As was very well stated in an earlier review, fear is quite pervasive in the company now. More important, I think, is the complete lack of trust.
If excellent senior leaders present a compelling vision and then engage the talent in their organization to achieve it, then we have the opposite. You are encouraged and coached not to question or challenge. They hold sessions to collect input, but no listening actually takes place. This matters less now, as few see any point in saying what they really think. I've experienced some pretty awkward silences in skip-levels. The emperor has no clothes, but he looks so fine!
If you're looking to join the company, make sure you do a thorough job of interviewing your peers
and managers. There are a couple pockets of good leaders who are interested in mentoring and can help you grow professionally. That is -not- the norm anymore, so prospective employee beware. You need to interview for the culture of the group you're joining as line and middle managers have little power in the orgs with less evolved VPs.
Best survival advice I've heard: "Remember it's just a job." Intuit may in fact be a better place to work for those just joining because they won't mourn the fact that it used to be a lot more than just a job.
Positions previously located in the United States are being aggressively moved off-shore. Management believes that we should "leverage the best talent wherever we can find it": part of our globalization strategy. From a cold, corporate perspective these rationalizations sound reasonable. We are, after all, trying to do what will make the company successful and profitable for the remaining employees. It's hard to feel valued when you know if you leave they'll just move your job to India.
Brad's messages are masterpieces of motivation and sincerity. But one must believe that his senior leaders are acting in accordance with his wishes in creating organizations devoid of trust or respect. One must conclude that either he is not really sincere, or that he is blind to the damage his team is doing.
