Instrument Software Engineer reviews

4.0

13% would recommend to a friend

(8 total reviews)
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Laurel Burton

Not enough data to show CEO approval

13% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

8 reviews
5.0
Jan 5, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Instrument grows its people and allows its people to grow, as whole humans. Starting out my career at Instrument with a 1-year-old, to now going on 3 years at Instrument recently having my second child - there is incredible understanding and support with time, assistance, and tons of empathy for life changes like this. With 16 weeks paid leave and 6 months of job protection for maternity leave, as well as a flex schedule upon return for the baby's first year of life, this is the type of employer that really knows the value of family time with a newborn. I am beyond grateful for a company that walks the talk when it comes to 'work-life balance'. We really can be badass developers as well as great mothers, it just takes the right company to see that potential.

Cons

Burnout is real, and something we deal with and talk about as a team regularly. I think in a post-COVID world this stress of working and not seeing anyone will dissipate, and in the meantime, we all need to take care of each other to make sure we are bringing our best selves to work.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for taking the time to provide insight into your experience and perspective of Instrument. We are so glad that our parental benefits have made an impact on you, your family, and how you have been able to grow, both professionally and personally, because of our benefits. We agree that burnout is real and continue to work on evergreen approaches, and philosophies, to ensure your care is front and center.
1.0
Nov 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Truly talented and creative coworkers

Cons

1. Executive leadership is all talk and no action. Example: they constantly told people to ask for whatever time off they needed, but HR pushed back hard on managers who tried to support their people this way. 2. People often work nights or weekends to push through and get projects done, in part because resourcing is so chaotic and poorly planned. 3. They recently fired two of the strongest advocates for DEI within the company, one of who was a 10-year employee in non-executive leadership. 4. Execs constantly center their feelings when talking about their commitments to DEI and anti-racism, and make excuses about not wanting to give into urgency when they miss their own deadlines. Too many examples to list, including an exec who talked about their “BIPOC friends” to show how great they were doing at anti-racism work. 5. There’s no real way to talk with execs except through a form where you can submit questions, and those often get a response along the lines of “per our last email” with no actual info. 6. The company is more concerned with external image than how people internally are actually feeling and whether they’re supported. Example: they originally took down their Black Lives Matter splash page 3 days after putting it up, but some employees saw and objected to how shallow and self-serving that timing felt, so it went back up. 7. Many people, especially in the dev discipline, took pay cuts to work here because salaries are lower than industry standard. Are there cool projects? Yes. Are there truly great people to collaborate with? Yes. (Are we in a pandemic and a job here is better than no job? Yes.) That might be enough for you if you can keep your head down and ignore how executive leadership fails to follow through on any real change, and if you can be super strict about work/life balance even when you see your teammates working extra hours - otherwise, this place isn’t worth it.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for this feedback, and the experiences you shared. It is critical for us to do everything we can to ensure employees have what they need, in their personal and professional lives, including time off. If you feel comfortable, please reach out to People Ops as we have no known incidences of discouraging time off if an employee needed it, and always work to find the best way to support leave. 2020 has definitely put internal communication to the test. We are actively working to evolve communication and provide safe spaces and opportunities for many voices to be heard — and have undoubtedly had some successes and some failures. We continue to encourage employees to reach out directly to any member of Executive Leadership to have a conversation. Again, we really appreciate your open and candid feedback as it is the only way for us to reflect, action and pivot.
3.0
Sep 12, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- I've met some of the smartest, most talented, and most caring people at Instrument. - Generally very flexible with time off/sick leave. - Competitive benefits. - A lot of employees are asking for and actively working on creating meaningful change within the org.

Cons

There's a BIG disconnect between leadership (specifically those in executive leadership) and those of us working with each other in team/client environments. This has created a lot of tension between leadership and everyone else and I can't see things changing unless there is some change in leadership. I can see that they are trying to understand what the issues are and how to solve them... after all, technically speaking, Instrument is better than a lot of other agencies that claim to care about their employees. But better doesn't mean anything if the standard for "better" is so low.

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