Pros
• Stable job, can show up and get paid • There's some genuinely good coworkers that keep the work environment fun • Offers remote positions, minimal return-to-office pressure (though it's still there sometimes) • Company will likely be successful over the long haul
Cons
• Compensation is only ~60-75% of what other companies offer across most departments (USA). Ex-Support Engineers I've spoken with are consistently getting 20-40% pay bumps just by quitting. • Declining focus on employee training over the years • Career paths are non-existent, with internal promotions often given via back-channeled methods instead of those following the established training/paths (this has happened 4-5 times in Support alone over multiple years). The only way to get ahead is to change teams or quit and hope for a better job at a different company. • Support management has historically threatened to withhold promotions from individuals who have criticized upper management (this has happened at least twice in 2021 alone) • Lots of systemic issues with allowing problematic white male coworkers to continuously behave in detrimental manners to their team without reprimand, and those affected are told they're the ones who need to "cope" with the issue instead of addressing the one causing it (this has happened 3-4 times over four years in Support alone) • During the pandemic WPEngine *increased* working hours and *decreased* break times despite a six-month employee-lead pushback against this from working parents and caretakers with direct communication with department heads and the CEO, Heather Brunner • Company talks a big game about getting "Workplace of Choice" awards, but consistently places last in its categories with decreasing metrics year over year for employee engagement 1-8% annually • Management is very tone-deaf on most topics, the company once hit a large annual revenue goal and they spent 0.8% of *one month's* revenue in gift cards to give to employees, none of which were usable if you lived outside the USA. • Feedback is given to management and C-Suite constantly, but is rarely acted upon, often met with "thanks for brining this to my attention, I wasn't aware" followed by no changes or follow-up conversations. • Recently has begun implementing design dark patterns to increase customer retention, creating more cost to their customers and a negative experience in order to skew churn numbers.
