Prioritize lining exec & shareholder pockets / only promote “yes men/women” - Customer Operations Consumers Energy Employee Review

Toxic work culture, tons of favoritism, nepotism, and only giving raises, awards, and promotions to people that agree with everything the leader says and does and coworkers that do not challenge the status quo. They have an obnoxious and inappropriately used performance management system they refer to as “key talent.” It creates employee animosity and allows room for inappropriate hires based on being within the program versus actual experience, skill set or interview capabilities. They may claim that the program is now gone, but the new career and reward framework is a joke and they continue to operate the same as usual. They are great at communicating that the employee experience is important and that employees are empowered, but they do not walk the walk. Leadership has to force people to be on the employee engagement team because no one wants to do it, it is not taken seriously at all and nothing positive is ever implemented because they don’t want to invest any money into the employee experience. They completely miss the mark on a positive employee experience equates to a positive customer experience. Despite offering the occasional professional development session, no matter how hard you work there are no opportunities for advancement if you don’t play the game. “You aren’t doing enough.” “You’re doing too much.” The feedback is weak, with no specific examples, and it doesn’t make any sense. Leadership says whatever is necessary to align with their decision-making. No one is holding leadership accountable. If you are decent at your individual contributor job, they automatically assume you’ll be a great leader and promote you (if you are a “yes” man or woman) regardless if you have leadership skills or experience. Once you’re a leader, regardless of how terrible you are they don’t require continuous improvement training, and apparently don’t coach leadership. No one is perfect, but it is exhausting working for leaders that don’t listen, talk all the time, don’t coach coworkers or hold anyone accountable yet continues to get promoted. Top leadership put so much focus on waste elimination, and saving dollars that they don’t even see that middle leadership is making up efforts and overestimating the amount of dollars saved without any proof just to meet or exceeded metrics. Way too much pressure is put on this that it distracts from business operations and taking care of customers. Leadership is way too concerned with doing what they’re told versus doing what is right for their teams or coworkers. No one challenges the status quo therefore nothing changes and nobody grows. Due to this hectic, negative and disorganized environment and culture, Consumers Energy has lost many, many amazing coworkers over the last year +, and will continue to see turnover of excellent coworkers.