Paradigm was the best job I've ever had. In about a years time it was turned into the worst. It's depressing.
Paradigm didn't rely on layoffs for quick number pumping. Even during the great recession, Covid, after the incident, my understanding is we never did actual layoffs. Our old leaders would hustle, try to drum up work, dig into the war chest, to make sure we kept operating and innovating and that its people were taken care of.
But we were told, times are tough. Housing is down. We have to tighten our belts to make this work.
A few weeks ago another round, only three people, but all well respected leaders, unceremoniously gone on a Friday. Then, only a few weeks later we have an all company meeting where we meet like 10 new executives and hear about their favorite condiments. Not a good look.
Now we’re told 2% raises company wide.
Meanwhile, all the actual people doing the work are seeing a dozen newer executives running around, making confusing decisions, contradicting each other, stressing people out. They pitch projects but don’t tell anyone the goal. We don’t know who the persona is, how these projects are supposed to make money. I struggle to understand what benefit they actually add.
It just seems like a huge nepotism tree. G-yatri hires all of her old friends, get the band back together. They are all yes men/women. Just do the thing, don’t ask questions.
I’m not an accountant, but they have to cost more than all the people laid off this past year.
And that expense is on top of the probably expensive AI licenses we’re paying for. Tools, that as far as I can tell, aren’t helping us. Hushed conversations in the hallway or at happy hours about how much extra work all these new “tools” are causing. But everyone is too afraid to speak up because they don’t want to be in the crosshairs for the next round of layoffs, so the concerns only bubble up so much.
And then we have to see our company’s LinkedIn page being a shameless commercial for Blitzy. Did we get a deal on our license with them? Where is the 4X development that was bragged about? Their site looks like a marketing guys idea of what AI might be able to do, but I haven't heard any of the product folks saying, "wow, Blitzy really made things better."
Maybe it is. Maybe this is making us so much faster. But we have no idea because communication has been terrible since G-yatri took over.
We’re now extremely top heavy. I don’t know what value these new executives bring. It feels like they are slumming it with us, looking at s-xier tech startups, wishing they were there instead.
And when the market crashes, and it will soon, the do-ers are going to be the ones sacrificed on the altar of “Shareholder” value. Most these AI companies won't exist and the ones that remain are going to start charging the real prices for their licenses instead of the venture capital prices they currently are at.
I don’t know if BFS and Peter Jackson know the level of talent that they have/had at a discount because the Paradigm culture was worth getting paid a lot less for. Well the culture is dying. Everyone has updated their resumes. And if the job market were any better, there would be a mass exodus happening.
We all sit here, on the eve of the financial quarter end, anxiously staring at the all company meeting on our calendars for Thursday. Never knowing what reorg, layoffs, or new executives will be announced. These used to be fun meetings where people got together, saw each other in person scheduled happy hours for after work. Now, the meetings are met with a mixture of dread and disgust.