Crown Castle Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Good location, very good coworkers

Cons

Upper management is very bad

Pros

For the most part, you get to work with smart, generally amiable people - this was an enjoyable part of the company and something you will hear often, the Culture. Leaning in to a transparent framework when it comes to re-orgs & big changes so the employees feel their input is heard.

Cons

If you are at a lower-level status, your enthusiasm to succeed and find a place within the company is quickly met with false promises and deflection. There is no line drawn for the demanding workload or expectations as a contractor (such as training formal employees), but once you seek answers or feedback upper management will quickly remind you of your place. There is less of a focus on the work being produced as a top performer, rather your final outcome of advancement is more of a crapshoot of timing and what department you are in. There is proven record of even the most deserving of contracted employees being terminated while the "lucky ones" get to move forward in the employment process. It is well versed by the veteran employees that this is a sad, unreasonable trend that has risen over recent years. Another problem at Crown Castle is that how well you do is more of a matter of perception than the actual work you produce. Even if you're often identified as a good performer -- if you aren't vocal and toot your own horn to management, you are unlikely to advance quickly. You have to be your own advocate, which can be true in most work environments, but for the people who are more interested in focusing on the actual work and demonstrating their value that way, there isn't time partiality. Standards aren't uniformly enforced either. In fact, you will likely spend much of your time learning the daily work and systems on your own. Whether your team is helpful and/or encouraging is a big component of how well you do rather than the company providing the necessary tools and resources to succeed. Unfortunately it sounds like this will be a common factor during your entire time at Crown Castle, as there are so many changes and reorgs that regularly occur.

Pros

90 to 95% of Crown's income is contractually obligated at the beginning of the year. Crown compensates it's employees well and there is job security once you are established as a trusted employee. Crown is a small company with only 5,000 employees, yet is in the top 100 of enterprise value of publicly traded companies. Good benefits and time off is encouraged for work life balance.

Cons

There is not much upward mobility. Management positions will mostly go to those with management experience. This isn't a fast growing company with lots of opportunities. The growth is modest and lots of management positions go to outside hires. There is almost zero diversity in the workforce and upper management. It is a white man's world.

Pros

Amazing benefits. Flexibility with hours and working from home when necessary. So much potential to be a modern, fun, enjoyable company to work for.

Cons

Lack of organization, everyone is numbers driven, not so much focused on the needs of their employees. The good old boys club, upper management promoting and hiring who they want, lack of internal promotions. No room for growth. Salary for Project Coordinators. Upper management isn’t flexible to change and growth in order to maintain a modern and fresh culture that’s necessary for employee retention. They just care about hitting the numbers so they can get their fat paychecks and bonuses. (They’ve literally made comments about us working hard to get them lots of money)

Pros

Benefits are ok, PTO is great, and they pay well.

Cons

Crown Castle used to care about their employees, you used to get promoted based off of what you know and how hard you work rather than who you know. Seniored employees are opting to retire early or leave because as long as you are friends with upper management or suck up to upper management, they will move you into management jobs whether you are qualified or not. I see so many qualified people that are being looked over and lied to because upper management already has someone in mind for positions that they are not qualified for. The advice to get ahead is to become friends with Directors and higher ups- MidWest Area is Well known for doing this . The company keeps taking away the reasons why people loved Crown to begin with. The bonus structure changed and not to our benefit, budget cuts makes the company no longer a work hard play hard meaning there are no rewards to your long days anymore. It used to be if you had an exceeds you would get a pay raise and be able to top out your bonus, they no longer do this and wonder why they score low on “ pay for performance” questions on the employee survey. You used to never hear of people wanting to leave or look elsewhere for employment and it’s way more common now than ever. They will not budge on working remotely although they are a telecommunications company. The office politics are just not worth it. To save money they are enforcing a do more with less structure meaning, they aren’t in a hiring freeze but you must really be struggling in order for them to backfill a position. Since they started doing this, there has been minimal movement in the company so when someone is just moved into a position without opening a job requisition, it’s noticeable. There is just not a lot of legitimate opportunities anymore.

Pros

Good people to work with. The B3 values, competitive pay, great benefits and cost of living raises are great.

Cons

Upper management lacks true leadership. Constantly uses bullying tactics by regularly threatening to fire a fast growing implementation team due to personal insecurities. Verbal beatings are common, leaving no room for open communication from the workforce. Any opposition could mean you’ll loose your job. With the fast growth brought on by customer demand and acquisitions, the B3 values that make the company awesome to work for are falling to the wayside in the process. Unfortunately not everyone has these values and some people can’t be taught them either. I’ve seen talented people with good ethics leave because of the mentioned behavior. Truly sad to see. Management hires favorites that are not qualified and lack industry experience over promoting from within.

Pros

The people that work with you on a day to day basis. They were the reason I stayed as long as I did. PMs, CMs, RESs, Sales’, TSAs, and management in assets is solid. Asset Managers and the director of assets in the East are not only true leaders but they are also good people that care about their direct reports. Real Estate Acquistion (REA) is also a great place to work, you will never work in the East area again as the East operates in a vacuum from the rest of Crown and you are considered a “traitor” if you go work for another area or REA. Not to discourage you from taking that role, if you are lucky enough to get into REA that is based out of Houston grab that position and never let go.

Cons

The rest of the departments once you get over a level 6 the talent is truly lacking. Some of the directors, one in particular is one of the most oppressive human beings I have encountered. He belittled and mocked employees as a “joke” on a regular basis. I am not sure how promotions of people like that are continuing and I can only assume that it is coming from the top in the area. He is not the only one though, it would be quicker to list the director deserving of her position who is both fair and respectful with her employees. Though there is only so much she can do when surrounded by unethical peers. Employees are terrified to speak out. Surveys are given but no one believes them to be anonymous. Dishonesty on the surveys is the only option as many believe they will be fired if they speak out. I would like to mirror the review that stated that the management particularly in the East needs to be re-evaluated, Crown lost so many good employees because they have lazy and unethical management running rampant. When upper management has nicknames like the Queen of Hearts, Hitler, and Mussolini there is a real problem. Any company should be embarrassed and horrified at those comparisons of just one in upper management, but three, it is shameful.