It's all a cover up - Anonymous employee Fast Enterprises Employee Review

In regard to benefits: We agree. There are other careers and companies in other industries that provide more. However, compared to competitors in our industry, we believe we are more than “on par” in this regard. Employees who’ve worked at other companies, industry research, and our own experience indicate that our benefits are not as commonplace as you suggest. A few notable benefits: Zero-cost health, dental and vision insurance for employees and families Annual all-expense-paid retreat for employees and families in addition to the standard paid vacation One-month paid sabbatical every four years Inclusion of families at most company events, generally once a month. In regard to overtime: Leaders work not only the smartest, but also the hardest. FAST is the leader in this industry. We hope that FASTies are proud to be part of something special and recognize that their hard work helps keep us on this path. Someone for whom a 40-hr week and 100% predictability are the priority may not be a good fit for Fast. That said, we recognize work/life balance is important to sustaining our success. One way to improve work/life balance is to increase the size of our team to meet the growing demand for our products and services. To this end, FAST continues to recruit aggressively. However, it does take time to cultivate people and expertise while ensuring that our quality of our work, methodology, and culture are preserved. As we grow, we do as much as we can to help employees balance their work/personal lives. E.g., we communicate project schedules so employees can better plan “R&R” around project peak times. FAST works with project managers and supervisors to more evenly distribute workloads throughout the project life cycle. FAST has been conducting more “Project Management Sessions” at HQ to give managers another forum to share ideas and experiences. Fast partners are actively involved in balancing workloads across projects. In regard to “micromanagement”: It is a delicate balance to provide guidance for employees who desire or need it without “micromanaging”. Generally, we believe that autonomy comes with trust, and trust comes with performance. We heard this feedback and did our best with reviewers’ “clues” to deduce which offices were the subject of that feedback. We then provided guidance to supervisors and supervisees. It is unclear whether your experience precedes or follows these actions. In regard to bonuses: Salary adjustments are based on performance. Bonuses are based on performance above and beyond expectations. As employees progress within the company, they gain experience, get better at their jobs, increase their contribution. Salaries increase to reflect that added value, but so do expectations. The bonus reflects exceptional performance beyond those evolving expectations. In regard to reviews: Our review process includes quarterly “check-ins” for all employees, an annual review process, and ways for employees to offer supervisor feedback . Reviews and feedback outside of these set times happens on a daily basis, by supervisors offering it and by supervisees actively seeking it out. We ask that supervisors offer regular feedback and at the same time, encourage employees to take initiative and ask for feedback if they feel they need more than they’re getting. We appreciate that there is always room for improvement, but your comment is vague and difficult to translate into action. In regard to ‘work from home’: We don’t believe that working in isolation is effective in our line of work. Clients often remark that a differentiating and critical factor in our success is the high level of collaboration we achieve between ourselves and with our clients. Enhanced communication, mutual understanding, problem-solving, camaraderie—these are all engendered by being together. Furthermore, the viability of telecommuting also depends on the nature of the work. It is not universally true that every job can be performed effectively by someone working from home. Most Fasties who’ve worked on a client site would attest that their jobs are already challenging, and working remotely would impede communication and increase the risk to success. In government IT, you need only look at failed projects that tried to outsource work to people working overseas to know this approach is fraught with risk. In regard to “drink culture”: FASTies have many different interests. This week we shared photos of Fasties participating in our wellness challenge, sledding in the sand dunes, and hosting a spring pot-luck brunch. While FASTies may find some events more interesting than others, the point is most folks participate and the focus is not on promoting a “drinking culture”. Some may like to have a drink during or after events and FAST respects that personal choice as long as folks are responsible. We welcome any constructive conversations with current and former Fasties with a genuine interest in improving the “Fast experience”.