Ameren Information Technology / Digital has undergone substantial change in the past 12-16 months in an attempt to reshape what was arguably a very legacy culture with not a whole lot of fresh thinking. As I consider myself one of those existing employees working to constantly innovate and get things done (in spite of that legacy mindset that does exist here), I was initially excited at these changes and for the first several months had a very optimistic view of the future direction. In my role I deal with nearly all aspects of the IT organization and have experienced more and more personnel sharing w/me how disheartened they are with the direction (or lack of) these past 12 months. Whole new layers of senior leadership installed at great cost with little or no awareness of the work going on beneath them and making too-hasty changes that throw the good out with the bad - and worse, an apparent knee-jerk negative opinion to anyone who has been working for the organization more than 5-10yrs ("you were part of the problem if you were already here"), which prevents the new leaders from gaining valuable insight from those who want to help with getting that legacy thinking to change positively. The word ‘toxic’ has been used by several when describing their opinion of the new IT/Digital culture… I know of several outstanding people who have departed as a result of this negative shift in culture and know of several more who are actively seeking / looking to depart (some who have only been here 2-3 yrs). This is a shame, because one of the great reasons to work at Ameren (previously) would have been the culture and work/life balance. It’s very disappointing.
