Overall sense from employees that they are apprehensive and unwilling to speak up. Whether that is from a fear of having ideas shot down by upper management or losing a job, I don't know. But concerns brought up in 1:1 conversation rarely made it to team/company meetings or upper management. Communication from upper management can use some improvement. Specifically when it comes to sharing goals, company position (good or bad), development cycle/status/issues, critical issues and how you are doing as an employee. It's very difficult to gauge your own progress when you don't have a mechanism in place to ask questions about your performance. Yes there is the "open door" thing, but regular 1:1 (weekly or bi-weekly) meetings go a long way. Too often are senior managers in the trenches. Although this can be seen as a good thing in some organizations, I found that it seemed to inhibit staff from thinking through problems creatively themselves - "defer to Director of XYZ" then go push the buttons to complete the task. Change Management: essentially non-existent. See "Communication" above. Lack of upward mobility or career advancement; if i'm not mistaken, all of the senior staff have been there for a long time and will likely be there for a longer time. This means positions are pretty much stagnant and any possibility of moving up/out are slim-to-none. On the other hand, you can develop your own skills in various tech while utilizing members of other teams as mentors - as i've said, co-workers make this a great place to work and they are always willing to help.
