There's a complete lack of strategic vision from leadership. Nobody really knows what they're supposed to be doing or what their department's goals are. Staff are deeply demoralized, since there's no real change or progress -- you either do the same day-to-day forever, or get pulled into a director's misbegotten pet project. Without any kind of strategy, what passes for leadership are director's ego trips; entire departments run on 30-year-old tech stacks because directors see collaboration as an assault on their fiefdom. There's very little decision-making coming from leadership; staff cannot move major projects forward, because everyone's waiting for someone with authority to just make a damn decision. What decision-making exists is either entirely reactive -- a director launches a major initiative with zero forethought to keep up with the Joneses -- or is a power play against another department. Leadership is promoted on the basis of inertia; competence is certainly not part of the decision. Abusive leaders get advanced further and further, despite having a litany of HR reports against them. HR is a farce -- reporting harassment results in the reporter getting harassed by HR, and equity initiatives seem to have used Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" as an operating manual.
