Finary Reviews

The main challenge is the inconsistency of management practices. Expectations are often unclear, poorly defined, or communicated retrospectively. Employees can be encouraged to take ownership and operate autonomously, only to later be criticised for the very decisions they were trusted to make. Feedback can be highly inconsistent. In my case, I received a positive 90-day review highlighting autonomy, collaboration, and the foundations that had been built. Less than two weeks later, the narrative had completely changed without any meaningful opportunity to address concerns or understand what success actually looked like. Performance management appears reactive rather than structured and driven through a culture of fear. Development points and future growth opportunities can suddenly become performance issues, making it difficult to understand how work is being evaluated. There is also a tendency to send contradictory signals. For example, being asked to become closer to the reality of teams and stakeholders, while simultaneously being criticised for investing time with those same teams. Being told you are the expert and expected to define the approach, then later being criticised for not following expectations that were never articulated. The result is an environment where success can feel subjective and difficult to predict. Unfortunately, after speaking with current and former employees, my experience does not appear to be entirely isolated.