Tone-Deaf Leadership Looking for the 'V' and 'A' in VAR
Pros
Unlimited PTO, if you plan well. Decent health and other insurance. 401-K match is there, but not the best out there. If you're here, you can get paid while you find another job in a better company. Just don't lose your health, sanity, and soul in the process. An ever-decreasing group of employees who are kind, smart, helpful, and care about their customers, company culture, learning new things, and one another. However, these bright people are getting the heck outta this housefire, and fast.
Cons
Nowhere else have I witnessed such a high concentration of tone-deaf, self-serving, and frequently hostile so-called 'leadership' than at Presidio during 2021. This is particularly apparent in the mid/senior levels (VP, SVP, EVP), and increasingly within the C-Suite. I'll call them 'managers'. Culture/COVID? There was a significant COVID-blamed pay cut for many employees during much of 2020. This was eventually repaid to those affected by a 'bonus' over a few quarters. However, while these pay cuts were in force, the company made acquisitions. Just in case you wondered how the poor in-office culture translated into the WFH COVID reality, there's still rampant marginalization, verbal abuse, and bullying. 'Leadership' at Presidio in 2021? Nearly every day some 'manager' tries to undermine another 'manager'. It's become a bloodsport. These 'managers' do their best to keep one another off-balance for their own self-interests, while their customers and teams suffer the effects and consequences. To those on the sidelines, it's a daily clinic in selfishness and corporate dysfunction. The cycle continues and expands - because if you play by the 'normal' rules, you'll get played yourself by these 'managers'. When 'managers' take a break from undermining their peers, they focus on their own teams. A 'manager' stumbles through calls with their team, interspersing their 'wisdom' with profanities while spouting-off abusive language about fellow employees. Sometimes, they'll dust off some buzzword or behavior that they learned from watching 'The Apprentice' or 'Rick and Morty'. They spend their evenings posting and retweeting obnoxious quotes from their favorite billionaire of the moment. When the mood strikes, these 'managers' lash out at their team when they feel remotely threatened by something, or overworked by their own 'manager'. Beyond this, they bark out half-baked directives that they leave their team to try to figure out until they create the next dramatic distraction. When they tire of that, they divert valuable customer-facing delivery team members to rescue their latest failing (and internal) prestige project. Career growth? Once you're an 'X' (engineer, PM, bottle washer, etc.) at Presidio, you are ALWAYS an 'X". Don't expect to be rewarded or recognized at Presidio for any relevant and valuable skills or certifications, which are often earned at your own expense and nearly always on your own time. You're just a single-purpose widget hammering and grinding away until the next cheaper (but not necessarily better) one comes along. The good news is that other companies will recognize and reward this effort. Great Resignation? In 2021, there has been a mass exit of long-term and valuable employees. The C-Suite's response is to downplay this as something that all companies are now facing, and that ends the discussion. Last summer, the C-Suite started a 'Take Five' recorded meeting to attempt to connect with their employees. These recordings featured some of the 'cool music' from their youth. A few of their musical selections actually used to begin these sessions: 'Career Opportunities', by The Clash. A song that is a sad social commentary about conditions in the UK in the 1970s, particularly unemployment. 'Welcome to the Working Week', by Elvis Costello. A song about hating a job. Maybe they are trying to tell their employees something.