Reviews van Otrium

I was at Otrium for 10 months. My experience is split into 2, the first half being 2021, and the second from Jan - March 2022 where change management kicked off. So first half, I started with a line manager who only delegated, left her team unsupported, with no team culture. Even team culture was pushed onto myself and the people within the team to organise. A very non-collaborative, and lonesome environment. My line manager barely turned up for our 1-1’s, admitted to not knowing what I do in my role and never took the initiative to figure it out. Then came Jan 2022, the new CPO and her crew. Along came change management and the company was in ruckus, not due to the change but the inexperience of those managing the change and the lack of communication from the leadership team. Where people were being let go, people from the CPO’s old company were being hired and created was a clique. Very quickly the existing team was isolated and their words trumped anyone else’s. Whenever suggestions were made for say culture, communication etc the answer was always (1) no, (2) this is how we did it at XYZ, (3) if we don’t see it as an issue then it doesn’t exist (4) get onboard or get the hell out. Whilst continously being criticised for all the work the team has done thus far, calling everything rubbish, crap and the other synonyms. In my 10 months of being there I’ve had zero feedback and therefore nothing to takeaway from Otrium. I was with my first line manager for 9 months until I got moved over to the L&D manager in March 2022. When I moved over to the new line manager he asked me about my career aspirations and goals here at Otrium, these were later used as reasons to dismiss me under the pretext “You’re not driven for this role” - “You don’t have the can do attitude”. My dismissal had no heads up, I tuned into a zoom call with my line manager for something else and he invited the CPO. From people within the People team, again with the claim of being People First/Centric, that is not how it works. They could not give me any feedback or reason which obviously makes sense, they didn’t work with me long enough but did have this to say “You don’t fit the culture we want to create at Otrium”. The CPO and her team brought a stencil from their old company and are simply colouring it in. They didn’t ever figure out what they’re working with here, the people, the existing culture and build it organically from there. Instead, they brought what worked for them previously and applied it here, leaving a lot of animosity, confusion and lack of engagement with current and previous employees. During all the change, and the number of people effected in my own team by this, I was also ready to be one of those to depart. But what they did instead is string me along, made me feel like I wasn’t going to be impacted, and migrated me into the wider People team. My line manager was surprised at my culture amp review and told me we’ll make things better for you here - and all of this whilst they’re confidentially looking for my replacement since Feb. Timeline recap, I got moved to the new manager and wider People team in March, they were confidentially hiring for my replacement since Feb - I was never gonna be part of the team and they knew this. Where one is ready for dismissal but you make them feel otherwise has got to be the worst - to reiterate the lack of experience of those managing this change. In the midst of change we’re all open to the truth, and people centric people would know that being honest is way simpler, and fair than being played around which is where things become bureaucratic. The “we are none bureaucratic and want to keep things simple” was a very good speech but I think until the people who claim to be people centric and are not remain at Otrium, the culture will also just be a facade.