Learnosity's acquisition of Questionmark was both scary and exciting. I was looking forward to working for a company that "seemed" to have a great culture and really honored their core values. You can see from previous reviews, that Questionmark's Leadership (CEO) didn't necessarily have the best reputation (tyrant/ bully), and with that, the toxicity cascaded down department by department making roles within the company unbearable.
Unfortunately for the employees, this Acquisition made little to no improvements for the Questionmark Toxic Culture (bummer). Leadership is ruled by Tyrants who not only are terrible to their employees but also terrible to customers, which is mind blowing. Guess what... These “Leaders/ Directors” continue to get away with it. They make promises and do not follow through, highly favored features/ functionality are removed from the software with no replacement/ improvement. They sell products / "support" products that really can't be supported because the software is so complicated. When an issue arises (which always happens) takes months, even years for a resolution which leaves the customers out to dry but you are still expected to get their renewal in and maintain the relationship, and sometimes they are just flat out rude to customers and team members on calls/ emails.
Internal bullying was the worst part of this job. It's sad when employees avoid other employees in higher positions to avoid the abuse that comes along with that interaction or having to argue (yes, argue) to get things pushed through. It just goes to show that at the end of the day, the company doesn't have the customers’ best interest at heart, which is saddening.
Resource Issues - I still have PTSD from hearing " We have a resource problem" but interestingly enough, it appears as though the company continues to hire for The People and Culture Team. The poor support team is overwhelmed with the issues that come in. Even better - Keep employees that do bare minimum (not reaching sales goals year after year), lie but are amazing at brown nosing. Looks like the MBA came in handy and taught well!
My last traumatizing experience... A support related issue came in from a $120K customer. This customer came to me so they could express their frustrations with the subpar support. I was told to stay out of support related issues, even though I was responsible for maintaining the relationship and getting their renewal in. I forwarded the email to our support team and then sent a separate email to management, letting them know that this is why I get involved. How am I supposed to do my job, if support isn't doing their job? Makes sense right? 30 mins later, I was pulled into a call with a former director who was no longer my boss at that point in time, oddly enough, letting me know that I was being terminated for being a “toxic” member to the team. The funny part - This former director would send encouraging daily quotes to the team on Slack. My favorite was the quote " Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die". Wait..it gets better.. This Director posted that encouraging quote after leaving a meeting with myself, one of the employees who did bare minimum and our Product team. In this meeting, I had to prove "argue" that a feature/ fix which was planned to be released in the product would resolve a HUGE issue for a HUGE customer. Well, I was right about the fix! Product confirmed it! Super exited to share this news with the customer, however, they did need to make a few adjustments on their end, but still possible (the customer would have to make a few changes on their end for it to work). Wahooo! Right after the call, this former director sent that encouraging quote out to the team "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die"...
Interestingly enough... I was deemed the toxic member to the team. Good times! I wonder how this former director feels about this quote now?