A Culture of Favoritism and Disrespect: How Poor Management Undermine Employee Morale - Anonymous employee Palo IT Employee Review

Favoritism is a glaring issue. Certain employees seem to receive preferential treatment for reasons unrelated to performance—whether they’ve been unstaffed for over a year, recently broke up with someone, or have personal connections to the MD (even something as trivial as a shared fondness for a pet). This favoritism disrupts fairness in staffing and projects. For example, the MD has been known to remove a staffed employee from a project to replace them with a favored individual, simply to ensure that person keeps their job, despite them being on the bench for an extended period. The People & Culture team lacks transparency and fairness, introducing new rules right before annual reviews and changing the HR handbook without notice. HR can withhold salary increments and impose performance improvement plans (PIP) without clear direction or justification, undermining employee efforts. Some staff have been denied raises with vague, dismissive remarks like, "You're not behaving well," showing a lack of respect. HR and leadership, including the MD, have exhibited unprofessional behavior during reviews, such as rolling their eyes, which is both disrespectful and humiliating. PIPs are often assigned without proper investigation, relying on one-sided accounts, raising concerns about fairness and due process. Decisions lack the same care and scrutiny given to implementing new rules, further eroding trust. Overall, these practices create a toxic and demoralizing work environment, where favoritism, lack of transparency, and disrespect for employees overshadow the contributions of hardworking staff.