Pros
Good people at the non-management level. Have made tons of friends over the years, more than most companies I've worked at. Decent benefits but would prefer a PPO health insurance option, FG only offers HSA plans which is fine for young single engineers but probably not be ideal for families or those with pre-existing conditions as you have to pay a lot out of pocket upfront (high deductible). Cafeteria is limited but serves good food, if a bit unhealthy. We manufacture some cool technologies.
Cons
Management - top-heavy, indecisive and clearly scrambling. No business plan - last all hands VP of tech said new tech roadmaps will be released by end of May 2024. Then our new CEO immediately corrected VP and said it usually takes a year to develop product road maps - they don't know what they're doing. We dramatically raised our prices last year and as a result lost out on many multi-year long bids, so money is very tight. Every day there is less and less product being manufactured, some days the production floor is nearly empty. This month (April 2024) CEO Mitch reorganized the company structure and laid off ~10-12% of our workforce, including some managers - when asked at the all hands meeting who they should report to in the new structure, CEO says they need to reach out to HR/management and figure it out themselves and says we need to stop being docile and expecting information to come to us without action on our part - in other words, assigning us a new boss isn't their responsibility but rather ours. Feels like we're winging it day by day. Former leadership started several initiatives (e.g. reorganize and consolidate file cabinets) in last 2 years that were expensive, invasive, non-essential and ultimately abandoned mid-way when the new CEO took over. Favoritism, gaslighting, disparaging remarks, blatant sexism, wearing many hats at once. We've lost several essential personnel in 2024 and months later management has not reopened their positions - money is so tight that we're just barely getting by. The remaining talent sees the writing on the wall and is leaving in droves. A few departments have lost all their engineers and are manned by techs and operators only. Favoritism and the good ol' boys network. 3 rounds of layoffs in last 6 months with more to come. Last layoff was supposed to be management-focused/top-heavy, but it seems mostly operators, techs and eng were cut. Management protects their own. Everyone knows FG is a sinking ship and lately we live in constant fear - expect retaliation if you speak out. Culture and management was much better when I was hired on years ago. Hopelessly outdated systems from the 80s hold us back. ERP system is broken. Quality/customer satisfaction/preventative maintenance is not a priority, only OTD/revenue, so we're always reactive instead of proactive. The sense of dread and despair in the air is palpable and justified.