Very long commute - "LA" office is in Thousand Oaks, 50+ minutes from the city. Only 110 employees so Google-style shuttle idea was rejected. Late night Ubers home are free but how do you get 40 miles back to work in the morning?
Fractional staffing at all levels can lead to stressful periods but is good practice for consulting.
No overlap with India time zones prevents weekday night freedom - calls start at 9 or 10 at night or 6 or 7 in the morning. Technology projects always have India teams, consulting projects are 50/50, so if a bunch of us are hanging out in the evening, at least one of us has to leave at 9:00. Apparently no solution to this other than delegating the call to a more junior person on your team.
Leadership can be capricious. Several recent mysterious departures at the principal and manger level too - lots of politics at that level? Poor performance?
ZS is generally conservative about promotions - generally a good thing to avoid promotions for those who don't deserve it but old fashioned for exceptional people performing better than many at higher levels. This appears to be changing in the LA office.
