Everyone at this company, regardless of title or department is hamstrung by the CEO who is the ultimate decision maker. The VP of People has no power.
- returned from my honeymoon in oct last year, worked my tail off sunday before work to get ahead, but was feverish and sick, bedridden, and had to bail from a 2 day work trip per doctors orders. CEO calls me later that week and said all of this in the call without waiting for a reply:
- “i am concerned about you and want to make sure this is not a recurring problem since you have done this once before (i flew 26 times for this company in 12 months, and missed one other minor trip with food poisoning)”
- “i know you are extra sensitive to covid”
- “you need to give us more heads up next time and we would have rescheduled the trip”
- “you were probably overwhelmed by all the emails and wanted to catch up”
- “next time you have the sniffles i need you to put on a mask and get on the plane”
- CEO demands that my wife and I change our previously approved travel plans to attend a meeting with him 1:1 so that he can talk through issues on a job site in person, a meeting that was not necessary “this is not optional, change your travel” I was left in an impossible position out of the blue, that my job was being threatened, etc. Finally my boss calls the CEO and says “we can do that trip any time, i approved his vacation already” and he relented.
Found out a week later that all this fuss was because the CEO had a personal party with friends and family planned at that location over new years but didn't have the balls to tell us up front.. corporate and branch level staff ended up spending new years eve on the property working to the last minute and then watching the party from a distance .. away from their friends and family.
More garbage happened after that, and I politely quit, went above and beyond to prep my team and direct reports, got a text from the CEO, never had the balls to call me back.
Garbage.