Staff Turnover a Sign of Worse to Come
Pros
When I started working here, I honestly felt like I had won something. I had so many meetings with different departments to understand what the business did in more detail, the training and support I received was the best I had ever received starting a new role, and I even had a personal meeting with the CEO. I remember coming away thinking "wow, I am so lucky to work for such a forward thinking company, and under the leadership of someone who 'gets it'". When people asked me how my new job was, I used to beam and glow because I felt as though I worked for a company where, from day one, I had been able to be my full self at work in a way I had never experienced before. All whilst working in a role that allowed you to make a real difference, and to make tangible improvements to the lives of those in our great city. Throughout the beginning of my time here, I did hit frustrating roadblocks when trying to achieve the best outcomes for tenants. There is sometimes a bit of a "well, this is the way we've always done it" attitude that was no longer fit for purpose post-pandemic, and changes were necessary. I felt at the time we had a leadership team who really understood what was required, and ultimately for the last 12 months I have bought into their vision for change, all whilst working to make things better and wanting things to succeed. We worked collaboratively together and spent months journey mapping, collecting data, and trying to improve the way our tenants experience us an organisation. It felt like an inspiring place to work at times, and throughout this process it was abundantly clear that the people who work here genuinely care so much and only want to do the best for our tenants. To this day, there are many great people within the organisation, so many of them "lifers" because of what a great place it was to work.
Cons
I am not sure what exactly has happened as of late, or where things started to go wrong exactly, but things have dramatically careered down hill. I no longer recognise any of what I have written above in this company and have lost complete faith in the direction of the organisation. This has become extremely apparent in the kinds of complaints we are now receiving from tenants, increasing in their quantity, making an already extremely difficult working environment even harder. Change was always going to be difficult, and I have personally said that from the beginning and have had a growth mind-set throughout. Sometimes I myself found the resistance from some of my colleagues frustrating, but I tried my best to boost morale and reassure those who were feeling stressed about the restructure - "better days are coming!" I used to say. Many of us had the axe of redundancy hang over us for six months - some colleagues even longer. This is inherently an unpleasant place to be, and that was always going to be the case, but when you have faith in the end vision and believe that we are going in the right direction as an organisation, it is a lot easier to stomach. Sadly, that has now been lost. I frequently speak to colleagues in tears, many more are off with stress and some are deciding not to come back from long-term sickness. These are good and talented people I have known, loved and worked with for years. Yet, still no acknowledgement from senior leadership, many of them leaving the organisation with little fanfare. The lack of respect that has been shown to those who have been through the redundancy process, or those who have decided to leave their new roles as a result of the nearing-intolerable working environment, is appalling and something I have found difficult to reason with. In addition to this, the on-boarding experience that the organisation gives new members of staff is now becoming embarrassing, and looks even worse when compared to what I received when I began my position only a few years ago, which I would describe as exceptional. I also cannot remember the last time I had a development conversation, or a conversation with anyone about my performance, development or career, and right now there does not appear to be any formal internal structures to support career development or advancement.
