Toxic Culture II - Still Toxic?
One year has passed since we published the blog titled "Can any company afford to have a toxic culture?" on the GreenSquareAccord Accord Residents website. In that blog, we questioned whether companies could bear the costs of maintaining a toxic culture. However, it's worth asking if anything has truly changed since then.
One significant change is the departure of nearly all the individuals who took part in the celebration of National Customer Service Week 2019, including Rachel Crownshaw. The reasons behind their exit remain unclear.
Were they considered the 'deadwood' that hindered the customer experience, or did they simply give up on attempting to change a deeply entrenched behaviour within the walls of GreenSquareAccord Accord?
Service charges and further failures to communicate…
GreenSquareAccord don’t want to engage with residents - The new Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Steve Hayes has blocked me on Twitter and now LinkedIn (I’ve got a whole article about him that needs to be shared). The reason Steve joins Ruth Cooke and Rachel Crownshaw in blocking me isn’t because what I share is incorrect or untrue (if it were they’d take legal action) it’s because they don’t want to legitimise me (fair enough). They don’t want someone sharing their failures online, and worse still — it’s because they want to be able to claim they didn't know. This is really worrying when you consider that I've raised many issues that will hinder the growth and successful implementation of the GSA Way, and even more worrying when you consider that I raised concerns about their failure to provide proper gas boiler services.
Look out team GreenSquareAccord, the senior leadership team are going to ensure any blame doesn’t stick to them, it won’t affect their careers, it won’t hinder them at all, they can claim they didn't even know about it.
And the real loser is…
How much will it cost the residents of GreenSquareAccord to send them to this years UK Housing Awards? Is it worth it? Are they award winners in your opinion? Could the £5k be better spent elsewhere? And is there anything you can do about it?
Allowed to build more homes!
With GreenSquareAccord failing so many of their current residents it is worrying that they be allowed to build new homes. Here we look at the risks, the views of their residents, and how in GreenSquareAccords own words they are at least four years off being able to provide what should be their core level of service.
Reputation management: there’s an award for that!
In the ongoing battle to improve GreenSquareAccord’s public image they have moved on from being experts in the field (although I doubt we’ve seen the last of this) to becoming award winners! Here we look at what they claim to do and what they merely hope to achieve.
What’s the opposite of proactive?
Here we ask why GreenSquareAccord can’t and won’t adopt a proactive approach that would save money, restore faith, and show a commitment to their new corporate message of ‘being brilliant together’.
Whilst this is another trick GreenSquareAccord seem to miss, we compete them to PA Housing who have nailed customer focus and clearly build better communities with a proactive approach to housing.
In it together!
Other residents are now finding us on the first page of the most popular search engines! We list just below GreenSquareAccord’s own website. Meaning we are now connecting with more residents, able to share more issues, and working together to ensure GreenSquareAccord do become that simple brilliant landlord they’ve been promising to become!
Can any company afford to have a toxic culture?
An article published on the 11th May 2022 in Inside Housing focused on the concern that half of social housing employees plan to move jobs in next 12 months. A worrying figure indeed. With the sector facing such a drought in staff can a housing associations such as GreenSquareAccord afford to have a ‘toxic culture’?
Celebrate the wins, hide the faults!
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. A quite often attributed to President John Kennedy (from him televised account of the Bay of Pigs invasion).
I’ve used it here as this very public and humble apology by JFK caused his numbers to soar, confidence was restored, and for the first time this young president was seen even by his doubters as presidential. Scholars and historians (and conspiracy theorist) can (and will) continue to argue about his merit as a president for decades more to come, he will always be remember for what he might have archived; but his very public and sincere apology to the American people ( and the free) world can not be denied. Perhaps it was his finest moment in office.
You’d think over fifty years later we would have all realised the benefits that can be achieved by the simple act of acknowledging or short falling. An apology frees us from the our mistake and allows us to correct our course enabling us to regain the faith of the people we’ve wronged.
What a shame that in this litigious age an apology is seen as an acceptance of fault, as such companies will do all they can to avoid apologising. In short of an apology and with a need to keep their public persona in good tact these companies must shout about their wins, whilst keeping their faults hidden. Which brings us on to GreenSquareAccord.
And we are back!
My site continued to generate traffic even without posting on social media!
Other GreenSquareAccord residents continued to reach out to me (whilst being understanding to me taking a breather) - thank you!
GreenSquareAccord finally published their version of our meeting minutes and quietly put out the results to their own internal survey - Hoorah!
They also continued to show how toxic their culture is… very sad.
I’ve made some more contacts and will launch a great new section later this month!
A Simply Brilliant Landlord Vs The Truth
Either GreenSquareAccord are struggling to remember what they’ve agreed to or they’re telling fibs. This happens when they don’t release timely minutes to their meetings, but it also hides a darker motive, perhaps this is why GreenSquareAccord don’t want a record of these meetings.
Seasoned Housing Association Wage Wasters!
You wouldn’t trust them to pack your shopping, yet they are allowed to fester within the housing sector decreasing the value of our homes and communities, whilst risking lives through their negligence and incompetence…
The real feedback
The true feedback from real residents battling daily with GreenSquareAccord.