The 5 o'clock whistle doesn't really blow here. It's easy to get carried away with the work and miss dinner. Time and efficiency are very much of the essence, as we often deal with customers in dire situations. Sometimes calls come in at night or on the weekends. Plans with family and friends get cancelled. Keeping management and the family happy simultaneously is pretty difficult.
Self-satisfaction is important, because positive feedback is virtually non-existent. Do better; do more; work harder. The workload is huge and everyone is on edge most of the time. If something's broken, fix it. If you can't fix it... fix it. Mistakes aren't well tolerated. No matter how hard you work, you will be asked to work harder. If you mess up, everyone will know about it. If you do a great job, you should be satisfied that you've done a good job, because that usually won't be acknowledged.
Communication with management and other departments can be a challenge. There is a very large wall of management between us drones and the offices with wooden desks. It seems pretty top heavy for such a small company.
As the company rapidly grows, things can change quickly. Products change, customers change, coworkers change, responsibilities change. All of the excitement (especially around the IPO) brings with it a certain air of unease and distrust that is sometimes palpable at meetings. Department and management shakeups seem to come pretty rapidly and you never really know what's going to happen next.
