Where to start?
Communication issues on everything, people not replying to emails, parts breaking down two days after installation, replacement part takes 5 weeks to come in and then breaks down five days later or even ships broken, customers routinely burning through half their first year warranty waiting for parts to be fixed and replaced. Even the most basic parts are kept in Germany so replacement takes forever. No talent retention, the whole company hinges on a handful of "go to" people. Poor workload allocation. One guy does the work of 5 people while 4 others sit around collecting a paycheck because they aren't properly trained. The training is (although a nice effort) completely useless. Surviving the first year is predicated on building this network of people in Switzerland and Germany and the US that just know about that 'one thing' so that when it breaks on you you have someone to go to. What happens when 'that guy' retires? or gets laid off?
There goes 20 years of knowledge on all the things related to that piece of hardware. Upper management has its head in the clouds, glued to the share price and quarterly report. Random layoffs of employees with 10+ years experience without any warning (I mean literally they came in on Monday after having worked for the company for 23 years and were told they had no job and to clean out their desk), then a calm 'not going to do it again' from management before another one bites the dust six months later. Acquisitions that lost a bunch of money and led to the layoff of hundreds of people. Poor benefits and no incentive to stay with the company after 1-3 years. No standard procedures on anything, one customer needs help so we help them, the next one needs something so we charge them money first, part is broken so we send it to our regional office, next time to Germany, next time to a different office, blind leading the blind.
