Great At The Start, But Went Rapidly Downhill - Engineer Intelligent Energy Employee Review

The Company seems unable to focus on one single product that works, is reliable and can be manufactured and sold. This leaves it as simply an R&D outfit that is heavily dependent on others pouring in finance to keep it afloat. To achieve this, the company is constantly clutching at new opportunities for projects in different sectors that invariably slip due to over-promise leading to over-stretch and resulting in a constant pull and twist of existing resources on current projects. Fire-fighting is endemic on most projects as is the consequent waste of resources in talent, time, material and money. The primary driver to this malaise is solely down to the quality of management. Like many initial small companies, it has fallen into the classic trap of too rapid an expansion and consequently outgrown its ability to bring out the best in its people. The arrival of many external senior figures and their "commercial values" has seen the company succumb to the less attractive side of 'corporate culture'. The smell of the place is palpable. Problems "do not exist". Senior management are told what they want to hear and not what they need to know. There has also been an increasing and uncomfortable "pally, pally" culture that has undermined proper accountability and integrity amongst some senior staff. The "JFDI" style of management from some seems to have permeated from somewhere on high. Ideas, edicts and whims alike are delegated, sub-delegated, sub-sub-delegated etc. until they can't go any further. This results in some staff being pressured/coerced into putting in as many hours as required in the week, giving up evenings, weekends, and cancelling holidays. It felt as if, in return for a salary, the company owned you, your time, your life. The company is heavily oversubscribed with management many of whom are, at best, mediocre, at worst, inept and some observed to be ruthless and bordering on unethical. Competent, decisive, focused management and leadership is sorely lacking in what increasingly appears to be a culture of cronyism. Empire building amongst Departments is becoming evident and has contributed to a toxic style of management. Narcissism thrives well here as does favoritism and bullying in equal measure. Staff are rarely listened to in terms of new ideas and ways to improve things. The 'Integrated Project Team' model leaves you wondering who you actually are accountable to. Hence the Smart Delivery Task Force is a failed gimmick. In most Departments, office politics, the gossip-mill and back-stabbing have become irreversibly corrosive. A clear symptom of an unhappy workforce. Staff "benefits" don't meet the hype. The Staff Incentive Scheme appears frequently compromised through the favoritism culture. Appraisals are a flawed and heavily time-wasting exercise for middle managers and staff. Outcomes are closely linked to favoritism. Training and career development is extremely inconsistent. Some individuals get on courses or achieve promotions if they shout loud enough or are pally with the right people. For the rest, it's non-existent. Some people will, for good reason, move onwards and upwards to new employers and so serve their notice; but when staff appear to regularly and suddenly "disappear", you're left wondering what the point of an HR Dept. is. When it becomes apparent that a culture of "hire & fire" is in place, fear quickly acts to further erode staff morale. During my time there, optimism amongst many colleagues went into an increasingly rapid decline. However, it seemed that people stay because they believe in the technology far more than in the company or its management. I left because the management dynamics had become so utterly dysfunctional.