I joined ASM excited to be part of a company that talked so passionately about culture, values, and caring for people. It quickly became clear that “we care” is apparently more of an inspirational slogan than a lived experience, but points for consistency in repeating it. 👏👏👏
If your ideal workplace is one where metrics are deeply loved and people are more of a supporting detail, and NO personal life, you may feel right at home.
The employee messaging is excellent, truly. Very polished. Very corporate. Lots of emphasis on values, caring, and engagement. The actual day-to-day experience felt a bit more like “be engaged, but only in ways that align with leadership priorities.”
Morale is low within the People/HR function, which is honestly a fascinating achievement considering that’s the team supposedly focuses on employee wellbeing.
An especially interesting leadership perspective seems to be that external reviews should not be taken seriously because they’re supposedly written by “disgruntled former employees”. If that’s the explanation, then why do ASM competitors seem to receive genuinely positive feedback from current and former employees? Perhaps the issue isn’t the existence of reviews, but what motivates people to write them in the first place.
For an organization that expects employees to be committed, engaged, and willing to go above and beyond (“raise the bar”, as it is often said), there seems to be a surprising disconnect around the fact that people generally perform better when they feel respected rather than expendable. Groundbreaking, I know.
Leadership’s approach to change felt very efficient if the goal was to ensure people felt unheard, undervalued, and thoroughly disconnected from the process. Feedback seemed welcome in the same way automated surveys are welcome, technically collected, unclear what happens next (nothing).
The turnover in the People/HR team within the last couple of months certainly suggests this experience may not have been unique, though I’m sure that was all just an extraordinary coincidence.
ASM does have talented people and interesting work, which makes the culture even more disappointing. A company can absolutely chase performance, but eventually someone has to realize that people are the ones delivering the numbers everyone is so obsessed with.
