Two Sigma

Smart, but humble nerds (including both founders), strong corporate culture, excellent compensation and benefits.

Office politics became a thing as the company grew, used by the proliferating middle management aspiring to higher ranks. Corporate culture started deteriorating. It became harder to get a feeling of belonging within a company of 1600+ employees.

Middle managers are often unchecked to play office politics, not always in the company's best interest, and certainly causing employee distress. Most higher-level managers are old-timers that don't care to spend the extra effort to keep things in check in the lower managerial ranks.

It may be worthwhile trying to incentivize them to do so, though it may be difficult.

Some of the company's advertised values are becoming on-paper wishful thinking, further degrading corporate culture.

HR used to be helpful in the early 2010s. Now, I'd strongly advise any employee against approaching them with questions and problems related to:

• Honorable conduct
• Serving the company's best interest
• Definitely any friction with managers

HR tends to only make matters worse by refusing to do anything substantive and making empty promises that they quickly break, assuming zero responsibility. HR should be held accountable by someone. Right now, employees have nowhere to turn when they feel HR is not correctly serving its purpose.