Rio Grande can be a frustrating place to be employed. Many will find themselves in countless meetings discussing irrelevant subjects. You may discover a profound emphasis on hiring the “right” people with little consideration of how people are treated once employed. You will certainly work with a leadership group where some are bound by limitations, others are under-qualified to manage departments or even worse, those that are outright terrible to you as an employee. You will work towards goals based on your own moral compass and ethics with very little guidance or support from management.
At Rio Grande there’s an attempt to downplay a hierarchy to applicants and employees. The organization is said to be participative management, yet there’s a structure of nearly 20 leaders, made up of VPs, Directors and Coaches who find it advantageous to not allow qualified workers to take on similar leadership positions or opportunities. This amounts to a zero-sum game at Rio Grande, with existing leaders being a “plus one” with better overall treatment, salaries, bonuses, titles, large offices, and freedoms; while existing or new employees are a “minus one” with constant pressure to perform, limited opportunities, no promotions, maze-like cubicles, higher-security requirements and inequality of pay.
Throughout all of this, I truly believe the previous owners (prior to the Berkshire Hathaway acquisition) are good people and do care about exiting an organization that is representative of the family-business that Rio Grande once was. Yet, with a lack of appropriate action to remove ineffective or outright bad management decisions and structures, Rio Grande will continue to struggle to retain qualified employees.
To close, I will not say that Rio Grande cares more about profit than people. If that were the case they would review the entire management group, remove or replace department heads and practices in Sales, IT, Finance, Marketing and Distribution to free up salary dollars and promote or hire those who will truly lead the organization. I will say that Rio Grande doesn't quite know what to care about. It lacks a vision and the resolve to do the hard work to improve the company for everyone involved, employees and customers.
