Stable, predictable, mediocre place where innovation goes to die.
Pros
No-layoff policy even in the midst of the Great Recession, COVID, and the mass tech layoffs of 2022. True 40-hour work week unless there are serious production issues. The company values tenure, and usually promotes from within. The party-line, at least, is "hire for attitude, train for skill." At least if the hiring manager isn't a picky stick in the mud, you're likely to get a better look as a non-traditional tech hire.
Cons
No-layoff policy and tenure mean that a lot of the IS Department is stuck 10+ years in the past with no motivation to improve or learn. Show up, punch clock, go home. There are plenty of ways management is impeding the Agile transformation, but senior developer apathy is also absolutely a thing. Company execs openly scoff at companies like Flexport and call them "our R&D lab," but good luck trying to push any innovations at the IC level. You'll be stuck in bureaucratic hell for at least a year, especially if it involves buying anything the company doesn't already use. It seems the only thing this company knows how to do is buy startups like Fleet who can actually innovate. Good luck trying to implement Agile in this top-down company where management still makes decisions without any employee input. The SAFe implementation has stalled with absurd management metrics being used, like total story points per ART as a measure of productivity. The recent re-org was imposed on the IS department with, again, no employee input. So now instead of being motivated to self-organize, devs just feel helpless and confused. Return to office absurdity has resulted in the loss of many vital senior technologists. We kept the company on the rails for 2+ years at home during COVID and then a major cyberattack. Rumors say the CEO personally insisted we RTO "for the culture." But then they split the corporate HQ up into 4 satellite offices based on home address, not team. So now we're spending the entire day on Zoom, just like at home. Even better, no thought was put into how the offices should be designed for this. So we're stuck in cookie-cutter cube farms with a whole bunch of nice expensive video conference rooms no one ever uses, because it's more convenient to just Zoom from your desk. Just like at home. Where is this "culture" again?
