Here’s my 2-pence War & Peace, quite fittingly so I’d say. I am neither providing this feedback lightly nor flippantly, but rather giving it my full consideration and dutiful attention.
I started feeling really low and undervalued and insecure in my role around April-May 21 but that wasn’t even all of it, the whole ‘vibe’ was off and I felt really disengaged and demotivated in doing the role I’d been so passionate about for almost 7 years, despite changes to my team, to systems, to MSM structure across the years, etc. And then I realised it was because I found zero inspiration in the new SLT and failed to see any strategy/vision that would lead to success. The ‘failure to see’, as it soon also became apparent, was actually impossibility to see because there wasn’t any strategy to begin with but rather we’d all been asked to ‘tread the line’ pretty much and follow the directives coming from above, whereby the new SLT decided that whatever worked in their previous places of work is also guaranteed to work for MSM, without their having done their due diligence so to speak.
We are all subject matter experts in our areas, particularly some who’ve been working for decades in this space and also with a decent tenure within MSM itself, but when the most recent changes started hitting us all in waves (operative word ‘hitting’), none of our expertise had been sought, rather an almost dictatorship regime was instated, whereby we just had to conform, adapt and deliver ‘at pace’… oh, and give us a smile! All under the guise of transparency and clarity in communication and of course, freedom of speech - apart from the sarcastically tolerant and ever present, condescending line of ‘oh, Anonymous is back!’ at every floor brief! As an aside, if totalitarian regimes taught us anything - albeit in theory - it was that fear stopped one from giving their own name away should there be repercussions for anything one might say/ask or even be found guilty of w/o saying anything. But alas, ‘anonymous’ only survived till the 5th July floor brief, when he/she/it got censored and Peter Duffy delivered his 2021 - 2022 ‘strategy’ in monologue and, by now, trademark style: what will be delivered - how and who with remains TBD.
Ignoring the status quo, I can say, hand on heart, this is the best company and the best team I’ve ever worked for/in and I will not let these last months taint that - it would be disrespectful to the previous SLTs. We’ve gone through so much change over the last 7 years (the longest I ever stayed in one place and that means something), from multiple office moves, to multiple rebrands, to multiple migrations - work is not what I ever shy away from! I never even minded having to come to the office on a random Boxing Day to fix something, or stay in the office till 3am one Friday night to see something go live, not to mention countless 14-hr days - all of the above fully acknowledged and appreciated by my senior managers (but also landing me with a friendly reprimand on minding my work/life balance). The bottom line is, I put so much pride in my work because it was the vision and the strategy and the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ that I believed in and I could see the value I brought to any project I was working on. Now all of that ‘light’ is gone and all my energy, enthusiasm, passion and pride in a job well done have gone with it!
This used to be an amazing company with an incredible culture and we all, literally all, gave it our everything because we felt appreciated, valued and supported - no one I spoke to recently feels that anymore. The film ‘Moon’ (2009) crosses my mind, and, spoiler alert, even those had a shelf life of 3 years before being ruthlessly replaced. But the ‘new’ MSM strategy is even better: who needs replacement when we can do everything we used to and more and better ‘at pace’, with half of the people and some teams completely scraped off?! It’s the new definition of ‘agile’. Well then, keep an eye on major incidents and the plummeting share price!
It pains me to write this and I’m not going to say to anyone thinking of joining MSMG ‘keep away!’ but I’m hoping that the SLT read these reviews and try to change their attitude and somehow swerve back to the core culture of this business, else all those still left at MSM will leave, but maybe that’s the strategy so they can bring their own people on-board?! But I fear the damage is already done and is irreparable/irreversible. And that’s not the feeble, inflexible or reluctant-to-change in me talking, it’s the me who managed people and who prided themselves in showing compassion, support and empathy in the way I mentored/led my team.
I was lucky to have found a job elsewhere soon after I resigned on grounds of bad vibes affecting me to my very core and, I must admit, I feel conflictingly both liberated and guilty for securing a lifeboat out, but I still sling on to hope that things will change at MSM for the sake of all still left here.
Apologies for the long essay, but it all had to be said.
Good luck to you all!
