If you've seen the TV series "The Office" and liked it for its comic dysfunction. #lifeatsage is a perverted, morally disturbing version of that and you are one of the unfortunate characters in it. At a high level, the company's priorities and business decisions are driven by one person/a handful of people - which would be awesome if they had the mind of Steve Jobs. This is clearly not the case, as seen in continuously floundering business performance. But let's focus on day-to-day events that will actually impact your sanity and satisfaction (here's a few accdg to a BCG survey):
1. Appreciation for your work - there is none here. NONE. Unless you can change the business overnight or blindly take orders from the dictator/s here, anything positive or useful you deliver is basically ignored. Or worse, your manager (who knows nothing) passes it off and his/her work. There is blatant disregard for your expertise/skills that the company hired you for, which really speeds up employee demotivation.
2. Good relationships with superiors - if this involves anything that remotely resembles what you would expect of a good manager/leadership based on prior corporate experience (purposeful coaching, mutual respect, etc.), you are NOT getting it here. Dictatorship is alive and well here, so the health of your relationship with your manager hinges on your willingness to follow the ruling class - even if it makes no business sense. DON'T be foolish and expect your manager to vouch for you for doing what's right for the business/customer if it goes against the consensus of the ruling circle.
3. Company's financial stability, job security - Sage is a global company with presence in 20+ countries, so there's that. The Reston business, though, is up for sale and it feels like the mother company is just itching to get rid of it. Let's also not forget the fact that sales are routinely missed.
4. Learning and career development - Every place presents an opportunity to learn. Here you'll learn a lot here about: launching products that DO NOT work, selling products that don't deliver on customer needs, ignoring what your customers want, following blindly even if all the data/facts tell you otherwise, how to effectively pass blame, the list goes on... Career development is a concept that's completely foreign to Sage. It's pretty normal here for managers NOT take the time to appropriately onboard and integrate their new hires, talk them through the business goals and strategy (oh wait - there's NONE!), clearly articulate deliverables/what you'll be measured against, etc. IF your manager actually has a development conversation with you (yes, that's optional in this place), it's haphazardly done. How your responsibilities evolve has nothing to do with honing your skills, or what you'll learn from it. It's influenced SOLELY by what needs to be done and whether or not you have the bandwidth.
5. Company Values - This is the only place I've worked for where senior/tenured professionals are routinely chewed up in front 10+ people. What should be reserved for a private coaching conversation is being discussed in a business meeting - complete with a sprinkling of swear words and the company's leadership team condoning it. You'll see VP's and entire teams engaging in a blame game. Remote meeting participants are put on mute so that those in the room can disparage them. The ruling class here is completely tone deaf to the concerns of the worker bees. It's no wonder that they turn a blind eye to the astronomical attrition rate.
You're probably thinking - wow, a lot of HR issues here, why not report them? Reston HR is a joke: the job is more of being a mole to leadership vs. addressing/escalating employee concerns, implementing checks and balances. My faith in global Sage's HR is dissipating quickly since these concerns have persisted for YEARS.
