Comparatively low pay, no career progression, conflicting messaging
Pros
Honestly, the benefits are great, even though some of the nicer add-ons have been eliminated when moving to a remote-first world. Health care is pretty top-notch, with low out-of-pocket costs. Mental health costs are covered pretty well. It's clear that the company really is betting that people stay only for the benefits. Work-life balance for most teams is amazing. There is no pressure for certain schedules, we have "unlimited" PTO that isn't really tracked, and that relieves a lot of stress. Corporate financial transparency is unlike any I've ever seen (in a positive note) and it's good to hear how we're doing financially. Very unlikely to ever see layoffs, in my opinion. DEI culture is better than the bare-minimum, and seems important to leadership to a point.
Cons
Goal-setting with managers is very hit or miss, and performance reviews are just for show. Then, after years of "high contributor" ratings and 2% raises, people wonder where their progression is. There are very few formal roles defined, and absolutely no role progression metrics for anything (at least in tech). People will work here for a few years and become increasingly frustrated that they can't get more than 1-2% raises. As mentioned in the "pros" section, layoffs are very unlikely due to the corporate culture. But it's clear that people are just languishing in-place because there is no way to progress. I'm not sure if that's better or worse for morale than layoffs. As far as I can tell, they pay below market rate for a lot of roles and dance around any acknowledgement of that. The main point that is always brought up is "the benefits here are what keep people here". Their benefits package IS good, but it is not that unique any more. Plenty of other companies do the same thing. In terms of messaging: There is a lot of talk about what behaviors make a good and successful employee. A lot of that is centered around collaboration and moving the team forward, but when it comes to career progression, managers will tell you that the only thing that matters is your name on big individual projects.