A company with a reputation for frustrating customers has now decided to give its employees the same experience, complete with layoff limbo, corporate doublespeak, and mandatory office attendance. And somehow, we’re supposed to believe top talent will be lining up at the door? Sure, money talks, but so does reputation. And without the NBCUniversal halo giving the place some cultural cachet, what’s the pitch exactly? Come for the paycheck, stay for the uncertainty? At this rate, the biggest challenge won’t be cutting talent. It’ll be convincing anyone talented to come here in the first place.
And here comes the inevitable “we’re going to operate like a startup!” A startup? In this economy? With decades of corporate baggage and the same leadership that got the business into this mess? That’s not a fresh start. That’s a rebrand of the same problems with fewer resources and higher expectations. I signed up to grow a successful business, not rebuild one under the direction of the people who ran it into the ground. Same leadership, fewer employees, bigger expectations? Hard no. That’s not a startup. That’s a turnaround without accountability. scan artists at its finest.