Unfortunately, there are some notable cons. The company seems to have only gotten stingier when it comes to promotions, raises, market/inflation adjustments, travel budgets, etc. This was already happening before the pandemic, but then accelerated during the early years of the pandemic despite consecutive record quarters, and hasn't really let up. Management always has excuses about business uncertainty or the need to pivot and make acquisitions, as well as promises that things will ease up in the near future. None of those are necessarily untrue, and F5 is certainly not alone in the current economic climate, but after the 100th time of hearing the same tired story, employees recognize that it's just a script on a loop and management has no intention of ever really investing in employee growth. When they do, it's usually out of desperation to keep a few key contributors (I wouldn't even say top performers on net; more on that later). The work-life balance is also somewhat of a double-edged sword. Management likes to talk a big game when it comes to protecting employees, but then they constantly pull in deadlines, come up with crazier and more ambitious business plans, and ask for unpaid overtime, all while cutting resources. So many of my coworkers are constantly maxed out and then some, which is ironic because that was the stated reason behind much of the expansion of pandemic-era PTO benefits. The PR folks love to flaunt all the PTO benefits on social media, but then management turns around and overloads employees the rest of the days, and even sometimes expects work over PTO. When I started, there was a culture of respecting PTO time and avoiding asking people to work while on vacation, but that faded over time, and the company is more than happy to let you work overtime. There is a lot of pressure to compete for very limited compensation increase budget, so many F5 employees are willing to work crazy long hours to stand out, but the rewards never seem to match the excess contribution. I'm all for recognizing and celebrating hard work, but it's important to choose words carefully. In company meetings, managers would often hand out awards to overworked employees, specifically calling out huge amounts of overtime on nights and weekends, which is a slippery slope because it seems to suggest everyone should be doing the same. The rewards were also like $50 gift cards, so the whole thing just felt like corporate grandstanding. I did know a couple of people who stood firm when it came to things like time off and sticking to core job responsibilities, but they were always in conflict with management, and none of them seemed to stay very long. The single biggest problem I have with the company is that there is absolutely no accountability for bad decisions. At other companies, it's said that to advance in title and responsibility, one must become a positive multiplier, in the sense that it's not enough to be a prolific contributor oneself, but one must also help others around them succeed and contribute. If I had to sum up my biggest issue with F5, it's that all too often, the exact opposite seems to be true. A shocking amount of time, energy, and resources gets wasted on absolute garbage that somebody higher up insists is way more important than it really is, and then when you bend over backwards and go above and beyond to deliver it in addition to the stuff that actually needs to get done, they get all the recognition. The insane thing is many of those people then move on to roles elsewhere, both in and out of the company, leaving a complete mess behind, so the company ends up just spending a ton of resources on people who go around making things worse. When anyone brings this up, they're met with complete disdain. This isn't just at the low level; upper management will make huge mistakes with lasting implications, such as with inventory management given all the supply chain issues in recent times, and instead of owning up to their mistakes, they'll drone on about how they're doing everything right and it's on the lower-level contributors to compensate. The culture just reinforces negative contributions way too much because there's no consideration of consequences. Everything in business is a tradeoff, but F5 seems to have forgotten that, so the company just does whatever it thinks it needs at the moment without thinking it through, and it seems to survive off the fact that employees are somehow willing to stick around and put up with it.
