glimmer of what it used to be. When asked what they could do to get me to stay, I told them there was absolutely nothing. When many are saying the same thing, that speaks volumes of what this company has become.
