Pros
They have (or had) a ton of high-caliber talent, people that were inpsiring to work with, and work for. At one point the product vision was groundbreaking... like, four years ago. Too bad the previous CEO & top managers were so complacent that their only interest was maintaining the status quo and creating golden parachutes for their buddies.
Cons
Now that is all gone, and after mass layoffs, followed by a huge talent drain as even more employees have voluntarily left, the new joke is that we have one VP or Director level manager for every employee. New managers are seriously suspect of the employees that are already here, internal promotions are few and far between. We suspect that they are tied to whether their department head succeeds or not, despite the blood sweat and tears that we've all been pouring into this company for years. They are so desperate for new talent they are shipping them in from far and wide. Paying vast expenses for travel and relocation. All while existing employees have been expected to retrench for the past few years, and accepting salaries well below market value. There has been a wage freeze in effect since late 2008, 401k matching was cut at the same time, bonuses were cut in early 2010. Weekly lunches were cut, then the one monthly lunch was cut. Yet they fill the office with houseplants and bombard us with bogus powerpoint presentations that ring hollow in the face of total dysfunction from the top down. The new management that has been brought on to fix things, are acting like a pack of cornered wild animals. Out of their league, coming from much larger companies where they held more junior positions, they clearly have no idea how to manage people, inspire trust, and are frequently shooting from the hip in regards to their employees, to the point that HR and lawyers have to clean up after their messes. Some in top management are downright abusive, blustering, and nasty, throwing their own employees under the bus for non-business critical mistakes. It feels like amateur hour at Lyris, and the general feeling throughout the company is one of fear and mistrust.