Frustrating - Anonymous employee VGM Group Employee Review

VGM is a company full of irony and mixed messages. There are lots of really great people working at VGM- some of the nicest, hardest-working people. There are also a lot of middle/upper managers that should not be managing people. Most have moved into those positions simply because they have been there a long time, even if they don't have the soft skills needed for management. Some of these middle/upper managers don't have a handle on the day-to-day activities of their team, and worry more about saying/doing the right things to make the C-Suite happy. With everyone "managing" their own group/division, there seems to be little interest in working with other groups/divisions, creating an obvious undercurrent of competition between business units. This also makes overall company communications chaotic since nobody really knows what other groups/divisions are doing. It creates wasted time and duplicate work for departments that provide shared services. Ironically, the company has a long history of having a positive culture, but they've recently created a major culture "campaign" and now cram the the culture "principles" down everyone's throat- all company communication is oddly sprinkled with these references. Nothing kills a company like a forced culture. Even with this forced language to live the VGM principles, if you ask/talk too much about the company's proud past, you'll be labeled "too nostalgic" by the CEO and not forward-looking enough. Yet ironically, for a company constantly proclaiming that employees need to look forward and not dwell on the past, if you have any suggestions for new processes, methods, etc., you'll likely be told to forget it because: that's not how they've always done it/it will make someone mad/it could cause some political waves with another division... or some other similar excuse. Unfortunately, VGM was one of the most frustrating places I have ever worked because there is so much opportunity that is being wasted. Hopefully they can turn it around before the slippery slope becomes too difficult to overcome.