Management is at the root of the issues - Anonymous employee Highlands Ranch Metro District Employee Review

Some observations/personal opinions: * The Districts seem to be stuck in a very authoritarian management style of the past and can't grasp that things have changed. If you're seeking a place that truly values staff input/collaboration and offers the opportunity to speak up without fear of repercussions, this is not the place for you. Management seems to have very little emotional IQ/awareness, doesn't know how to lead and likes to use their influence to try and bully those they don't like or that stand up for themselves. * Management definitely has favorites/cliques and if you're not one of them, they will make life very difficult for you and attempt to manage you out. Rules definitely apply for some employees, but not others. Inconsistency, hypocrisy and favoritism runs rampant within the Districts. * The pay used to be decent but that's not so much the case anymore. Hybrid/remote work was not an option. There was little/no room to grow in most positions. The tech advancement program took an average of 12 months to complete and resulted in a minimal pay increase. Some positions required having a CDL (which required physicals/random drug testing), but they didn't receive any pay premium for it. Snow plow crew also received no shift pay/overnight premium. Most pay increases barely covered inflation/cost of living and the pay increase percentages between the high/low performers was so minimal that there was little/no incentive to go above and beyond a peer who was doing the bare minimum. Wage compression became so apparent that at one point there was little difference between what was being advertised for brand new hires with no experience and what longer termed employees with many years of experience were making. If a position was vacant, current employees were expected to not only do their own job but to also cover the vacancy on top of it (in some cases, for several weeks/months and for positions that were above their grade level) and often received no temporary pay increase because the District had no policy regarding interim coverage. * The Board of Directors seem to be very self-serving and have their own political agendas. I definitely got the impression that they don't like hearing from the public or hearing any criticism/pushback/questions and that they prefer to fly under the radar. Overall, there are much better places to work and I would advise anyone to look elsewhere if they want a career with growth opportunities, pay increases that appropriately reflect your work, leadership that is invested in their team (and not their own ego) and a culture that doesn't live and breathe off of favoritism/hypocrisy. The Districts seem to be stuck in a different time, are inefficient/slow to adapt, often times refusing to change, and there are many other organizations out there, including other government entities, who have caught on with the times and made things better for their teams. The Districts treat employment as a one way street and have a lot of catching up to do in order to change. Unfortunately, with the current leadership, I don't see this happening anytime soon.