Got hired into a department that was dissolved two weeks after I began. I was given an ultimatum to either join the solar sales team or find employment elsewhere. Two weeks into solar sales we were told that our sales team would be dissolved by the end of the year, and so we had to start looking at different career opportunities. Spent the remaining three months watching the team get managed out of the business.
In my time with the company I saw:
-Employees get put on TWO WEEK Performance Improvement Plans after falling short of their ramp-up targets. These employees were promptly fired at the end of their ten day PIP. In my opinion, two weeks is hardly enough time to deliver sales results in an industry that has an average sales cycle of about 10 days.
-Women colleagues were asked to explain to team managers in writing about how they would compete in a "male dominated profession"
-Three separate departments where dissolved and many of their team members quietly laid off without any sort of discussion about the business justification for these decisions.
A word of advice to anyone considering working at SolarCity: Management preaches about their undying commitment to save the planet with solar. However, as a publicly traded company, management is beholden to one thing only: Delivering a profit to share holders. They have not turned a profit yet, and will continue to make cost cutting maneuvers until they can get out of the red. Ultimately, there is no end in site for the business volatility, menial pay, and aggressive management techniques. If you are 100% committed to selling solar, do it with a company that will justly compensate you for your time and commitment.