If you’re like me, you read reviews like this and take it with a grain of salt and you should. I welcome you to experience it for yourself and come back here to provide an update.
Looking back at 2/3 of the other Advanced Thin Films reviews, I 100% concur. I read them before I applied and brushed them off as possibly bitter/upset employees, but they truly begin to describe the environment at ATF. I’ve never had an experience like this in my ~10 years of professional working history, so I want to share some helpful information.
The only mildly positive things I can mention, based on feedback from others here who have optics experience outside of ATF, is that there are optics facilities with much worse working environments. I honestly can’t imagine that.
MANAGEMENT: It became clear very quickly that the main managers have taken the easy route for management styles and opted for Extreme Micromanagement. It’s implemented at a level that I have never seen before and it speaks to their inability to let go of handling everything, potentially losing their ability to feel like they are constantly saving the day. What's more, they exacerbate the issue by trying to mold others to be the same way. Although it is not a problem in and of itself, the great majority of “leaders” here have only worked within these walls, so they really aren’t aware of what’s out there in regards to the most efficient/effective methods for handling things, in general.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “We want you to ask the stupid questions”. They don’t actually mean this. If you have had any fruitful work experience, outside of optics, the quantity of “stupid questions” you can come up with becomes overwhelming, fast. You will likely receive defensive feedback, leaving you confused and wondering why they keep repeating the statement above. This speaks to the boat rocking one of the other reviews mentions. If you are ok with becoming a pariah for speaking up, proceed. Just ask around about the people who have done this for the sake of improving and where they are now. (Those people were not part of club untouchables)
Communication is horrible and accountability is just not there. One of the top managers appears to be the ring leader micromanager and has clearly formed a team of “Untouchables”. The manager comes off as being very egotistical, appearing to be threatened by driven individuals who could do big things that weren’t this manager’s idea. They're seemingly trying to continue to be the “one” with the greatest of all ideas instead of staying in their lane and letting others contribute to real success for the company.
UNCLEAR ROLES: Looking back on my job description, I find many common requirements that align with typical large companies. Many of the items listed are things that aren’t, and have never been, incorporated within this facility which leads me to believe they just copy/paste skills from job postings at bigger companies. I have brought this point up about role clarity, but it was clearly not an issue to anyone else.
One of the managers is not on-site and continues to take on nearly every role simultaneously, a very micromanager approach. Since they cannot physically perform all of their assumed duties, they pawn mundane tasks off on others. One of these self-inflicted roles is playing remote Shop/Production Manager. Anyone with actual manufacturing experience knows that this simply doesn’t work (well) for production. Many of these tasks would be handled most efficiently by an actual (local) shop supervisor, but why hire one of those when you can just make overburdened employees take on pieces of the role? I learned a completely 180 degree version of “wearing many hats” here. Performing various roles is by no means uncommon, but doing so because a company refuses to hire the right people and partition duties appropriately is just preposterous.
MEETING CULTURE: I can’t begin to describe the amount of daily all-hands meetings that occur. This likely plays into the micromanaging style some more, having everyone be involved in everything, always. These can easily take up nearly half a day, but random chunks of time, leaving employees involved without time for critical concentration.
EMPLOYEE MORALE: It doesn’t take long to figure out how employees feel. The defeat is ubiquitous. I think there is fear in completing the annual employee survey, mentioned in another review, but there shouldn’t be. To the point of one of the other ATF reviews, many have just given up on speaking up. I get it, especially if you just feel nothing will ever change, but I fully believe employees should have a voice without becoming an outcast.
