MICROS Systems Software Developer reviews

Utterly horrific work environment. Prominent personnel leave weekly. The primary FOH developer, the primary BOH developer, a few good testers, and even the CFO have all left within a month, around the time I left. With no documented descriptions of how anything works, how much longer can this place survive? And product documentation? There is only one tech writer for this near-billion-dollar company. Pathetic. This is not like any other tech place in the world because you must work 8-5 with a lunch that must be from 12-1. This is highly inconvenient for people with kids or the need for different schedules. The managers here understand that the schedule is ridiculous but all are too cowardly to raise the point with the CEO. Truly they pay 15-20% under the average for the area, and when my husband recently interviewed in the area the other employers and recruiters knew about MICROS reputation for being a crappy place to work and underpaying. Weekends are always on the table and you often have to work them. There is no hope for a raise, only one direction as a career path to positions you don't want, and they will keep you two positions below your actual value anyway.

There were many rules, most likely designed for call centers, that were applied universally throughout the company like being at your desk by 8, not leaving till after 5, lunch must be at 12, and no flex time or telecommuting. Many of these rules are just not very compatible with IT or software engineering departments. All of the rules were enforced very strictly to the point that it felt like we were under constant surveillance. Managers would constantly be walking around and watching everyone very closely to make sure they were working and not doing anything inappropriate like not surfing the web. Even when I had to get on forums or blogs for research, it was almost inevitable that my supervisor would walk in and peek at my monitor to see what site I was working on. Micromanagement is so ingrained in this culture that even the CEO himself is often monitoring employees. Management seems to be more concerned about everyone adhering to their rigid rules than actually doing a good job. Quality seems to be the least of their concerns, and it really shows in their products. They will even contend that quality is a major issue but seem to ignore the root causes. All engineers are constantly under enormous pressure to get as many things done as possible. For many of us, this created such a hostile environment, that it is difficult to be productive. Management also pressures engineers to put in lots of overtime without realizing that this is the cause of many of their quality issues.