Greed at the top is eroding innovation, product quality, morale, and talent. The “warring tribes” of Motorola 1.0 has been replaced with an overemphasis on quarterly stock performance.
Some facts to be mindful of prior to accepting a role here:
- Finance dictates quarterly “silent RIFs” which HR carries out. Elimination of roles based on financial targets vs performance is very demoralizing and disruptive. Compensation for roles has been reduced across the board. I genuinely feel bad for the HR organization because they’re the “face” of financial decisions and are also not given significant budget to be effective stewards of talent.
- Company continues to tinker with benefits - eliminating 401k match with cash with common stock, pausing/unpausing match… it comes across as stingy given the CEO to employee pay ratio is 380 something to 1. Company significantly reduced budget for philanthropy efforts and marketing budgets are so bare boned it’s embarrassing.
- Company operates in a monopolistic environment within LMR which has pushed significant price increases onto customers, many of which are rural police and fire departments.
- Full retreat from DEI efforts and nearly all VP level roles that were eliminated in the last calendar year were women. Representation at the top is dwindling and many of those hired or promoted are related to executives or are the “pet” of senior leaders. If you’re a “high potential” female employee, be prepared to be elevated as the latest shiny object only to be thrown on the street three quarters later.
- Acquisitions are becoming weirder and less able to be integrated into the broader business. Some senior level talent brought in via acquisitions has no idea how to operate across a 20,000+ global employee base. Just because you CAN buy companies tangentially related to the core business doesn’t mean you should.