Xyratex reviews

1) The SI Fremont management is terrible; its the worst I've ever worked for, period. 2) Project planning is terrible and a known issue that the Xyratex SI - Fremont management continues to ignore. In my tenure with the company, I never saw a project, regardless of size, completed within 9 months. However, every project is allocated 4 months, and in reality most take 9, 12, or 15 months to complete due to a complete lack of vision and direction by management. 3) Excessive overtime is expected or out right demanded without consideration for the personal life of the employee (FYI: many on the development team worked 3 to 4 man-months of uncompensated overtime in 2010). 4) With only two or three customers left in the magnetic storage industry, the business cycles for Xyratex SI Fremont have significant peaks and valleys. Hence, job security is non-existent unless you follow managements orders for overtime, spur of the moment international travel, and doing "whatever it takes" to stay in the graces of middle to upper management. 5) Fear and bullying are the common methods used by management toward employees. 6) Vacation is difficult to use because of overtime, excessive work loads, and consistent stream blazing wildfires. Laptops and cell phones are given to employees while on vacation. Nice vacation, huh? 7) Executive management seems to direct by immediate business performance and its impact on short term stock price performance.

There appears to have been significant cronyism going on at senior management level in the last couple of years within the SI Division, leading to the Division following a strategy that is not appropriate for the industry in which SI operates, as the senior staff team now has insufficient HDD industry experience or knowledge (those with experience and who disagreed with the strategy get removed). The Division now operates with significantly higher numbers of VP's, Snr Directors & Directors than ever before, yet the revenue is less than 2006 ($385m then, $343m in 2010)