It's quite entertaining to watch the direction that First Quadrant has taken in the past few months and years. There has been an endless stream of failed attempts to reinvent the firm's image. There are a countless number of unnecessary committees now. Each committee wastes time coming up with mission statements that contradict those of other committees. Managers are required to read pointless self-help books. All of these sad attempts reveal something that every single employee has known for years: First Quadrant is dead in the water.
Everything about First Quadrant is an outdated mess. Systems do not work half the time, leaving the entire firm in crisis mode always. Employees ensure job security by outright refusing do the work that they have sole understanding of. New employees are blatantly lied to about their expected bonuses; so are current employees. Management is more focused on trying to convince everybody that things are okay than on doing actual work. The ones who get ahead at the firm? Those who play along. Because as much as First Quadrant attempts to enthuse the lowly employee into action, it is no secret behind the walls that the Managing Director gets his way always. If you don't agree you will eventually be pushed out, despite the countless calls to speak up and be vocal. In our last townhall meeting, we were fed some garbage about our firm being like a combination of the best aspects of Apple, General Electric, and Amazon. The general whispers roaming the halls afterwards were those of utter disbelief.
"How can any one group of leaders be so utterly clueless? So clearly delusional?"
A likely answer is outright denial. The same way management has been in denial about the firm's standing on Glassdoor for the past several years. All the poor reviews have always been brushed off as mere ramblings of disgruntled employees who were fired for poor performance. Nevermind the fact that they always revealed current truths, as this one does. The most hilarious part of this whole process is the fact that management is finally watching. And that is only because outside business relationships have started to question the enterprise. Suddenly after that, a stream of glowing reviews start showing up. The entire firm is extremely skeptical and suspects foul play or review manipulation. Now begins a silent witch hunt, where management tries to root out and silence or overwhelm the naysayers, completely oblivious to the real problem.
