Where do I start? I joined Intuit when Brad was the CEO. Brad was a the real deal and he was the heart and soul of Intuit. Brad made the company what it was. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. When Brad left and Sasan took over, people were nervous and I think rightfully so. Sasan came across as a soulless corporate lackey. Where Brad cared about the people, Sasan cares about the shareholders. These are very real and tangible differences.
I am one of the 1,800 people who were let go in Sasan's most recent chopping spree. Having said that, I have found myself at a much more employee-friendly company and I am quite frankly happy to be gone from Intuit. I hated going to work there but it had become familiar so I stayed around.
The culture of toxicity that now exists at Intuit starts with Sasan and trickles down to so many of the teams. There is a culture of blame and a culture where the way to get ahead is to step on your peers. This culture destroys morale. It takes away the enjoyment we used to have in coming to work. It makes working for Intuit just a job. This is sad because I remember being so proud to work for a company that had a heart and a vision. Now it's just, how can we please the shareholders? Maybe I'm old fashioned but I remember when companies cared about the people who made them successful.
I was part of a team where the dysfunction started at the VP level and found its way down to the rank and file. Management in my organization card more about protecting themselves than they did the well being of the worker bees. If a manager somehow failed to deliver, he or she would find someone to throw under the bus instead of owning the L and trying to fix it. My previous team manager was highly technical, knew the product, and advocated for all of us, but sadly they left because the petty politics became too much for them. Our new manager was incompetent at best. We all felt completely unsupported. He knew pretty much zero about the products we supported. If we asked for help, he would tell us to go ask someone else. We ALL felt like we couldn't do right by him. Any time he wanted to meet with one of us about whatever we were working on, we dreaded the conversation because no matter what we said was going to be wrong in his eyes. He had absolutely no clue about what we were working on but somehow always knew that we were doing it wrong and that he could certainly do better. In short, he could do all of our jobs bette than we could, but he couldn't answer our questions. We all ended up being siloed so there really wasn't even any kind of team anymore. We were just a bunch of individuals who reported to the same guy.
The night before I was laid off, I was up working late fixing a bug. I was talking to him the entire time. He was content to let me work until midnight, knowing he was going to lay me off the next morning. Who does this? In what bizarre universe is this perceived as kind or compassionate? When we had the final "meeting", he was cold and callous. There was zero compassion in his words or in his inflections. He would laugh and smile in your face while effectively turning the knife in your back. I remember telling him I felt there was a fair amount of dysfunction in the team and the only words he could muster up were, "I'm sorry you feel that way".
Given that Sasan had announced stack ranking was on the horizon and that managers were all made fully aware that they had to cut 8-10%, I found it insulting that he denied any knowledge about my fate. He couldn't even be honest with me about what he did. What kind of two-faced coward does this? How does he live with himself? That sad part is, this dysfunction was going on for so long, I started to accept it as normal. I really do feel that being laid off from Intuit was the best thing that happened to me in a long time. I've found a new work home that's healthy, where my manager checks in on the mental and emotional well being of his people. One where we feel like we actually matter.
For those of you who were also cruelly and unfairly labeled as under-performers, I want to let you know that there is life after Intuit. There is a glorious and amazing life waiting for you.
