Smarsh is bursting at the seams with new executives and urgent projects but is unwilling to fund the staff to complete them. Several rounds of layoffs with no backfilling and an unwillingness to budget for new headcount has pushed remaining employees to burnout. It is impossible to be successful. Many laid off employees have been at Smarsh for many years resulting in a self inflicted brain drain that will ensure that few people in the future will understand how things work
Smarsh also implemented pay for performance that ties bonuses and raises to scores. This is not a bad policy but it has resulted in “calibrations” that reduce high performing employee scores to 3s. Notes have been compared about how many 4s were handed out and it’s bleak. Good work is no longer rewarded and employees who know they are killing it are demoralized during review cycles.
Effective change management processes have been discarded and replaced by a decentralized, every product manager for themselves approach that is difficult to adapt to or understand. A newer executive tried to flex but they broke departmental efficiency of the product team and added work to each plate
Worklife balance is difficult for people on the east coast because of meeting expectations from west coast employees. Everyone is struggling to make all their meetings as Smarsh has become increasingly global.
