Three major issues:
1. This is NOT a technology company. This is a media company. And how the Tech/Product organization is run reflects this.
2. Politics! If you read the reviews on Glassdoor this is a them that's repeated again, and again.
3. Year-end review process. It's a popularity contest not an assessment.
As modern software companies go Audible is behind the times in many ways. The tech itself is state-of-the-art - after all, they leverage a lot of Amazon technology - and there is also innovation happening. However, as Agile product delivery organizations go, there is LOTS of room for improvement! You will hear this is an Agile enterprise, but it's not. Planning is a "death march". Priorities change like the wind. Expectations are too high so too much is committed to so there can be a lot of extended hours for the dev teams. The impact is huge and, ultimately, negatively affects employee engagement.
The biggest problem with this is that there's no desire from upper management to actually do something about it. Politics is probably most to blame for this lack of action. Many of the upper managers seem to be more concerned about themselves and maintaining their "empire" than doing what's best for the company. Managers have literally said that certain words/phrases should not be used! Huh!? I believe that these managers fear being exposed and losing their empire so they live in denial about how effective the delivery org is. If you're not into dealing with politics you probably want to think twice about joining.
Finally, the appraisal process. You answer a few questions in essay form. All managers gather to evaluate all of the employees and bucket them into five buckets (now three). They are forced to put a certain amount of employees into each bucket. For example 5% in 1, 15% in 2, 60% in 3, 15% in 4, and 5% in 5. So if you have 100 Directors and more than 5 are excellent, then the others are screwed out of an excellent rating. The biggest flaw in all of this is the complete and utter lack of objectivity. Managers are evaluating and ranking you even if they don't know you or haven't worked with you. Who your manager is has more of an impact on your performance appraisal than what you actually have done. Basically, don't question management, or make any waves, and you'll probably get a good review. Try to be an agent of change and a disrupter, and those managers afraid of losing their perch will exact their revenge at the end of the year.
