Where to start. I worked at Aledade for many years and thought I had finally found a home there. The mission was great, the people were friendly, the owners seemed to care about you. It wasn’t until my original boss left that I finally saw this company for what it is, a bunch of overpaid execs with their heads up their behinds who ride on the backs and brains of their very underpaid employees (from Analysts to Directors). I was blessed with an amazing manager for the first couple of years, which makes all the difference at Aledade. However, they are few and far between these days, as they hire more and more external candidates for leadership positions, who don’t really subscribe to the culture, as it was. Noting that they went from overly promoting from within (many times at a fault) to no longer giving anyone a chance to grow here. The company will take what it needs from you but you can forget about anyone taking your advice to improve anything. I found it funny when people would pitch the same ideas I’ve been trying to push through for years, like “how about a demo site of our product for our clients to practice on or our teams to be able to train others to?” A simple and obvious ask for a company who built and maintains their own product. Yet, it still does not exist today. Instead the product team spends the majority of the year fixing bugs and doing whatever leadership wants, like adding new features that no one asked for and will probably never use. The one thing they put the most amount of effort in at Aledade is the most underused by our clients, because it cannot be integrated with an EHR. The most frustrating part is that they will do pretty much anything leadership wants even when it’s clearly an idea that wasn’t well thought out or even necessary, yet they have the entire organization rallying behind it to make it fly (looking at you, CMO with your Practice Model Redesign). It’s maddening!!
Their entire operating model is broken beyond belief. So much so that they actually created a new team called the Operating Model team (how unique 😏) to fix it. However, there is no urgency to fix major systematic issues, despite the amount of work-around’s people have to create just to get their job done. There is no compassion for the amount of extra and sometimes impossible work that employees have to endure, simply because other teams won’t fix the problem identified, even when they are presented with a solution. They’re literally given the answer and still don’t do anything. Accountability is selective. There are some teams who are asked to do the impossible and others who are allowed to pick and choose what they say yes/no to.
Leadership is a joke. They are tone-deaf to pretty much everything, yet will get up at all-staff and lie to your face about all that they are doing for you because they “care”. Pretty sure that the compensation review that was supposed to raise the salaries of underpaid employees (yes, they knew damn well they underpaid almost everyone) never happened. Also, beware of ‘tiny tears’ moments, where the owner will cry on camera at all-staff…..he’s a sensitive guy when it suits him…but let it be known he only cares about a select few in the organization. You will learn who that is very quickly. Everything else from him is just an act!
It’s also important to keep in mind that this is a company seeking to go public. It’s all about the aesthetics right now. Meaning, you would be no more valued than a bowl of wax fruit on a staged table. The mission is no longer what it was. The mission is to make the owners and stakeholders rich! I say, spare yourself the cult-like atmosphere of this place and find a company that will actually respect you and your expertise. They don’t do that here. I have seen too many talented people leave because of it. Getting out was a matter of protecting my mental health. Nobody should have to endure that.
