- Outdated infrastructure and significant technical debt
- Low compensation and increases are very small
- Bonus plan is a joke, and CEO will find a way to make it very very small
- Extremely poor executives and leaders at many levels
- CEO micromanages every dollar spent – no budgets for IT or other departments
- Large office in India so much work done there and leads to disconnect with some US staff
- Policies and Procedures for many departments don’t follow industry best practices or standards
- Policies around schedules, log-in and out, and access to Gym, etc are just frustrating. No flexibility
- Favoritism at many levels and very cliquey, especially among staff who have been there a long time
- Toxic culture
I had worked at OATI for over a year after coming from a career working for several large companies. The culture at OATI is very toxic, and within a short time I knew I had made a terrible mistake in accepting the position there. I worked hard over the next year to try and foster change from within, but every effort was met with resistance. Culture is VERY resistant to change. I commonly heard the phrase “That is not the OATI way”.
The CEO is the worst micromanager I’ve ever worked for. He approves of every dollar spent as there are no budgets for departments. His primary focus on cost for solutions means a best or most appropriate solution for a problem is seldom considered. When presented with options, his default is to deny everything and direct them to find a free or open-sourced solution instead. He also would rather spend on pet projects like remodeling a gym used mostly by executives than upgrading outdated systems in the infrastructure.
Morale is extremely low for staff who are trying to drive change, as it seems a fruitless endeavor. We often spent many hours at the direction of management scoping out a solution that would then never be approved. Many staff struggle with maintaining heavy workloads as many departments have one or two top staff, and they respond to every request while others do little. Managers work to build and maintain morale within their teams, but most staff are frustrated by the lack of movement on projects and the outdated systems in the infrastructure.
CEO has placed several executives into positions for which their qualifications are questionable. Security officers with no experience in Security, VP’s with little experience at that level, or CTO’s that manage no staff. Many of these executives have been there for many years and some have never really worked elsewhere, so they have little experience outside of OATI and are usually against doing things differently.
Company and CEO treat people as disposable. Most staff remember well there was a no-notice layoff that impacted many of their former colleagues. They did not do the layoff in person or by talking to the affected staff individually. Instead they sent out notice via FedEx or some other service, and it was never received by many of the affected staff. Some still showed up Monday morning to work and couldn’t get into the office. The entire thing was very terribly managed and had many angry former and current staff. This seems typical of how the CEO, Personnel, and many leaders feel about the staff at OATI.
Policies around work time and time off are very strictly controlled. Working hours are 8am-5pm, and if you login outside of that you end up on several “Naughty List” reports. Every day there is a queue of staff waiting to leave and waiting for it to be 5 before exiting the turnstiles so they aren’t dinged for leaving early. If you have a dentist or other appointment that you need an hour off to go to you’ll need to take a ½ day of PTO for that. And they offer the bare minimum of holidays. You get 6 holidays for the year, and no floating or other options. Don’t expect MLK or Presidents day, Day after thanksgiving, etc.
The CEO likes to compare OATI to other IT companies like Google or Apple, but this is delusional at best. Companies like Google are innovative, and have visionary CEOs that get out of the way of their talented staff so they can drive innovation and produce next-level solutions. Not at OATI – the CEO feels he is always the brightest person in the room and others can pound sand. The micromanagement of all aspects of the business clearly shows he trusts no one and cares about only himself.
This is the worst executive leadership I've worked with in my entire career.
