Not what it used to be
Pros
-Commitment to training programs (though still needs some work). -Great culture. -Amazing wealth of talent and teammates/co-workers who really care and are generally pleasant to work with (for the most part). -The few managers that actually care. -Some good perks like a slide and a coffee shop in the San Antonio office. -Food trucks/vendors, arcades, and ping pong tables in both San Antonio and Austin offices. -Pretty decent benefits.
Cons
-Managers either have absolutely no clue what is going on and how to do their jobs or they are so hand-tied by their bosses that it makes them look incompetent. Probably a bit of both. -Compensation is considered a running joke throughout the office and merit raises are non-existent. If you want a raise, you have to either transfer to a different department or get promoted. The promotion process is the most ridiculous thing you'll ever deal with. First you have to get a bunch of certifications that have nothing to do with your job. Then you have to take a written test with some ridiculous off the wall questions and scenarios that maybe has been seen one time in the history of the company. If you get that far, you get to go through a peer interview process where you are subject to bias and the buddy system. Good luck with all of that. -Most managers will not listen to anything you have to say about broken processes or ideas that you think could help the team or the company. -Career paths are never considered. Basically you level up a couple of times and then stay in that spot forever with no possibility of a raise. Or you can try transferring out to a different department which could take 6-9 months in some cases. Or you can get promoted to a Manager role. The great thing is once you become a manager, you get absolutely no manager training! Also you have to answer to your managers and their ridiculous goals and metrics. -Co-workers cannot drive or park in a parking lot without dinging and hitting cars. Nearly get ran over in the parking lot daily. -Transparency used to be a Pro but it is completely gone over the past few years. -No direction from senior leadership. It seems like every 6 months we have to completely change our mission and do a completely organization restructuring. -Leadership seems to think that a great culture should be able to overcome being severely underpaid and overworked. -There seems to be a manager for every 3 or 4 workers. Massive middle management bloat. It is so obvious to everyone in the company and yet they do nothing about it. -Incompetent workers that have long tenure are allowed to stay incompetent by their managers and are even encouraged by them! These people are poison to the company!! -Meanwhile hard workers that have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the company are berated by managers and asked to work even harder! -Headcount is a huge problem right now. Managers do not backfill positions in a timely manner so the ones that have stuck around through the hard times are doing double or triple the work for the same pay. -If you ever complain about the problems on your team and with headcount, they tell you to stop whining and get back to work. -Rackspace has become a call center mentality. Always focused on numbers and metrics. This type of customer service does not lend itself well to metrics. As long as you are doing right by the customer, who cares!!!
