Unfair pay - Significant overlaps in IC pay bands
Pros
Smart and interesting people to work with. That's what kept me here so long. The work itself is great too. Still a leading NZ tech company. Great WLB.
Cons
Pay. Yes Xero is unable to compete with many companies that poach employees (especially a problem since remote work started). However I want to specifically highlight unfair pay gaps **Within Xero**. 4 years ago I observed some senior (and lead) engineers earning less than mid-level engineers. I.e. some people were earning more than others 1-2 levels above them. Makes no sense! I asked my manager at the time about this, and was told the company struggled to increase the pay of existing employees. Especially those on older/larger teams. I naively thought this problem would resolve itself over time, especially with the increased focus on standardisation and new processes around employee retention. Unfortunately, it is still very much a problem. Not just between mid/senior/lead engs, but new grads now earn more than some associate/mid level engs (same 1-2 IC level difference). The root cause seems to be employees accepting minor bumps in pay or even promotions without a pay bump (i.e. title change only), while new hire offers have increased. Personally when I was promoted from mid to senior, management tried to gaslight me into accepting a salary below the senior minimum, by talking about the recent layoffs at the time. When the entire point of the layoffs was to increase retention budget.