Rackspace used to be a sought after place to work with tales of flexibility, career development, work-life balance, energizing culture, a company that treats its employees like family, and so much more. This was all true when I joined the company 5 years ago and now, that is ALL gone.
The company's number one priority is making money and there is no culture to speak of.
Pay- the party is the lowest in the market and industry and they used to say the benefits made up the difference. That was true for me and a lot of others until all that started changing.
Culture- First they took away funding that was used for team members. There used to be a budget for things like birthdays or promotion celebrations, team building activities, sending flowers to a Racker who may have been ill, lost a family member or recently had a new baby. That no longer exists nor does Rackspace care about any of these life events.
The company would also regularly host happy hours as a way to network across the very large business. Yes, they would include alcohol and sometimes was even on company grounds. That has since be completely stopped.
Then the castle used to be full of "fueling stations" where items like tea, coffee, soda and fruit were always available to help you through your work day. All around the castle there were maybe 8 stations and that has been reduced to one station with nothing but a kitchenette.
Now they have announced that there is no circumstance in which you will be allowed to work from home unless approved by the CEO himself. Good-bye flexibility.
The culture started dramatically changing when lay-offs became a regular thing and the mass hiring of ill-equipped sales people started. Sales people are not properly trained but will do anything to make a sale, especially lie and step on whoever they need to be able to over sell and under deliver. They don’t know their products and consistently set unrealistic expectations for customers. It's a serious problem for all who handle them after a deal has closed and we have to tell them what they paid for doesn’t actually exist. And accountability for those sales people??? Forget it.
The company is siloed and everyone is out for themselves. There is no unity, common goal or sense of belonging. There is no accountability. No follow through on development and no managers willing to go to bat for their people. It's all gone.
For customers a big selling point was 24/7 American based support. That also is no longer the case. The majority of support has been outsourced to India. (We’ve all been there trying to get support from someone not in the US and we all know how frustrating that is.)
For a company who wants to be considered a competitor with big tech, it clearly doesn't understand what might make them a desirable place to work.
Rackspace doesn’t put customers first. Rackspace doesn’t put their people first. Rackspace puts their walker first. Do yourself a favor and stay away.
