- Poor work ethics. Managers encourage engineers to "do whatever it takes". If you are out of wafers or other supplies, you were encouraged to wait until coworkers leave and take their stock for yourself. If your experiments can't get finished overnight, you were also encouraged to come in after coworkers leave, and change their plans so you can get your own stuff done.
- Poor rewards for achievements. The disparity between upper / mid management and new hires is simply too great. The work hour vs reward is simply not there. The "salary" is great - but you are not exactly working 9-5 either.
- Review system. If you meet every single objective set out for you (no one ever does), the best score you can hopeful at your review is 3/5 - meeting expectations.
- Turn over rate. My team once suffered a 150% turnover rate in a year. These includes Ivy League engineers, MIT PhDs, etc. On a good year, more than half of the team turns over. The teams are constantly short peopled, and we are always training new people - but as soon as they are trained, someone else with experience quits.
- No upward mobility. The entire company has about 4 layers of management. They give you a lot of "titles" - "Lord of PM Engineers", or "Master of Wafers", but none of them is actually in managerial position, and you are really not entitled to any powers of telling people what to do. The best you can do is email the problem employee, cc their manager, cc your manager, and hope you make a noise.
