Ineffective and obstructive middle management - Scientist Illumina Employee Review

2.0
Feb 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great campus. Some of the employees are very high quality. Individual groups are doing very interesting and important work. I've seen a few very good managers who support their reports.

Cons

- Extremely vertical and nested reporting structure. Decisions are made in a vacuum, often by misinformed people. Information is siloed in groups which duplicate each others work. - Frequent re-orgs, and reshuffling. - Middle managers are promoted from positions having nothing to do with their new role, and are notoriously ineffective and indecisive. In some groups middle managers outnumber employees. I am not kidding. - Severe mistakes are covered-up, not learned from, often repeated. - Rampant meetings-all-day culture, where very little gets done and trivial points discussed ad nauseam.

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5.0
Oct 19, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great benefits, good working culture

Cons

Has gone through a lot of change over the past few years but stable now...

4.0
Jul 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Stuck with them for 7 years because it was good back then. Comp is good, benefits are good, and if you're on campus its a nice experience. If you find the right team it can be a dream, but the flipside can be awful. Overall they have a lack of direction in what is turning out to be a highly competitive market.

Cons

Corporate bureaucracy and internal politics are strong but could be worse. The benefits were better in the past and all the perks are winding down with time as they tighten the budgets and try hard to pivot away from dying segments

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