XKL reviews

Company has no plan or vision. Supposedly wants to be profitable, but current policies and management preclude that. Widely believed by employees to be a hobby or tax shelter. Company's products appear not to be commercially viable, have good optical networking design but mandated ancient technology. Endless problems working around things abandoned literally decades ago by everyone else, and trying to reach performance of $5 SOC's. No resume benefit here. Very high degree of nepotism. Saying anything to the wrong minion and get instantly reported to top management. And, it doesn't even have to be true if a family member says it. Family members don't get hired because they can do their jobs, either. Fundamentally dishonest culture. True believers are referred to as "Kool Aid drinkers" by the rest. Non-Kool Aid drinkers get fired for pointing out problems or trying to fix them. Engineers are constantly being fired for no reason or faked reasons. Entire engineering team was mass fired a few years ago, so being here is dangerous to your reputation. Engineering is not popular or respected. Management has -zero- knowledge of or interest in the software that makes their product work.

Just as many reviews before this have echoed, there is a huge problem with nepotism at this company which extends to the top of the ladder. These really are the only people that get perks. During my time at the company, there were easily double digit numbers of contractors hired and fired and the problem was almost never the contractors. Several of them were scolded or even yelled at for various reasons in front of other employees. Everyone not in the inner circle is viewed as an expendable and easily replaceable even though the technology is so obscure and niche it takes years to understand. Most product decisions are guided by the CEOs wishes even when all technical staff agree otherwise. The company tries to promote itself as a startup, but unlike most startups that don't make money this one somehow keeps lurching along. There have been waves of layoffs and firings even among technical staff. These were unwarranted but justified because upper management heard there were some people looking for other opportunities. People are unhappy at XKL because of the Big Brother atmosphere and constant reminder that nobody is trusted whatsoever. Threatening emails sent to the entire staff make certain nobody forgets it. Salaries significantly lag behind most other Seattle based companies and don't even begin to approach the averages. There is a paranoia for intellectual property security at this company which means no employee is trusted using any storage websites or even using a flash drive at their desk. This extends to any cloud based technological tools as well. Want to utilize the WiFi to save on your data plan while at work? Think again that's a security threat. The extent that the company guidelines are written to protect the company against its own staff is bewildering. Accomplishments are rarely recognized, but management is quick to point out failures.