Too many to list fully.
1) Multiple rounds of layoffs over two years. The Portland office in particular was gutted multiple times. Right now the leadership in AZ is just hoping the few remaining employees will drift away. One round of layoffs happened right before Christmas. The CEO justified this saying "it's better to be laid off before the holidays rather than after."
Another round of layoffs happened and the CEO refused to name who'd been let go. Instead he just said he "felt bad and to ask your managers to give you a list of names." It was a cowardly decision from a company who was always talking about "taking responsibility."
2) The company originally was Ethology, but then their own parent company Tallwave "acquired" them. The transition was poorly executed and not communicated well at all. Communication between the multiple offices was always an issue. People outside of the Scottsdale HQ were forgotten and treated like second-class employees.
3) No room for career advancement if you weren't in Scottsdale. Goal posts for promotions were shifted multiple times despite having managers on record saying that yes people were deserving of and were going to get promoted. It never happened.
4) Poor sales pipeline. Major clients left and we signed nobody to replace them. The company started signing any client they could just to raise money regardless if it was a good fit for us and the client.
5) No company culture and a lack of conviction and leadership. We lost so many senior, director-level people over 2 years. They were never properly replaced. Instead we would hire people from the CEO's previous company. The top level leadership felt like a club of his buddies. Account managers and project management were a big issue too. There was no process for how accounts should be run, and you had some account managers who barely had any meetings with clients. Then issues would just pop up out of the blue. Plus you had so many different people writing SOWs that they ended up as messes and we constantly over-promised everything.
6) HR was a joke. We went without an HR manager for a good while. We went through four different people in less than two years? Incidents involving sexism were not investigated at all. Communication was poor. And the benefits and salary the company offered were very poor, way below industry averages.
Bottom line: the company doesn't know what it is, what it stands for, and unless the CEO and C-level leadership changes, I have 0 faith that it will turn around, even after this merger.
