This is really a tale of two companies. There is the one that I loved for a number of years. A place where the people were the priority and the work that was done took precedence over ego. People became family and looked out and supported one another through professional issues and personal tragedies. I was proud to call Maxim my home and those people my friends and family.
Then there is the story of the company Maxim became. Upper management that built the company from the ground up summarily and quietly dismissed. A new CEO and board of directors began to change the feel of the company and the direction that things were headed. Changes were needed, and they were making those changes, but like a runaway freight train, the changes kept coming faster and with more force and there was no stopping or stemming them. The final blow came with the new CIO who made it clear from the outset that he was going to fire people that weren't of the 'top quartile' according to his valuation. What this really turned out to mean is that he was going to fire as many people as possible, replace the management (most of whom were beloved), break the spirit and soul of those left and replace as many as possible with his own handpicked and much more costly cronies. The new management regime have no direction, or at least an ever changing one and think nothing of leading the remaining employees on with deceitful practices and outright lies. For those that remain, walking into the building is like a death march. Walking past cubicles and offices that once housed valued employees to their desk and another day of wondering when the ax is going to fall on them. It's truly a miserable existence. In less than two years, the spirit and company were completely broken and trashed and the CIO and his crew were long gone, onto the next company to destroy and pillage. What is left is a shell of a once great company and place to work.
