PHRI Management Problems

PHRI Employment

October 2000 - September 2007

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion and my reasoning why I decided to leave PHRI (Pacific Health Research Institute) (Hawaii) and pursue other employment opportunities.

I want to thank all my wonderful co-workers of many years for welcoming my into your Ohana. Your professionalism and efficiency were a big inspiration for me and I enjoyed working with you on all levels over the last 7 successful years.

Unfortunately changes in PHRI's management made it apparent to me that, in my opinion, the long time survival of this great company is under jeopardy.
Please don't get me wrong; I am neither disgruntled nor do I leave easily, especially since I do not have any work related issues that warrant my decision to leave.

However, I believe that Anita Swanson (Hawaii) and Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) will not lead the company to success in the future, hence I consider it a smart personal move to change jobs now, before it is too late.

Anita Swanson (Hawaii) was hired to replace our controller, not as CFO. Nevertheless, by now she has obtained several promotions into areas that do not match her qualifications.

Anita Swanson (Hawaii) seems to prefer a style of micro-management, and although I have not been affected by her management approach, I observe that my co-workers seem to suffer from her attitude. This has created a negative work environment over the last year and morale has significantly decreased, in my opinion. However, I must emphasize, that I personally had no problems working with Anita Swanson (Hawaii). Her only request that I could not comply with was several weeks ago when Anita Swanson (Hawaii) came to our IT department to ask for the book "PowerPoint for Dummies". IT does not carry any books of this series.

Our new CEO, Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) was hired only a few months previously. Hence the IT department was patiently awaiting long deferred, urgently needed decisions.
It took me by surprise to learn that Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) promoted Anita Swanson (Hawaii) to manager of the IT department, due to his priority to solely focus on generating revenue for PHRI.
The IT department met with Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) to inquire about his rationale for this decision. During this meeting Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) made three statements that motivated me to search for a different employment opportunity:

1. "You don't need to know anything about IT to manage the IT department". (Bruce Stevenson) (Hawaii)

2. "I do not need to justify my decisions to you." (Bruce Stevenson) (Hawaii)

3. "Even a bad decision is better than no decision". (Bruce Stevenson) (Hawaii)

My thoughts:

1. These lowered expectations are met.
2. Agreed, but good decisions are easily explained.
3. Strongly disagree; but if this is how the company will be run in the future, than it is time to move on.

I sincerely hope that my dear co-workers' jobs will be save in the future; but I also noticed the new trend that Anita Swanson tend to be promoted into any management opening that becomes available within PHRI (Hawaii). Since lowered expectations for job qualifications don't seem to hinder this management practice I can only hope that PHRI Board oversight will avert harm from PHRI (Hawaii).

For the sake of my co-workers I hope that Bruce Stevenson's (Hawaii) decision to solely focus on generating revenue for PHRI will pay off and together with Anita Swanson will successfully grow PHRI operations. Only the future will tell. Before Anita Swanson (Hawaii) and Bruce Stevenson (Hawaii) started to manage PHRI, the company had over 120 employees and Bruce Stevenson was hired to increase revenue.

Good luck to all my friends at PHRI.

2008 update: I heard about over 20 employee lay-offs due to closing and loosing of major projects and funding. PHRI's website does not list any new project awards. I hope that Bruce Stevenson's (Hawaii) sole priority will lead to more success in 2009.

2009 update: More job eliminations and no significant new projects listed on the website make me worry for my friends at PHRI. I personally hope the the PHRI Board of directors will intervene with PHRI management to save the company. Maybe the operational management has failed? I know the science used to be strong.

Dec. 2009 update: Employees were advised to take vacation pay-outs in 2009 or use up their vacation time before 3/31/2010.

March 2010: PHRI officially closes and dissolves its operations. In this case I am sooooo sorry to be right. In my opinion a better management could have made a difference.