LexisNexis Risk Solutions was the worst place that I have ever worked in my entire life. Where do I start? Well, during my interview they asked me three times if I knew programming languages like Python or SQL. I told them honestly, "No sir, I have no experience in programming." The wind-up here is they wanted a programmer -- they just didn't want to pay for one. If they would have been honest with me from the get-go, I would have never have applied for job.
That should have been my first red flag: They will lie to you in the interview and continue to lie to you for the duration of your employment
If the Coconut Creek office were any more toxic, it would qualify as a Superfund Site. Seriously, I never saw anyone happy there. Everyone stabs everyone else in the back. It's just a paycheck to them. No one likes it. You know the cliché about millennials being spoiled brats? The office was run by spoiled millennials right out of central casting. Everything was cliques and nasty e-mails cc’ed to everyone and passive-aggressive nonsense.
You know the term “gaslighting” where they make everything your fault? That’s Nexis. If I asked a question, I got yelled at. If I didn’t ask a question, I got yelled at. Everything is your fault. Once, I asked a question and I got an e-mail back from a wiseguy millennial – no lie – that stated, “Don’t you remember the e-mail I sent you six months ago?”
Now, maybe you have a photographic memory and can remember every, single e-mail you sent and received in the past six months, but most people can’t remember what they had for breakfast three days ago and really, that’s no way to treat people. But this is a prime example of how Nexis condones bullying its employees.
It was like being in sixth grade all over again. They didn’t even have enough space for my desk and the desk of another newbie. They literally had us out in the hallway, like we were under the stairs, like Harry Potter. Why hire people when you don’t even have space for them? Shouldn’t they have figured that out in advance?
And there is no training program there. None. No manuals. No nothing. They are, quite literally, making stuff up arbitrarily as they go on. My manager at the time even admitted point-blank, “Yeah, there’s no real training here.” Speaking of my manager, my manager was working out of the Georgia office. Let me be clear: My office was in Florida -- but our manager was in Georgia. Now, how you manage an office when you are 700 miles away, I have yet to figure out. And shouldn’t you have a training program or a few days or weeks to ramp people up in the first place?
Have you ever been fired or laid off from a job and it’s the absolute worst day of your life? You won’t have to worry about that at Nexis because the day they fire you, you’ll be so happy you can finally put this mess behind you, and you can apply for unemployment and start looking for another job. Hand to God -- the day they let me go -- I was smiling the whole time I walked out of the building and walked to my car. I was so happy to get out of there.
For the past 20 years, I always admired Nexis from afar. From what I heard they used to be a good company, but once Reed Elsevier bought them out, the whole culture changed. I don’t say this out of bitterness or anger. I harbor no ill will toward those people and I wish them the best. I say this so another person does not have to go through what I went though. Consider this your warning.
