Vantaggi
Some of us still have employment for the time being.
Svantaggi
Where do I begin? Let me start with what Learning A-Z used to be. At one point, this company was ahead of its time. We were the first to digitize printed educational materials. The early 00s were a boom for us. There was a time where a very public thermometer was proudly displayed in our office to let us all know how great our sales were. Every year that thermometer went higher and the amounts would increase. Sales would be taken on trips to tropical places and companywide bonuses were aplenty. Year after year. The company grew at an incredible rate. We went from one floor in a three story building to occupying all three floors. At one point, recently, we were even looking at building our own office to accommodate our growth. Our stock skyrocketed as well. We were such a success that our company was getting offers from buyers and we were sold. To a private equity firm. Unfortunately, there were rumors of some backdoor shenanigans and that we were all going to get laid off or "restructured". Our staff meetings went from being pep rallies to damage control meetings. Our then president would try as diplomatically to answer questions about restructuring. Then suddenly our president was moved to another company and seemed to have disappeared. Our new owners a brought in a new president, Lisa O'Masta. Lisa was hailed as an innovator. We were asked to give her a chance and the benefit of the doubt since she had no background whatsoever in education. She soon introduced herself to the whole company in another meeting. It was apparent that our fears were most certainly true. She was fidgety and nervous, and could not give any straight answers. She kept alluding to "changes" and informed us that restructuring was more than likely going to happen, yet would never say “layoff”. Then the meeting got very awkward when she relegated us with a story about how she had to give away her family’s two dogs to move to Tucson. When asked why, she again avoided giving a straight answer or even a good reason. She did however, let us know they kept their cats. Later at our desks, we all discussed that if she was willing to discard her family dogs, she would undoubtedly discard her employees. This was the tail end of 2020. As 2021 rolled in, she promptly got to work. People literally began disappearing. One day our VP was there the next day his office was empty. No out of office email, no nothing. the same began to occur in other departments with their leadership. Then whole departments were erased in similar fashion. There was an eerie, unsettling silence. Then one of the newly laid off team members informed another and word spread. By this point, people who had worked there for over a decade were unceremoniously being ushered out. The new management, had another meeting trying to suppress the panic. Yet, they refused to say how many and who. One count by process of elimination, had the total at around 40 employees. This was at the onset of COVID. A few weeks later we were all sent home to work remotely. We would all check in with each other and we were all still uneasy about the layoffs. Then the summer came and we were all in full pandemic mode working from home and zooming all the time. It was at this point more people disappeared. No longer in Zoom calls. No emails being returned. Now, that same eerie silence was magnified by the isolation of home. No information was given, no warning, no nothing. Yet, by all accounts our finances were through the roof, we were doing better than ever. Every child is home so our services were more in demand than before. Regardless of the fact that we were no longer industry leaders or innovators. In fact, we were no where near the head of the pack. Our tech was and is old and our product was stagnating. But the money was coming in hand over fist. Still colleagues were laid off. Talented, competent, productive team members. With years of experience. Just gone. It demonstrated how cruel our new leader was capable of being. This caused everyone to panic and has induced an unending feeling of anxiety and insecurity. Which is why I am on Glassdoor, I'm job hunting. I can't do this anymore. There was recently another round of layoffs and a meeting to explain it. For "transparency" they said. They referred to it as a "separation". Everyone is afraid at this point. The common strategy is to not voice a differing opinion and just agree with Lisa O'Masta. Keep our heads down and pretend we like her so we don't get "separated". I only write this because I was on here looking for another place I can leave to and decided to check my own employer's reviews. I can only speculate that the positive reviews are being done by management themselves. Its more damage control from the corpse of a once great employer.
