Where Smug Self-Assurance Meets Incompetence and Moral Cowardice - Proposal Strategist Amplity Employee Review

Props to Amplity for taking action on my past reviews and letting Chris Baker have top billing as the sole CEO - I'm sure Mike Griffith is crying all the way to the bank. I began with Amplity in February of 2022 - at that point, the proposal department was around 5 months old and overseen by one other person. Our mandate was seemingly simple enough: curate and assemble the content used in responding to proposals for new business from prospective clients as part of the business development group. Sales staff from across the (then) 5 business lines would approach us with RFPs or proactive proposal opportunities from prospective clients, and we would work with them to build out response packages to pursue new business. Over my first few months as I grew acclimated to the culture of the company and nature of the job, my supervisor insulated me from the worst behavior of our colleagues but, after ~8 months, found the culture too toxic and backwards to suit her - she left. Had I more experience, I would've read the writing on the wall right then. We live and we learn. Three months later, my new boss was hired and given much the same mandate. Though we did our best to work in good faith with our colleagues across the business, it quickly became clear to both of us that our roles, however they reflected on paper, were not much more than glorified admins. This was as much because of the dismissive and arrogant attitudes of much of the sales and programs staff (looking especially at you, commercial and medical) as it was because of management's refusal to buy in to a properly embedded proposal shop from the top-down. Most proposal build-outs were needless, last-second fire drills that left me with the distinct impression that my colleagues needed the extra panic and disorder to feel like they were accomplishing something. Our roles, delineated on paper, were never respected by a C-Suite and sales staff whose talents lie as much in stepping on toes and asserting their own wills as they do pitching business. No amount of begging, bartering, or pointing to the reams of evidence that proper investment in a dedicated proposal team is *good* for the business resulted in anything more substantial than token lip service from the executive staff. In time, even this proved to be insubstantial - not long after the CEO promised us her dedication and intent to build out our department and hire new members, she unceremoniously dismissed my second boss almost the same moment a massive proposal she had been working on was out the door. Or rather, her HR lackey did. The CEO, I guess, couldn't face her obligations. I was given no explanation for this change, any kind of additional compensation, or real support for the added workload (the assurances made that my workload wouldn't increase were given the lie almost immediately); indeed, it became clear that they didn't have a plan for this restructuring - over the next three incredibly stressful and stupid months, I was shifted between three different managers while I waited for the axe to fall on my own neck. This didn't happen: I was able to make good my escape and watch, now from the sidelines, as more staff are dismissed and the consequences of Mike Griffith's disastrous acquisitions over the past several years hit home. If you want a visual depiction of where Amplity is headed, look for footage of that Azerbaijani airliner before it crashed. Whether the parasites in Palo Alto who own Amplity are still looking for a buyer remains to be seen, but if you find yourself working here in the year 2025, buckle your seat belt regardless. Amplity puts up a good positive front on LinkedIn and to new prospective hires, but don't be misled - the culture is toxic, too many of your would-be colleagues are bullies, and the C-Suite, for all their posturing, is unwilling or unable to commit to a plan for structuring the organization. Case in point? The new proposal director they just hired. I wish her well, but the reality is that Amplity won't change until the people do, and the people who would be responsible for driving this change, incapable of self-reflection and disinterested in looking out for anyone but themselves as they are, are not bound to do that anytime soon. Let them wallow in the toxic and dysfunctional world they've created. They deserve it.