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Delusional thinking? MassHousing had hopes of being named the region’s top workplace by the Globe, but disgruntled employees had other ideas
Memo to the brass in state government: If your dream is to enter your agency in a best workplaces contest, be sure to first check that your employees aren’t bitterly eyeing the exits.
Such is the case with MassHousing and its improbable hopes of landing top honors in the Boston Globe’s annual Top Workplaces contest.
MassHousing in 2022 teamed up with Energage, the vendor the Globe uses for its annual ranking of the best places to work.
The state authority wound up at the bottom among similar organizations, in Energage’s software program that ranks workplaces, according to a copy of the report produced for MassHousing and obtained by Contrarian Boston.
In fact, MassHousing landed in the last percentile, and if the state authority had scored any lower, it would have fallen off the chart altogether.
Since then, MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay and crew have scrambled to boost employee morale.
There was a one-time $2,500 bonus for employees - totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars - in early 2023, though a spokesperson calls it a one-off in response to inflation.
There was a $17,000 staff party on City Hall plaza last fall and, according to the state authority’s spokesperson, as well as “a sustained effort to engage the entire workforce around our corporate direction and our values.”
But let’s just say the state of morale at the authority, at least among the front-line employees who keep the wheels turning at the state’s bank for everything from affordable housing projects to low-cost mortgages, remains elusive.
If it’s any indication, some employees are apparently too frightened to even discuss the situation, fearful of retaliation by the executive suite at the agency, quartered in the One Beacon St. office tower in downtown Boston.
“One of the worst experiences of my professional career,” is how now one ex-denizen of MassHousing described their time at the state authority.
And let’s just say the comments and observations in the report Energage provided to MassHousing were enlightening.
At least some MassHousing rank and file employees believe political ties and cronyism are key to advancement at the agency, and they may not be all that wrong.
Agency chief Kornegay is a former top Baker administration official who took the reins at MassHousing in 2018. Since then, she has been joined by former Baker administration aides, all now making in the $200,000-range. Kornegay herself earns well over $300,000.
“It really does feel like MassHousing is super clicky ... only special chosen ones get special treatment,” wrote one highly frustrated employee.
Another employee lamented that “who you are entitles you to have certain privileges others don’t,” and still another noted “different rules for different people.”
“The agency is too manager heavy,” said another MassHousing employee, with the organization weighed down by “so many managers (with very high salaries).”
Top management at MassHousing also received poor scores when it came to their people skills, with one employee calling the suits in the executive suite “remote and indifferent.”
Not true, not true, absolutely, positively not true, insists Paul McMorrow, MassHousing’s communications chief.
“I know Chrystal to be a warm, caring, and engaged leader who is deeply committed to doing all she can do to serve the people of this state,” McMorrow said in an email.
Swell.
Word police: GBH story highlights how the mainstream media is now looking askance at the phrase “substance abuse” in stories on addiction
Goodbye “substance abuse” and hello “substance use challenges.”
The latter now appears to be the mainstream media’s favored way of describing the agonies of addiction.
The latest example? Wednesday morning’s Wake Up Well segment on GBH’s Morning Edition, which saw host Paris Alston conduct a lengthy interview with a self-described “harm reduction” specialist.
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