Summary: Employee compensation and benefits are not competitive. There’s a lack of humanity and support from leadership. The office uses a hoteling system, making the environment feel impersonal, like we’re just here temporarily. With the high turnover over the past five years, no one knows anyone anymore. Company values seem like just rhetoric. Many in leadership will stab you in the back with a smile.
Additional Information: To paraphrase The Smartest Guys in the Room (a book about the rise and fall of Enron), Newmont has become “not a place to have a long and happy career, but a place of mutual exploitation.” If you’re at the beginning of your career, run as far as you can from it, unless you’re ready to trade in your values and become a pawn in someone’s career game.
The environment is psychologically unsafe. The CEO and his circle of yes-men fly on private jets, having no idea who you are, then pretend to be your best buddies when they’re with Board members in the office elevator.
There’s an unusually high turnover of employees. A few highly respectable C-Suite leaders have left over the last couple of years – this speaks volumes. Promotions are based on the D&I hype rather than actual experience and track record. One C-suite executive was fired for multiple violations of conduct, yet somehow passed all the scrutiny of the executive hiring process just months before. A reorganization process has been underway for two years with minimal information shared and a roadmap that keeps changing based on the latest management consultant’s advice.
Top leaders, including HR, are more interested in staking out political positions than in the employees’ well-being. This sets an example to operate not by what’s right but by what best fits the rules of the game. This is a stark contrast to the predecessor CEO’s management style and reputation. The current CEO and his close circle have destroyed so much value in the company’s asset base, strategy, ESG and safety record, and the fast-disappearing human capital of experts. It’s a sad story of value destruction in what was once a great American company.