Tone Deaf and Out of Touch Management; Stagnant Career
Pros
I worked in the San Jose site - Free Snacks - Flexible Work Schedule - Okay On Site Gym
Cons
Even 2 years ago, I would have sung praises about the company, but the current management has really taken the place on a sharp negative turn. Here goes. - Unlimited PTO (disguised way of not having to pay you for banked sick and vacation days) - No profit sharing with company growth - Tone deaf management There is very little career growth in the R&D Department. I had been there 6 and a half years and have seen only three promotions in my entire time there, one of them being my own through special circumstances. I see people who are hired into higher positions but VERY little internal growth, leading to valuable team members opting to leave. Management is as tone deaf as it gets, constantly bombarding you with emails about record growth and then giving you a raise that is 4x below national inflation. I have seen warehouse workers have to stay late nights away from families during holidays to finish a quarter strong, and they get nothing but the email equivalent of a high five, while corporate is counting their money and laughing all the way to the bank. Don't worry though, you will get a piece of paper that says "you made a real difference." That should pay your bills. The work done is niche and specific to the company's instruments, so you don't develop skills that are very attractive or applicable to other companies. This wouldn't be an issue if the company didn't have low wages since you could just spend your career there. My own personal story: I was promised a promotion "by the end of the year" in 2021, and then in December was corrected and it was meant "by the end of the fiscal year." This meant that it was actually delayed 9 months. Great choice of words. I quickly managed to secure an offer for a more senior position and a 25% pay bump at another company, but the company begged me to stay and offered me a 17% pay increase plus a promotion of one title (I was given an outside offer for a bump of two titles). Going against my better judgement, I decided to stay. Come performance review that August, I had received an above average review, and a few days later, amongst a flurry of "record growth" bragging emails, received an insulting 2.5% raise (inflation was 8-9% and the company growth was >16%). I had asked my director if there would be a salary adjustment, but was told there were no plans and any red flags I had put forward were ignored. To add insult to injury, the company was still hiring people into higher positions and my raise put me far below the offer I had in January of 2022 when I first wanted to leave. Two months later I had received not one, but TWO offers that were 20% and 24% above my current salary, respectively. Somehow my director still managed to be surprised that I was turning in my two weeks notice, even though I had inquired heavily about salary and possibility of upward mobility, and asked if the company could match the offer (they probably could, but I doubt they would have, nor would I have accepted, since I shouldn't have to go through these hoops to get a raise). If management had any sense, they would have given out decent raises in the first place instead of only offering to match with the threat of people quitting. I was a large part of multiple projects, including being the main and only operator of one of our more niche instruments, but I guess I wasn't important enough to be given a respectable salary or a wage that increases when the corporate profits do. CEO made over $15 million last year. If his salary was cut in half every employee would get a $3000 salary increase and he'd still be incredibly wealthy. Add many other executives and suddenly you have people being paid livable wages.
