Wish I'd known what I was getting into before joining - Anonymous employee Blue Coat Systems Employee Review

During my time at Blue Coat I never felt as if I belonged, there was vibe there that I couldn’t quite figure out. People do not interact with each other, there’s no polite “hello” as you pass in the hall, no small talk at the coffee station, nothing. I worked there for over two years and even after all that time I had no idea what the people literally in the row next to me did for the company. Each department worked completely independently from the others, communication across the organization was non-existent. Meetings would occur, people would show up, sit there, take no notes, read their email on their laptop or phone, leave the meeting and that was it, zero follow up on any action items. The systems were in dire need of an overhaul, a lot of manual process because the systems were not synched with each other and no one was interested in making that better. The overriding culture was management by intimidation, if anyone dared challenge a decision or question anything they were scolded. People would even go so far as to throw around their weight by dropping the CEO’s name when discussing a project, basically saying that if there was any push back they were going to tattle. Ridiculous for adults to behave that way, but it happened. The day I left Blue Coat I felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, one that I hadn’t fully realized was there until it was gone.