In a normal team environment, having multiple personalities and experience levels is a positive. In this is case it is more toxic than beneficial. It starts with the directors who dictate rather than manage. Their ideas and beliefs are the direction of their teams. Ideas from within their teams are not accepted well, if at all. Ideas are perceived as non-conforming. This causes a very dysfunctional team and suppresses employee creativity and participation. There is no team concept, even within each IT area. The team is essentially divided into three areas: Applications, Technical, and QA. There is no cross-team communication or management. This cause’s resource commitment issues and cross team responsibility issues. There are no advancement possibilities within each team. This is not an environment for those individuals who are looking for someone who would be able to mentor and provide opportunities to grow their career and advance to the next level. The middle management team is considered to have a “Yes” management style when working with upper management. They will not listen to the justifications or feedback from their teams but rather answer to the direction and demands of senior management, without considerations of the ramifications. Because of this, the demands of projects are unreasonable and cause the staff to work unreasonable hours. Quality and functionality usually suffer due to the demands of the directors. The majority of the team works over 50 plus hours a week and many times on weekends. This is the result of poor resource management and project planning by the directors. People are busy, but this is because they cannot work efficiently or effectively due to poor project management. Yearly merit increases and compensation are minimal, especially for a company that makes a profit every year. This is true for everyone, unless you are one of the lucky individuals included in the inner circle or management team. Those individuals will receive the majority of the raises and discretionary salary adjustments. As mentioned earlier, management style is to manage up with a “yes” mentality. Then, when there are project issues or failures, the management style is to push down to the individuals they manage or outside influences, such as vendors. Essentially, issues and complications are deflected from the directors. Extremely poor program and project management is the norm. There is no PMO or project methodology in place. They use the terms but there is no concrete system in place. They manage projects on an individual basis and with no practiced methodology. This project management style leads to the majority of the projects to implement unsuccessfully or to be shelved. Projects that are implemented are delivered late and with cost overruns. Again, the issues are reported to upper management as team/individual limitations or vendor misrepresentations or lack of commitment. Current IT staff is approximately 28 individuals, including the help desk. Within the last two years there has been a turnover of approximately 18 individuals, with another 3-5 currently looking for other opportunities outside the company. This is considered high turnover and impacts team building, trust, knowledge, career growth and cohesiveness. The only level that has not been impacted in the last two to three years is at the management and director level. Some of the turnover were by individuals who left after working only one year or less. The management is not qualified to be in the position they are responsible. They are glorified entry level managers with little to no management experience. They are micro-managers that like to be involved at the detail level rather than empower and believe in their employees. They are involved with the new technologies and opportunities rather than delegate these opportunities to their teams. They are very opinionated and run their teams similar to a dictatorship. They have their favorites on each team and will listen to them, but ultimately, they manage and direct based on their beliefs. Some of the team member conform and are looked upon favorably. Many times the directors voice their opinion based on previous experience, relevant or not, rather than listening to what business is expressing. Nepotism is huge within the department, with almost 40% of the team members having worked together in the past. At times the management team tries to act like they care and are there for their team, but it is infrequent and not credible or genuine. A lot of what they perceive as a positive gestures is just a matter of going through the motions with no substance behind it. Training is not an option within the most of the department, either due to budget constraints or lack of scheduling. If you are looking for an opportunity that will provide you with career growth and advancement, this is not the environment for you. Relationships with the business are strained. The interaction with the business is in a degrading and condescending way. Sometimes even patronizing. Instead of working in a partnership, they tell the business what they need and how systems should be configured and implemented. They make promises to deliver but rarely deliver what was agreed upon. There is no management 360 review process in place, so there is no feedback opportunity unless you approach the HR team. This allows for the middle management team to look favorably in the eyes of the upper management. They are your typical company structure where upper management supports and believes the middle management team and then places the blame on the employees. Thus one of the reasons for the high turnover rate within IT. If the middle management team were to be replaced by competent and knowledgeable individuals, the success of the team would dramatically change. There is no vision within the department or the company. The use the same statements year in and year out: Open stores, grow the internet, and grow the culinary business. There is no concrete plan or substance behind the ideas and eventually they will not be successful moving forward. The management team in place does not have the experience or knowledge to take this company to the next level. They have been riding the success of the past and natural growth of a company its size. I would not recommend working within the IT department at Sur La Table.
