Pros
Pretty much the only reason I have stayed for so long is because I was sucked in, as this was my first "real" job after college. I was trying to stick it out and get promoted first, as I felt that I wasted all this time busting my butt and I at least wanted to move up one level as well as getting some formal training/certificates, as I thought that would look better and make it easier to move within the company, which I no longer want to do. I have stayed because of the benefits that I need for my health, and I guess a pro would be that it is a very well known company and should look good on a resume. I also stayed because the pandemic happened and it didn't seem like an ideal time to look for a new job while I was going through health problems. My first couple years there were okay and I really liked my coworkers, but things quickly took a turn for the worse - a lot of good employees left and the environment was just so negative that there was tension and people were turning against each other.
Cons
There are honestly so many, I don't even know where to begin. I will start that another employee and myself reported employees that made hateful racist and homophobic comments, to the point it became ongoing harassment (sending inappropriate videos to social media and text messages etc) and HR did not do anything about it. I had another coworker call me a word via work chat (teams/jabber) and they did not do anything. One employee left and the others ended up getting promoted, it was wild. There was also clear differences in raises when they hired a big group of us at a time and kept increasing the starting salary of the next few groups (only a couple of months in between) and they promised to bring the rest of us back to "market value" but management was extremely unprofessional when it was brought up. The work environment is extremely toxic and there is no work/life balance with mandatory overtime. It is extremely difficult to move up because there are constant hiring freezes and the politics are so messed up. They pick favorites very early on and focus on developing them only. If you speak up or give honest feedback, they tend to not like this... so it is the "yes men" who suck up and don't question anything that are favorited. My supervisor also admitted that they were holding me back and not giving me development opportunities or promotion due to me being out on FMLA, which is definitely illegal. They also discouraged me from taking FMLA and later punished me for it by saying that I missed too many days and too much time had passed at that point to get the paperwork backdated to prove that it was due to health issues (I was hospitalized and have been diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions and had a very serious surgery recently). There is just loads of discrimination all over that place. Management does not listen to employees or care for their well being whatsoever. That supervisor purposely picked on me and I constantly felt like I was a target for over a year until they took their own leave and I had slight relief. I did go to HR and their one above manager but not a whole lot was done, to be honest I would have been better off pursuing legal action and quitting without having another job lined up because things got that bad. I am still constantly stressed and there was a point where I was having daily panic attacks due to the bullying from my supervisor. There were also several others in a similar position as me. Many were stuck in their current roles and couldn't move up or transfer either. By now, many have left and I will be following shortly- it sure is unfortunate that some of us wind up stuck because we are relying on a paycheck and health benefits. I am grateful for the several years of experience but my gosh, the place is like torture. I also work a second job occasionally and it is very obvious that my mental health had been affected by medtronic as I do not have panic attacks or other physical health symptoms when going into those jobs. I've known several employees that were friends of mine who took a leave of absence due to the high stress at work and some who just never came back because it was truly that bad. I do truly believe they take advantage of the fact that they hire people straight out of college and many of us don't know our rights regarding things like leave of absence. I believe many like myself have stuck around due to fear or for financial reasons. It is very hard to prove unfair treatment and as a result of reporting certain things I feel like they have retaliated against me as well. I still feel that I have a target on my back and currently am working on an exit plan. I would only recommend coming here and not having high expectations and staying for a year or so max just for a resume builder and leaving. I wish I had known better earlier and made a departure from this toxic company years ago. We also fill out surveys (organizational health) and the results are constantly terrible, super low scores especially surrounding management, stress levels, compensation, work/life balance, job security, yet absolutely nothing has changed.