Rudderless: aloof leadership and siloed decision-making is breeding a stagnant work environment - Senior Manager Herman Miller Employee Review

A more than year-long, piecemeal re-org has crippled the organization's ability to accomplish inspired, meaningful, or innovative work. Most VPs, SVPs and C-Suite are embarrassingly disconnected, breeding complacency among the white-collar West Michigan worker bees. Fortunately, the beautiful Holland-based "Design Yard" campus is full of diverse office settings well suited for hand wringing and thumb-twiddling. There have been many warning signs but even the most optimistic employees knew that decision-making was impaired and trouble afoot when, at an all-hands meeting approximately two years ago, it was enthusiastically announced that Board Member and failed Toys R Us CEO, David Brandon, was tasked to lead Herman Miller’s own executive search. Brandon was ousted and Toys R Us liquidated not long thereafter. Hard gulp. The Global Creative Studio (brand dept) has a reputation and history of being painfully slow, non-collaborators, with ineffective project management. Despite a long history of mediocrity, the leaders of this practice area, and a detached sense of complacency, have curiously remained in place. Eighteen months into the tenure of a new CEO has yet to produce a vision that employees feel they can proudly co-own. Corporate headlines (strategy?) like "Unlocking the Power One Herman Miller" lack any real depth or action beyond a few generic bullet points buried in a shareholder presentation.