MITRE reviews

Almost two years ago the Board of Trustees was reportedly aware of significant integrity issues with their choice for new Corporate Leadership and that gave them pause. Unfortunately, they proceeded with their choice and now the ethical environment at MITRE is crumbling. Corporate Officers are now lying to staff about matters both mundane and significant - related to internal operating decisions and decisions about our sponsors. Lying and character assassination with Corporate Officers spreading falsehoods about subordinates to other subordinates is common. Questionable changes to time charges at the end of the fiscal year, seemingly with the purpose of inflating revenue to meet Officers "targets", have been occurring. All the while, other Officers knowingly allow false statements to the staff to stand, either unwilling or too afraid to take a stand. One new individual performance measure for managers is focused on "behavior" and the reduction of complaints coming from staff. It seems the Corporate Officers want the complaints to stop, and if they do not, the subordinate managers are to blame. MITRE legal will likely respond here, as they have in other posts, that the ethics hotline is available and they will investigate. Unfortunately, when multiple ethics complaints about lying by an Officer that oversees one of the Divisions in the Public Sector were made, the response from the ethics hotline was "Please be informed that this report does not raise concerns that are appropriate for investigation by the ethics and compliance office, we consider this now closed". This wording, verbatim, was also the response to other, different ethics complaints by other individuals about lying by that Officer. Corporate seems to be uninterested in finding out whether their Officer is lying to the staff - in many different instances. Needless to say, this environment is devastating to engagement. At a recent training session for Department Heads from across MITRE, the contempt for the Officers that many of the participants gave voice to was alarming but not surprising. The Officers have very little credibility left and it seems they don't really know it or don't care. This is not a complaint about bad business decisions, but about an environment where Corporate Officers can lie with impunity and the ethics processes are choked off - seemingly at the top. If some of your Officers can lie to you, and others are unwilling to put themselves on the line to stop it, what should the staff do?

I was hoping my experience was unique to my Division but I can tell from other posts and my colleagues that my Division’s experience may be the norm rather than the exception. A year and a half ago a power grab was started by the Portfolio (business development) side of our division. MITRE’s “Shared Leadership” model (Portfolio and Program (execution) working together) has devolved to Portfolio dictating and Program forced to jump. With the “yes” people brought in to the Portfolio this has created a toxic environment where collaboration and sharing have been replaced by whispering and looking over our shoulders. The work has deteriorated as the Portfolio is ill equipped to explain the MITRE value or understand our Sponsor’s needs but refuse to work with the Program side. Portfolio schedule Sponsor meetings without engaging with the Program side and rarely share the outcomes unless it serves their narrative to take more control. On multiple occasions my Sponsor has asked me what MITRE leadership was thinking in these meetings. A very hard question to answer. Myself and many of my colleagues stay because we believe in our sponsor’s mission, having an impact, and remember what MITRE could be like. But every month it becomes tougher and tougher.