Pros
I apologize in advance for a long post; however, I did want to provide a full explanation for my star rating. I am skeptical seeing one star reviews, so I wanted to clarify a few pieces of information before I begin my review: 1. I want to say Hilton as an overall company is absolutely wonderful. My low rating is regarding the Hilton Reservations and Customer Care branch of Hilton in Carrollton, TX. Specifically, the Operations Department. If you see an opportunity that you are interested in at a hotel or at one of the corporate offices, I would highly recommend applying. 2. I left Hilton because I found a new job, my employment was not terminated and I was not encouraged to find a new job. I have been in my new position for several weeks and I wanted to wait and see if I still felt compelled to write a review. I have decided to do so because I was not given the opportunity to do an exit interview and the feedback I had provided several times to my supervisor and the larger Operations leadership team before I left was not given the attention or serious reflection I felt was necessary. This feedback included my own observations as well as feedback I had received from other people within the Operations department who were not comfortable approaching their supervisors with their concerns because they saw their colleagues who did so get harassed, bullied, and ultimately, forced out of their positions or fired.
Cons
My reasons for only giving a one-star rating are: 1. Undocumented/unpublished position expectations/tasks, but employees are held to a standard that is not available for them to review. 2. Position expectations have been changing over the last year; however, there is a lack of proper training to meet the new/changing position expectations. While I understand some initiative is required to find answers and solutions to tasks, it is not appropriate to expect training for the largest chunks of a position’s responsibility to be entirely informal, ad hoc research. 3. For lack of a better phrase, there is a “mean girl” mentality - there is no opportunity for formal development/training and Operations leadership decides who is or isn’t performing well based on unpublished expectations and personal bias/opinions. 4. Lack of respect of employee time and other life priorities. Unrealistic deadlines, lack of leadership, and accountability from the Operations leadership team are needed so that as ad hoc requests come in, priorities/tasks are recalibrated. Many of my personal tasks/responsibilities and those of the other members of my team were told that all tasks on our plates were still top priority if an urgent ad hoc request came in. This lack of focus and unwillingness to prioritize department responsibilities contribute to a chaotic and poorly managed department. Additionally, many employees felt burned out and worked long hours to try and finish all top priority tasks within the deadlines they were given so as to stay in line with what their individual manager defined as meeting deadlines. 5. Unprofessional behavior and favoritism from leadership team. I personally witnessed on several occasions Operations leaders screaming at their employees, using abusive language that demeaned and embarrassed their direct reports. Employees who did bring their concerns forward to HR were put on performance plans by the Operations leaders and were eventually forced to quit. Additionally, other members of the Operations leadership team showed blatant favoritism and also displayed unprofessional behavior when managing their own teams as well as when interacting with employees on other teams within the Operations department. One example, one of the Operations leaders was discussing personal performance details of several of their direct reports with employees from other teams who were not members of the Operations leadership team. These performance details and the feedback they heard from the employees they were speaking with regarded other team members who that leader had run into issues with in the past. 6. Inconsistent/unfair expectations and standards within teams - especially when it comes to job perks like working remotely. People on the same team/who have the same position title are not held to the same standards. The confluence of position expectations not being available to employees, favoritism, low employee morale due to poor team culture, and the unwillingness of Operations leadership to challenge themselves to create a team environment and culture that supports remote employees, have all led to a confusing, seemingly subjective decision-making process to decide who gets to continue working remotely vs who must now start coming back onsite. Employees who have met or exceeded their performance goals in recent reviews have been forced to come back onsite while other employees who are on the same team or who hold the same exact position title and who also met or exceeded performance goals in recent reviews are allowed to continue working remotely. 7. Lack of leadership/vision from Operations leadership. To me, this is the core problem. The lack of leadership and vision has created a vacuum that has allowed for employees who are still developing as leaders to take control and drastically change the team culture and working environment. The leadership team uses bullying, harassment, and fear-based management and leadership tactics to try and control their teams. Employees fear going to HR because of the backlash they expect to receive from their supervisor once HR speaks with the supervisor about the feedback they received. They have seen multiple employees who did go to HR be forced out of Hilton entirely. Additionally, input received from employees is not taken seriously. There is a staggering lack of accountability within the leadership team, and while the overall Hilton Reservations and Customer Care branch is undergoing a period of big change, the Operations leadership contributes any negative feedback received to “change being difficult”. For me, this is indicative of the problem. Operations employees do not feel respected, and while change can be hard, chalking up widespread feelings of disrespect to change being difficult is both ignorant and arrogant. Employees want to be heard and have their concerns addressed, but when the Operations leadership is not even willing to reflect on how they are creating/contributing to an environment that breeds disrespect, it is extraordinarily difficult to make meaningful changes so that employees feel respected and heard. Employees should not fear providing feedback directly to their supervisor or even go anonymously to HR in case their supervisor is able to pinpoint the individual who discussed their concerns.
