- The hours are longer than most companies (9-6). Employees are rarely fully engaged during these hours, instead, their most valuable working hours are sometimes a fraction of this. Giving employees more flexibility in terms of hours will help keep them engaged and focused. Hours spend at a desk at work do not necessarily equate to productive hours worked
- Paired programming is a double-edged sword: It’s useful in situations that require robust solutions and complex implementations. It helps with onboarding, training, and knowledge transfer. Pairing is usually not useful 50-80% of the time when the work does not require two minds. Pair programming 100% of the time is draining on the majority of engineers
- The interview process requires knowledge of processes which are only partially practiced by employees from the company, but expected from interviewees. However, employees are typically not hired for immediate platform skills, but for the potential to grow. This sometimes has consequences on colleagues with skill-set expectations for new employees
- Many engineers are under-utilized, others are under-qualified. This usually indicates a popularity contest or a broken interview process
- Some managers are not willing to openly receive feedback from their reports or escalate issues
- Transparency: Not quite what everyone thinks. There is no clear definition as to what is transparent, which creates confusions among employees
- Meritocracy: Great with the exception of people working overtime. If an employee works overtime, they should be paid back in a reasonable way