- Poor communication - decisions come out of the sky, no consultation of subject matter experts, with very authoritative emails announcing definitive decisions that get overturned two weeks later. Eventually the policy decision ends up aligning with me as the expert - but the damage with clients and stakeholders is already done.
- Unproductive middle management - assumptions and wild policy swings from C-suite get passed down and information gets passed up to and from me, with no value added in between. Mediocre managers get elevated to Sr Director (especially in the US) upon coming back from leave, without any professional achievements to justify the move.
- Exclusionary & belittling behaviour - my role was significantly reduced in scope and influence over the course of a month ; communication only came in the form of tasks to be executed, with no other input required from this L17.
- Burnout & extreme micromanagement - pressure and finger-pointing, no regard for WLB. I had to share my screen to display a single Slack message to prove I had done something. No support from management when the work done is faced with criticism, it's OK to throw people under the bus.
- Guilting behaviour - the fact that I took one day off was held against me as the reason for disregarding everything I've contributed on a given topic, despite documented policy and memos.
- Low talent retention - the reason I've left is exactly the same, word for word, as my predecessor. For those that don't quit - people just disappear from the org chart. Their team receives an email saying that person no longer works at Pinterest and they now report to another manager. The person being fired doesn't even know about it until someone in their own team calls them. I wish I was joking.
