Frustrating company with unrealized potential - Senior Software Developer Certinia Employee Review

Some members of upper management do not know what they are doing. The longer you work here, the more you realize this. Many of them have been promoted simply because they've been around a while and are in way over their heads. Decisions are made with no forethought or plan or concept of how it will affect customers, partners, other employees, and the company. (If they are actually thought through, that may be even worse.) You worry that the next decision will cost you your job. We've lost great employees and even entire teams due to some of these poor decisions. Unless there are some major changes here, I can not recommend it as a place to work. There are some really talented people here doing some technically cool stuff. However, there are also far too many people in jobs way beyond their skill level. This extends from customer support all the way to upper management. And while having an under-qualified support person does relatively little to influence the company’s direction, someone at the highest level making ignorant decisions (or allowing others to do so) is causing the downfall of this company. Almost every department has its issues, but you wouldn't know it based on all the promotions being handed out. There are departments with major problems and those department heads keep moving up the ranks. I wish someone would explain that logic to me. What ever happened to people who are bad at their jobs being fired? In-house company slogans like "Doing Great Things As One Team" feel more like marketing fluff that is not actually followed in practice. In reality, it is often a single team picking up the slack for other under/non-performing teams. As a hard-working member of a team picking up that slack, I just have to shake my head whenever someone says it. #DGTAOT They say they want to keep the "start-up vibe”. Putting in a pool/ping-pong table and having free snacks in the breakroom are great for that and I guess it distracts people from all the ridiculous stuff going on around them. If this is your kind of thing and are less worried about communication and direction, you might feel comfortable here. We've switched from annual reviews to more "continuous feedback". Which is great, but unfortunately, this seems to mean "we will never discuss compensation increases ever again". There are hard-working people here who haven't even received a cost-of-living salary increase in several years. Lack of collaboration. One product team basically dictates how the rest of the teams work. Most of the time others are not even consulted and have to live with the decisions. This results in policies that don’t fit well into the rest of the organization. There have been new management changes that I was initially excited about. However, they seem to be handcuffed by a few who don’t have a clue and are unable to move their much-needed changes forward. These people need the freedom and support to do what they were brought in to do. This is not about being uncomfortable with Change. This is about changes that have an adverse effect on this company’s employees and a complete lack of changes in other areas where it is desperately needed. This is not about being a “negative person”. This is about trying to get the word out that despite all the lip service about teamwork and managerial support there are still lots of problems here that are simply not getting addressed and do not make for a pleasant work environment. This is not about blaming others. This is about being tired of others shirking responsibility and being rewarded for it while the rest of us wonder why the hell we work so hard.