The problems with Aptean start at the top: Vista Equity Partners. Their M.O. is to try to run their portfolio companies with a handful of managers and a bunch of new college grads (known as Freshers in India). All employees are expendable, with little or no value attached to their skills, knowledge, and experience. Managers are usually clueless about products, customers, industries, and their own direct reports. Many of the experienced employees have been fired or driven away, resulting in a chaotic workplace where no one knows what needs to be done when, who is in charge of what, or where products or processes are going next. It is common to have multiple bosses simultaneously, and also common to have no boss. Getting any paid time off, including vacation, is completely at the discretion of your manager. If your project is behind schedule (as most are) you will have a hard time getting any time off. Project milestone dates are generally fantasies and projects are routinely understaffed. Aptean supposedly uses Agile software development, but the processes and procedures are so complex and poorly documented that they are really anti-Agile. The office environment is supposed to foster collaboration, but for people who actually need to think to do their jobs (this is a software company, after all) the constant noise and distractions really damage productivity. It is hard to believe that so much damage could be done to so many profitable companies in such a short period of time.
