It wasn't always like this, but recently, thanks to having mostly new people as managers, every one of them in my department seems to live in their own little bubble. You ask for direction and get five different answers, then somehow you’re the one at fault when things collide. It’s becoming laughable.
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Leadership here seems more focused on protecting their image than developing their teams. The self-promotion never stops & every photo op becomes a LinkedIn post (that also slip into some PPT decks). When they say “increase visibility” on your review, what they really mean is “like my posts.”
Managing their image and collecting admirers has become the job. They love being asked to “mentor” because it feeds the personal brand they’ve built around themselves.
Now they’re busy in meetings deciding which roles to cut in Q1, convinced their own are essential to shareholder value. If you actually need your paycheck, the safest move is VISIBLY pretending to believe in their greatness. But if you’re ready for an exit with severance, the best way to get on the list is to ignore the performance or worse, question it.
Take your talent someplace else, the. You’re doing something about it
My take on management is that the MDs are a mix of self-important, self-serving types who actually believe their own hype plus a few legacy MD’s hoping to ride it out until retirement. They build squads of favorites to feed their narcissistic supply and protect them from reality.
At the Director level, it’s mostly either legacy folks trying to survive or hand-picked loyalists hoping to follow in their MD’s footsteps (though most never will b/c there’s limited room at the top & these overpaid MDs aren’t going anywhere if they can help it).
Then anyone below Director level is expected to be grateful not only for the 2% merit raise but even more so for the chance to exist under such “strong leadership” that also rewards itself and some of its squad for the work everyone else does.
@cm Yes, good workers are frequently let go at this place. Whenever you see someone suddenly resigning or fired here (non-layoff), you can pretty much bet that they intimidated management in some way and were therefore culled. The ones I see go from this place never make sense.
Promote within was mantra. Then hiring friends from outside to build kingdoms. Competence was optional and often discouraged. To cover up, good people were let go.
We now see the result. Failed projects. Zero trust. Dreadful morale.
But it’s ok. Ricky will cut costs and people and it will be much worse!