Blue Origin reviews

Low salary growth does not keep pace with area cost of living. Unfortunately, people managers have very little say over compensation adjustment, which frustrates our ability to retain top talent when they find their pay falling behind after a few years. Loyalty not rewarded in a financially meaningful way. Company equity only vests if a very unlikely set of events were to occur within a specific timeframe of one's employment, rendering it essentially valueless. Starting with the hiring of Bob Smith, senior leadership has generally been sourced from the traditional aerospace and government sector. The poor technical judgement and slow pace we associate with those sectors unfortunately, although unsurprisingly, has taken root. However, middle management does a good job of shielding technical staff from above.

Management structure past level 1 should be revamped. There are so many manager roles, it is difficult to discern who reports to who. Definitely too many cooks in the kitchen here. Senior management cares more about perception of reality than what employees are telling them. It has created of culture of being afraid to speak up amongst managers. Dissenting opinions are discouraged and frowned upon. Senior management has placed a lot of emphasis on a set of leadership principles that mean nothing to most within the company. Too much patting on the back for lackluster performance. The definition of R&D versus production is wholly lost at Blue. It leads to glacial like momentum on projects, and a lot of frustration. The company has become stale and bureaucratic, even by big aerospace standards. It has no identifiable culture, there's nothing about team Blue that says, "this is a Blue thing" unless complaining by employees at social gatherings counts. So many processes/rules have been put in place, it is difficult to know what process one should be following. Too many decisions are made in a vacuum without stakeholder involvement, and it leads to employee chaos and frustration.