I think the reviews are due for an update, and this review is based on the work experience I had with the Seattle team and the interactions I had with the owners/directors of the company in Australia.
The head of the Seattle office left earlier this year, and the owners decided to put together a “leadership team” and let the office be run like the wild west by 2 very inexperienced people with zero management skills – what you can do/achieve is heavily restricted by their own inabilities, and those inabilities and insecurities will often be projected onto you as well. One of them would constantly explain without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer, you would hear things like: to make a call in RC, you need to go into the CRM, find the contact, copy the phone number and paste it here and then dial; or, to play a video in a loop, you open it with QuickTime and click here... It feels very much like a scene straight out of Portlandia (S7E1 – ‘Hotel Room', ft. Vanessa Bayer)
Lack of experience alone does not deserve a 1-star review, but there’s also a strong egocentric thirst for power and authority, making the work environment very pretentious and unpleasant in an office of 10 people, here’s an actual exchange I had with above-mentioned person.
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Me:
Hi xxxxx, in the interest of better working together, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you.
1. Why is it important for you to watch over (if not supervise) me and ask questions like "Where are you?", "Where are you off to?", "Where are you going?"?
2. How do you perceive your position in relation to mine?
3. What are my responsibilities in the xxxxx channel from your perspective? What's the method you have in mind to best divide the work between you and me?
4. How do you plan to proceed with following up with xxxxx leads?
Xxxxx:
Hi Xxxxxx, I'm glad you reached out and I do think this merits a larger conversation in person.
(1). I am your supervisor. It's important for me to know where you are and what you are up to so I can be sure you're doing your job/assigned tasks, take stock of how you are progressing, and so we can stay connected via communication and being in the same office physically so I can help to answer questions you might have and give feedback to you on your performance. These are big reasons that we are in the same office area and your desk is next to mine, and why i've requested you try to make as many calls in there as possible, especially while still in this 3 month training ramp up period - I'm here both to supervise and support you in your role. My asking of those questions goes along with my requests for more communication from you - I need to be in the loop.
(2). I am your manager/supervisor. This is not just my perception- it's part of the role you are in. This is a support role for the xxxxx channel and this role reports to me directly. My position is xxxxx and your position is xxxxx - which is important in its own right in so many ways- but it is not the same or a parallel role. I believe that this was clearly outlined in the job description and my hope is that it was clearly communicated when you accepted this role.
(3). Your responsibilities in this role are to pick up accountant/advisor support via intercom and phone, get triallists and prospects familiar with our tool and support them, and as you expand in the role start to take on smaller firms as managed accounts - those that I currently don't have bandwidth to serve. Overall it is to support users that we have not been able to support since we lost a member of the accountant-facing team at the beginning of this year.
(4). Traditionally, and based on the division of our roles, larger/higher value firms should be sent my way and smaller value firms or cooler leads that may be at the stage where they need a first demo should be sent your way. This is why initialing the leads did not make sense to me, but to be candid I did not want to start a larger conversation while at the event on this topic - I was concerned about making sure Xerocon went off without a hitch as we're representing Fathom to many important prospects and people.
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Lastly, I raised these issues with one of the owners multiple times and proposed strategies that would bring in additional revenues for the company. He always agreed and said they were working on it, lies.
If you have any ambitions for bringing positive changes or doing things differently, this is not the place, but if you enjoy being treated like an intern by 2 baby bosses, look no further.
#entitlement #egocentric #powertrip
