Weaponized Layoffs: The most recent round of layoffs felt less like a financial necessity and more like a targeted removal of dissent. Many of the culture champions and those who advocated for fair treatment of staff and better value delivery for the vendors we rate were the first to be let go.
The "Heads Down" Mandate: Since the layoffs, the message from leadership hasn't been one of reassurance, it’s been a threat. I have been explicitly told to keep my head down and be quiet or risk being part of the next round of layoffs. Using livelihoods as leverage to enforce silence is the definition of a toxic workplace.
Retaliation for Reviews: My manager told the team the other day that leadership is actively monitoring and threatening current employees against posting negative feedback online. For a company that built its empire on the value of honest, third-party reviews, the hypocrisy of suppressing its own employees' voices is staggering.
Erosion of Integrity: It’s becoming increasingly difficult to trust the "KLAS Standard" when the internal environment is governed by intimidation rather than the transparency we preach to the market.
Declining Value for Clients: KLAS is actively chasing less research for our clients than we have in the past. At the same time, we've reduced the number of questions we ask in the course of our research. So, we're reducing both the quantity and quality of the research we gather and at the same time, we're being told that we need to start charging our clients significantly more. To top it all off, with the current state of our staffing levels, we have no way to actually deliver all of the things we've sold to our clients. Remaining staff is being asked to do SO much more than we had to before without any additional resources to help.
