AMD

• Good pay, benefits, and bonuses
• Great company direction
• Great core innovation
• Top leadership has vision

• Mid-level leadership often lacks effective management skills, defaulting to excessive micromanagement rather than trust and delegation.
• Senior individual contributors and even some managers are frequently treated with condescension, undermining their experience and autonomy.
• Strategic direction is inconsistent or absent; priorities shift frequently based on ad hoc questions or whims from upper leadership.
• There is a notable resistance to process — initiatives often feel reactive and chaotic rather than planned or structured.
• Performance expectations are uneven: a small number of high performers are overloaded and held to extremely high standards, while low performers face little accountability.
• Long workdays (12–16 hours) are common for top performers, often spent chasing poorly defined or shifting objectives with little long-term value.

Invest in developing people-management skills at the mid-leadership levels. Trust, delegation, and respect for experienced team members are critical to long-term performance.

Establish a clear strategic direction and commit to it, rather than shifting priorities reactively.

Introduce and enforce consistent, lightweight processes that enable focus and execution rather than chaos.

Ensure accountability is fair and performance standards are applied evenly.

Recognize that unsustainable workloads and unclear objectives are driving burnout among your highest performers. This is not a long-term path to success.