A big mixed bag of good and bad, not much different from other Silicon Valley companies
Pros
Lots smart people want to do the right things. Company continues to grow rapidly, both in revenue and headcount. Excellent training ground for newbies and recent grads. Too much free food, from daily breakfasts at 8:30, lots "working" lunch meetings serving sandwiches and bento boxes, and decent nightly takeout dinner boxes from respectable eateries. If you show up on Saturday, free Chinese lunch 12:30.
Cons
Drawback of a family environment is your bosses wanting to get into every gritty detail of your work and personal life. Remind me of the annual Christmas ritual with one particular grand uncle asking me about my salary, children's education, property value and even sex life when he was too drunk. Career advancement is nil. Seniority, which is often associated with age and years of service, dominates the landscape. It helps even more if you are one of CEO's special person. Productivity and performance is often associated with long work hours. 9 to 9 is quite common in Engineering and Production. Directors and above in all departments are expected to set examples of dedication to their underlings. CEO takes a personal interest to know who is working late, or people working late try to show their faces to CEO, or a combination of both. Resistance to change is a tough nut to crack. Supermicro has been highly successful based on the existing management approach and recipe. It is human nature resisting changes. Aint Broken, Dont Fix It. Yet, this current management regime is experiencing difficulties. It only gets tougher down the road.