To paraphrase the president of the company, "There is no business case for people making over $50 per hour here". This is in reference to hard pay caps being instituted at $50/hr for the vast majority of engineers at the company. Pay reviews are erratic; engineers have not seen a raise in nearly three years, not even cost of living which the president says isn't his problem. Criteria for evaluations are just as unpredictable and capricious.
Most engineers will start between $24-$28/hr, followed by a relatively dependable raise review after one year of employment. After that it is anyone's guess. Profit share bonuses used to be paid out yearly and were quite generous, giving newer engineers something to look forward to. In the past years no bonuses were paid out. Company president has not signaled that these bonuses will return, many suspect if they do they will be much lower. While not explicitly stated, profit share was an implied component of compensation which may have justified the low starting and continuing pay. With that going away and the refusal to pay fair market salary to employees there is little incentive to work here.
The general workplace can be quite toxic, the company president and some of the key managers and engineers can be outright hostile and very unpredictable. There is little overall direction for the company. Training and mentoring has gotten a tad better but most new engineers are still thrown into the deep end and expected to swim with the sharks. This is further exacerbated by the lack of structure to the company, it is extremely flat with no ability to move up the ranks.
There is also a good amount of controversy around the company and particularly its president, especially with regards to hiring practices. Do a search for news articles.
