Pros
They have mastered the offboarding process. See the cons.
Cons
After being CEO for more than 5 years after being promoted from CFO, Geff Scott cannot figure out what to do with Technology. Within 2 years, the following events happened: 1. A new CTO was hired. 2. The CTO conducted several rounds of layoffs and reorganizations, including eliminating the Innovation Lab. 3. The CTO was then himself fired. 4. All of the CTO's reports now report directly to Geff and have been for at least a month. There is no single leader. Senior management made the statement, "Development is what has gotten Engineering in trouble in the past. We need to be doing more support work." Very senior leaders in the company are buying into that statement and direction. Even though some contracting vendors have had previous failures delivering for Business Wire, the company now trusts about a half dozen new vendors for efforts like cloud migrations, software modernization, and CRM instead of its own Technology department. Prospective job candidates for Technology should consider how senior management motivates its workers. Rather than using raises, promotions, and bonuses, they are using layoffs and formal disciplinary actions. In those same 2 years, 8 different individuals in Product and Technology received warnings, performance improvement plans, and/or terminations for cause. If you are favored, you will receive tremendous praise from directors and even be able to talk to the CEO. History will be re-written so your mistakes don't even matter. Once you are out of favor, then you are nothing. You'll notice that based on how your co-workers interact with you (or cut you out altogether). If you anger the CEO, even if you are speaking up trying to help with failing projects, expect to be HR'd out. History will be re-written again, and those earlier mistakes will be back. Current employees should be asking themselves why many of the current job postings for principal engineers and architects are paying far more than what managers and even directors were getting paid. They also should be wondering why so many tasks surround documentation and architecture diagrams as opposed to feature development. What projects have been planned for the second half of 2024? Any? These are just the problems with Technology. Across the company, people that have put in decades with the company are being laid off with very small severances. No gold watches or plaques are given - just random Zoom calls where someone from HR shows up. Editorial is continuously shrinking even though editors are the bread and butter of the company. Does the company think AI will be able to help? That would require innovation. Re-read the part where the CTO got rid of the Innovation Lab.
