As time went on, I had to work alongside and deal with the results of terrible senior management decisions. It was an open joke about the C-level turn-over. High profile new hires would join, only to leave less than 12 months later. Every single week another email would come through - "X has decided to leave to explore new opportunities". It created a really uneasy feeling. As a result there was no faith in management's decision making.
Management favorites were given pay-rises and promotions ahead of people with longer tenure, with no clear rationale as to why. Old-boy network behavior happened all the TIME - i.e. Sales leaders taking only the male sales staff on golf trips, whilst the females were left to make the restaurant bookings. I personally witnessed two senior female leaders either fired or demoted as a result of taking maternity leaves that were considered indulgently long (despite being within the legal limit). It was honestly very traumatic. People were often given management responsibilities without the pay rise or title, only to then be made to reinterview for their job and demoted with no recognition.
After 5 years I left, and it was a hard decision as I had a lot of wonderful co-workers there. But I now feel free, and it's amazing the Stockholm Syndrome you realise you had after you leave a toxic environment. I have since been contacted by Pinterest twice to come back for new roles, but I wouldn't do it to myself. And I've advised close friends to avoid it too. The company needs a lot of work to resolve their deep rooted problems.
