Entrepreneurial spirit crushed into corporate-cog mold - Anonymous employee Secureworks Employee Review

There is a huge disconnect between corporate philosophy and individual managers. The company ideals around work/life balance are excellent, but individual managers have different ideas, and they can make life fairly miserable. Many mangers have "risen to their level of incompetence" and, while they were great at what they did, are not cut out for (or haven't ever seen a good example of) people managing. Have seen many cases of new-ish managers feeling like they've gotten in over their heads, then proceed to micro-manage everyone until their direct reports transfer departments or quit the company. Some training in this arena would go a long way. Prior to the acquisition (in 2011), SecureWorks was full of entrepreneurial-minded staff who could bend, adapt, learn, and were eager/able to help one another. Since the acquisition, most people who fit this description have left the company and Dell's hiring practices leave a LOT to be desired. New staff, while being friendly people, are happy/content/only able to do the one small piece of the job they were hired to do. There is little-to-no collaboration and tragically little innovation. In fact, *try* to be innovative and see how quickly it's pointed out that there's no precedent for it because no one's done it before (and no one currently in management can do anything that hasn't already been done). The fear is palpable.