Company that could be great, but is held down by lack of strategy and communication
Pros
1) Work life balance is phenomenal. Schedules are fairly flexible, very few people work more than 40 hours a week, and there's little at home or remote access, so when you leave, you're done. 2) Good people--I really enjoyed most of the people that I worked with. Most people are easy to get along with and are pretty good at what they do, when they are allowed to do their jobs. 3) Compensation is pretty fair. The company is firmly committed to paying "market rate", but most employees are brought in at fair market value.
Cons
1) Total lack of strategy. If there is a strategy, it isn't clearly communicated to anyone. The company changes directions and priorities constantly, which means there is very little planning, and also means projects are very rarely completed. The goal seems to be to bandage the network and applications, rather than making long term fixes. This leads to excessive downtime, and constant scrambling to fix things that cannot be fixed without a major overhaul. While the company preaches goals and accountability, at the individual level, there is no goal setting or followup, simply because no one knows 100% what they should be doing. A coherent strategy would certainly help with this. 2) Benefits are substandard. Medical and dental are okay, but not great. The 401k takes 7 years to fully vest, and the bonuses (for the few people that get it) are paid out over 3 years. 3) Executive leadership often motivates through fear. At corporate meetings, we are told to be thankful we have jobs and that if we don't do some specific thing, we will be fired. Several high level individuals have been fired, entire teams have been cut, simply because the executive leadership team doesn't seem to like them. There is very little positive motivation, which leads to a culture that is, at best, apathetic. People want to do their jobs, but they want to be trusted and valued. 4) Tools and Security: While this getting better, most people still don't have the tools to get their jobs done. We just barely got internet access in late 2014, and most everything seems to be blocked and doesn't work well. The tech teams are working on severely outdated versions of their platforms. The hyperbolic approach to security inhibits employee's abilities to get their jobs done and completely robs them of morale. This is a well known problem, and the leadership team believes that they are fixing it, but even with the changes that have been made, significant challenges still exist that are not acknowledged and will probably never be fixed.
