The narcissism is comparable to the Kardashian family. The CEO, in an effort to get onto the best places to work list, argued successfully with NH Magazine to have businesses that were laying off employees from being disqualified from the contest. That didn't stop Bottomline Tech. from accepting the award amid its own layoffs.
One of the people I had to work with was arrogant and counterproductive. I had heard that before joining BT that this person managed a restaurant. It's easy to believe. People are treated like minimum wage employees, except when it came to working ridiculous hours without additional compensation. I watched some of the best employees get let go and get replaced by recent college grads who brought little to the table besides malleability and lower salary thresholds. It almost seemed like some sort of an experiment where BT was trying to see if they could jam people from all walks of life into a technically challenging career. Employees are sometimes way over their heads, but some acquisitions come with talent. When there are truly talented people, they end up carrying the weight of the eternal trainees.
Jobs are rarely posted internally and unless you spend your workday networking, you won't be going anywhere with your career. Product training is rarely done internally. People don't really know the product and opportunistic employees hoard and deny access to proprietary information or step out of their roles to steal underling's spotlight, insuring career opportunities for themselves.
Industry standards are sometimes ignored or fictionalized. Agile SCRUM execution is so weak that it felt like somebody read a handout from a training course, didn't quite understand it, and taught it to everyone else. Coding DB design work is so far from professional that it boggles the mind. Anyone who truly codes with professionalism gets out as quickly as possible. Source code management appears to be off the charts mismanaged. So much professional ground is lost by remaining in this place.
Management seems to be lead by a cross between a Dickesnsonian manager and an entitled prep-school dandy. I can't say that about any other software company that I've worked for. Instead of learning more about your industry, you experience mental attrition. There are definitely some happy people here, but they are often the people who are deluded into thinking that they are top performers or are just happy that nobody notices that they are just camping out.
I have to agree with the people who say that management strongly hints to employees to post positive reviews. Good press is craved like insulin to the diabetic.
Firing people seems like it can be arbitrary, until the 20-something replacement comes in, taking 3 to 6 months to be productive at all, and likely working for a fraction of the salary. If NH weren't an "at will" employee state, there would probably be complaints about age and sex discrimination. The employees could probably unionize, but their jobs would be offshored. I've seen people with strong work ethics and superior skills be let go in favor of wet behind the ears beginners. The loss of one big client even during the sales cycle means that a third of the employees experience extreme nervousness about their employment. Work/life balance can be way off and layoffs are on the mind of many.
