Mathematica reviews

First, let me reiterate the critique from another recent review: “retention has become a major issue - good people are leaving the company at a steady pace due to the lack of any semblance of work-life balance and limited opportunities for growth. Corporate leadership is aware of the issues but they ascribe to the “burn out and replace” management philosophy.” This comment was true to my experience. People in the international, health, and admin divisions (e.g., comms) are staffed well above 100% for months on end. Employees are expected to be available after they leave the office and on weekends to meet deadlines. The junior staff (B levels) do this work without appropriate compensation as they are encouraged by project directors to not report overtime worked. There is an idea that everyone at Mathematica is nice, and most are, but the energy of the office feels stressed out and antisocial due to everyone being stretched beyond their bandwidth. Almost no one takes a lunch break away from their desk. So good employees are leaving. They would rather have a work/life balance or at least be paid at market rate for their time and effort. Mathematica is a consulting company, but it doesn’t pay like one or recognize (and compensate) hours logged. Employees are only evaluated for promotions once per year and there is no meaningful bonus to speak of before the D level. Salaries are also not adjusted based on office location—this matters given our offices are in extremely expensive places. For C level staff and below, yearly raises are essentially the cost of inflation.

However, in my opinion, the leadership was a significant drawback. Management was disorganized, often unclear in their directives, and failed to provide a coherent, substantive vision, with actions that often misaligned with the vision they articulated at all-staff meetings. Communication from the top was also inconsistent, leaving employees uncertain about priorities. From my perspective, the recent layoffs, combined with significant senior staff departures over the past year, were handled poorly, with little transparency or empathy, which deeply eroded trust (in my view, based on conversations with colleagues across the company).