I was impacted and reading everyone’s threads has been both reassuring and sad. Thank you to everyone for sharing openly and honestly— when work culture suffers from toxic leadership and snuffs our ability to have actual community and honest conversation about the company we work(ed) for, we came here— I’m glad for that. I also am not using “toxic leadership” to score a hit— it’s a real construct with indicators and impact. Reading about it might help you put more objective (sorry for this term) language to what you’re experiencing.
If you’re still at Gartner, I do not envy you. I would prefer to still be working there rather than be unemployed, but I also can’t imagine what it was like/is like to be making calls and selling people on a place you can no longer trust. That would be hard.
My advice to those currently recruiting would be to not trust internal communications about Gartner performance. Remember that it benefits them to make you believe we are doing well. This makes us more effective sellers. I was an effective seller, and I am left feeling guilty for selling people on a lie- I put them in a position to experience what I have just gone through.
Trust what you are seeing with stock prices and quiet layoffs, and make a plan for if things change quickly. I had no plan, and I am paying for it now- the best I can do now is to suggest it to others.
If you’re a well-intentioned leader and you’re reading this, please know that I (and others) understand that you passed down the information you were given, which was the misleading “Gartner is doing great” speak that was all but smashed over our heads in the Q2 town hall. The best you can do is to not repeat this kind of speech to your teams: it leads to us being unprepared. We also get enough of it already through the carefully crafted corporate comms that reassure us we are a great company at all times. You don’t have to add your voice if you know there’s risk ahead for your people.
I will never get to speak to those who intentionally misled people who make 5% of their salary. Those most senior leaders manufactured security through talk tracks and inside Gartner emails that assured us of growth and opportunity, while designing layoffs in private. They do not know you and do not care about you. They will end your healthcare at midnight and give you four weeks of severance, all while telling you “when we do the right thing, great results will follow.”
Be very cautious, whether you’re still there or not. Have a plan. I am still most grateful for the people who did work ethically and without acting like Gartner gave a damn beyond the bottom line.