DefenseWeb Technologies – “Wish I didn't have to say goodbye”

Pros

DefenseWeb was a fun, dynamic company to work for. They really made an effort to show that they cared for employees. We had afternoon movies, a break room stocked with food, red bull, soda, and video games, even some fun perks like in-office chair massages, catered lunches, and happy hours. The people here are all very nice and very smart- many employees socialize after hours and play in a local softball or tennis league.

Cons

DWeb is going through some tough times- roughly half the staff was recently laid off- and there is a tremendous lack of planning, finesse, and motivation on the senior management's behalf. The new CEO and COO are not particularly adept at communicating company changes. When the news that we'd lost a contract became public, the CEO (Bob Nascenzi) very literally told everyone at an all-hands meeting to start getting their resumes ready and begin interviewing at other companies, which started a mass exodus of all employees regardless of whether they were kept on or let go. Since the company has lost most of their projects, employees now wander the building gossiping without any work to do until they find new jobs or their 60-day layoff notice expires.

I am extremely sad to see that this company has lost its way because I enjoyed my experience here so much before the loss of their big contract.

Additionally, planning a lavish company holiday party while most of your employees lose their jobs sends the wrong message. It was nice when DWeb held events like this before- but now that we're in such a financial bind and losing so many employees, it sends a message of apathy about those lost rather than showing value to those left behind.

Advice to Senior Management

Please take care in how you communicate to your employees! Senior management's actions and words are amplified- if you act and sound worried, employees will be 10x more worried than you are. If your CEO tells everyone to go get new jobs, it will take more than a COO running around doing damage control to select individuals being kept on to make those select individuals stay.

Also, it would appear that this company really doesn't diversify its business well enough. One company should not have 60% of its business coming from a single contract. Please consider a sustainable business model!