Where to begin.....This company is a snake pit of the vilest caliber. The problems with this company all stem from management who treat employees as production assets rather than people. Actual leadership is scare, as this is a company run more by software than actual people. Those who are promoted to middle management position are placed there because they are ruthless enough to "Do what needs to be done" - actual leadership abilities and the respect of your staff are not a requirement. More than once, I saw people of low intelligence and questionable ethics promoted into management positions over far more qualified and humane people who actually did have both intelligence and staff respect simply because upper management knew that they would be pliable. A certain measure of psychopathy is a definite requirement of middle managers here, as I actually noted myself that the ability to see an issue from anyone else's perspective but your own immediately excludes you from consideration for management. This attitude is enforced, and is openly taught and discussed in CPSI's management training program - behind closed doors of course. The management back-end software on their Big Brother system is heart-wrenching in its thoroughness on ways to destroy employees. Don't get me wrong, there are *some* good people as managers there, the ladies in the coding department especially come to mind, but the gates of hell begin in the department next door and continue throughout the rest of the company with few exceptions.
The poisoned nature of the management at CPSI bleeds quite profusely into the general rank and file employees. As the normal employees live in a bubble, there is a definite case of North Korea syndrome, as they are generally happy to have (and are regularly told that they should be thankful that they have) a job, they generally settle into the daily torment and accept it as normal for a business environment. They forget that better places to work exist all over and just accept their lot in life. Those few who do not do so are quickly removed and never spoken of again, lest they sow dissent. All of this results in a company culture where you end up having few, if any, people you can call a friend, and even fewer that you can trust - the gossip here is legendary, and almost all of it is done with the intent of removing the competition from the perceived path of ascension of the rank and file employees (Of which there are actually few chances, despite what the company tells you). Gossip also WILL be used against you at performance reviews as an excuse not to promote or raise you, and middle managers are instructed to note and hoard this gossip (true or not) for this purpose. When they cant find any good gossip, outright lies will suffice. Employees who travel regularly are in a fortunate position, as travel gets you way from the snake pit for a while, but it eventually catches up. An employee who makes an authority figure look like a fool by being right about something will be on the fast track out the door - the manager will bury them entirely in order to save face. Needless to say, people who come up with good ideas to help the company are held under tight scrutiny and labelled as "disruptive", especially if their ideas are better than what exists currently and makes some middle manager's fiefdom look lackluster.
I should summarize by saying that CPSI was not always like this. Back in the not-too-distant past (Up until 2008), this was a good place to work, with brighter, more optimistic, and generally good people running the company. Over time, however, their experimentation with different management techniques has planted poisonous seeds that are now in full bloom among management and general employees. CPSI is a company that has degenerated, not due to failed products or bad stock prices, but due to unchecked internal rot. A company that used to be free, open, welcoming, and cutting-edge has now sunk to an ossified state of stagnation, corruption, and political venom using severely outdated technology and talking bad about their customers. They are now reaping what they have sown and deserve every bit of it in spades. For any fresh graduates looking for a job, I will reinforce to you that there are other places you can work - while CPSI may hire you easily, they are also just as likely to fire you easily and damage your future employ-ability elsewhere. This place is the Wal Mart of IT. I'll put it this way - CPSI is so well-known as a meat grinder that the Big Brother notation of TERMINATED on your name can actually be a positive thing for getting hired locally, since so many tech firms in Mobile know that they terminate their best and brightest in favor of keeping the pliable sheep.
