EFC Systems Software Developer reviews

This company is stuck in the past in terms of perks and work life balance for employees. From the time you arrive to the time you leave you're expected to be in your chair knocking out work orders. The VPs and CEO say our development is a "high octane environment"...I don't know where they get this from. We're all pretty much quiet, keep to ourselves, and heads down in our work. We communicate to each other thru IM 95% of the time even if the person you are communicating with is in the cube adjacent to you. Verbally asking another developer a question is discouraged as it disturbs the other developers. Don't dare have a conversation about non-work related topics. There are some days I don't even verbally speak to my co workers while on the clock. This isn't a collaborative dev shop. It's more of a "hurry up and get it done so we can move onto the next release" environment. All that to say: if you like human interaction, this isn't the place for you. You'll get tired of their asinine rules. Most of these rules are strictly enforced (they're pretty anal) I'm talking about things like: You must give AT LEAST 60 DAY in advance notice when taking more than a day of vacation. No visiting websites unrelated to work (no social media, weather, news sites) on the company's internet whether it's on your or company time. No music streaming sites, either. You're only allowed to install applications related to work, so Spotify is out, too. NO WORKING FROM HOME...even due to bad weather that make the roads unsafe. As our CEO puts it: "The office never closes. If you cannot make it into work, take PTO." Business casual dress all the time, no exceptions. I don't know why this is when we rarely meet clients. They used to be extremely anal on arriving a few minutes late. If it happened more than a few times, they liked to get everyone together and talk about how unacceptable it was. They haven't done this lately, however, I still feel like a criminal anytime traffic is bad and I'm two minutes late. Anytime you have a suggestion as to making work more enjoyable, management likes to bring out all of the cons and is not at all encouraging of your suggestion to where you give up on trying to make it happen.

You must use any PTO for any time off regardless of any extra time you may have worked that week. Very strict on schedule. Can be very hectic at times. They take agile to another level. Have worked a week with 2 releases/day.