Pros
The people. Most employees are helpful, skilled, and want to do a good job. People generally collaborate well within the confines of limited resources and do the best they can despite company efforts to make that difficult.
Cons
This was my first time working at an 89-year-old startup, and it was certainly a unique experience. Processes are poorly defined or contradictory, making them almost impossible to follow. Leadership views identifying problems as the cause of problems even when followed up by ideas/steps for solutions. Instead of promoting process improvement or problem solving, Leadership either A) ignores things until they become catastorphies (and then looks for someone to blame), or B) issues verbal directives directly contradicting documented processes (while refusing to update those documents). 99% of problems are swept under the rug. Root Cause Analysis? Not on Leadership’s watch! Nothing is ever addressed properly, there is a prevailing “test to pass” mindset among Management, and things like audit prep become a game of hot potato (i.e., hide the problem). Project management is undervalued by Leadership, so the few PMs are overworked. Deperately needed PM resources/personnel are not provided, and some engineers are expected to act as full time engineeres and full time PMs (for just the 1 salary, of course). This causes projects to fall behind schedule and creep over budget, sometimes in the years behind and millions over range. Individuals are sacrificed (fired), critical resources continue to be withheld, bad processes remain, and the cycle repeats. Hiring and retention are a joke. When directly confronted about this, HR claims turnover is inline with industry standard so there is no plan to improve the hiring process or increase employee retention. This leads to constant turnover, loss of qualified and knowledgeable staff, and sometimes hiring someone laughably inept. Customers notice this and become increasingly frustrated with having to get to know new engineers taking over ongoing projects/efforts. Employees obviously notice but tend to be genuinely happy for those who make it out. “You’re making the right move” and “take me with you” are common sentiments. On top of all these challenges, systems and tools needed to do your job are generally out of date or otherwise inadequate. Technical difficulties are common, production tools are subpar, and most lab/test equipment are antiques. And good luck convincing Korry to spend money on new software, tools, equipment, or even adequate janitorial services. Korry published company culture tenets surrounding transparency, trust and respect, and assuming the best of coworkers. It sounds nice until you realize Leadership is the antithesis of this. All of this means you are set up to fail. Middle management can do nothing, as they’re too busy being cursed out by Leadership. Hard-working, talented people are either burnt out, scapegoated, or lucky enough to jump ship early.