The employee experience did not match the company’s values language.
What should have been a mission-driven, supportive environment became increasingly chaotic, reactive, and emotionally draining. Employees were expected to manage constant fires, shifting expectations, poor handoffs, messy processes, and preventable problems while still being held to a high standard with limited support.
Communication around meaningful changes was not always handled well, and that created unnecessary confusion, stress, and distrust. Too often, people were expected to absorb the impact of bad systems and poor decisions instead of being properly supported.
The workload was heavy, but more importantly, it was messy. It often felt like you were spending more time cleaning up dysfunction than doing the job you were actually hired to do. That kind of environment wears people down.
Compensation and recognition also did not feel aligned with the level of complexity, pressure, and labor expected. There was too much talk about what things could become and not enough fairness in the present.
The hardest part was realizing that the culture sounded better than it felt. Once that disconnect becomes obvious, it is hard to ignore.
At a certain point, you stop questioning yourself and start questioning the environment. You realize pretty quickly that speaking up comes with consequences. You are expected to stay quiet, keep your head down, and fall in line like a good boy or girl.
