Beginning a slow and steady decline
Pros
NI is a stable employer built on the respectable foundation of enabling domain experts to solve their problems cheaply and simply. The work is meaningful and has transformed NI's deeply penetrated Instrument Control and Data Acquisition markets. Hardware solutions are built around LabVIEW, the company's benchmark software, creating a cohesive marketing and sales strategy in numerous scientific and engineering domains. The company extensively hires and trains college graduates, providing a welcoming and youthful culture for the transition from college to the workplace. Employees are encouraged to congregate at and outside the office with happy hours, sports leagues, beer brewing clubs, etc. The dress code in most departments is relaxed, a must for the engineering and CS crowd. The first 3-5 years of employment provide numerous opportunities for growth and career advancement. The stock purchase plan provides a significant boost to poor compensation, as NI is a stable and dividend-rich stock to hold.
Cons
The once exceptional foundation of employee culture has cracked and eroded beyond repair. Over the past ten years NI leadership has systematically degraded the employee experience to cut costs and increase revenue. NI leadership delivers messages with the mentality of a booming 90's up-and-comer but plans and executes like shrewd, entrenched behemoth. NI attempts to hire the 'best and brightest' college graduates but fails to compete for those from top-tier colleges. NI recruits based on college grades, internship experience, and 10-year-old interview questions. Unfortunately these are not indicators of success in the workplace, and NI struggles mightily to quantify production, making identifying and releasing dead weight nearly impossible. (it personally took me 3 months to remove a severely underperforming developer.) On the other side of the coin, NI considers working extra hours the supreme indicator of exceptional work. Innovation and efficiency are recognized as a byproduct of NI's culture and not rewarded appropriately, though NI"s take on recognition and compensation are well-documented. The topic of exceptional work deserves its own section, since the consensus-driven culture allows each group to define good work. Despite extensive (but outdated) guiding principles, there is a significant disconnect between the company's mission and day-to-day decision-making. Each department/group/product claims exemption from any number of 'guidelines', providing a diverse and disjoint landscape. In the end, decisions are made by (a) the highest-ranking employee or (b) the loudest, most resilient opinion. The performance problem is ineffectual middle management. Most of NI's middle management rode the coattails of the company's fantastic growth during the dot-com bubble. Despite their best intentions, middle management has repeatedly failed to evolve to the changing landscape of the technology sector. These employees have only experienced the NI workplace and consider the environment they experienced during their growth period the end-all, be-all of corporate culture. Most quality employees from that period moved to bigger and better opportunities, leaving the current middle management to grasp tightly to the aura of what once was. This culture problem lies in upper management, including the once venerable Dr T. In the past 5 years, the benefits package has been cut to the bone, manufacturing has been wholly outsourced, R&D -- once untouchable -- has experienced layoffs, and attrition has risen to its highest ever levels. In the same period upper management have continued to increase their compensation (24% salary increase for the CFO!) and roles (EVP of Sales AND Marketing!). They have tried and failed repeatedly to institute a succession plan, making their inflated sense of self-worth all the more worrying. In response to increasingly dissatisfied employees, 'key employees' were gifted stock with 5 year vests, raises were upped from 3% to 5%, and ... well that's it.
