Pros
The products are the best in the global vertical market. The company's reputation as an innovator and industry leader is well-earned. The company provides quality tools for the remote Tech Support team. The TS team members are sharp, friendly, and helpful, and they have each other's backs. Compensation is decent.
Cons
Despite lofty upper-management mission goals and smart strategies, the filtration of these plans down through the subordinate chain tends to muddy them and eventually distort them altogether and Tech Support becomes mired in chaos. The focus changes from quality to profitability. We are talented and driven and yet the tasks that are dropped on us are often near-impossible. From director-level down, interpretation of goals and strategies is subject to the whims and biases of a small handful of people who are often hyper-focused on short-term drives that promote careers rather than contribute to company success. These leaders lose touch with their reports and end up tasking them with maintaining unreasonable metrics on items that rarely pertain to the team's mission but enrich someone's resume. Bonus money is awarded to techs who blindly follow orders, even if obviously detrimental to the collective mission. Although innovative thinking is promoted by middle management, it is lip service only. Free thinking usually presents problems for them and we are too often discouraged from dissent under penalty of black marks in our profiles and sometimes threat of dismissal. Basically, Tech Support is being paid to swallow jagged pills and disregard customer satisfaction wherever possible to improve the bottom line. It is about squeezing more blood out of the stone than the previous director/manager could. Believe it or not, this review is an objective one.