-Terrible work-life balance
-Zero sympathy for things that happen in life
-Managers who are good at delivering results to leadership but at the expense of individual contributors, and are terrible people leaders.
Make no mistake. People here DO NOT care for each other. The environment and the way work is tracked is incredibly inhuman. I spent years working with Jira and using the Agile methodology and it's the most dehumanizing method of work I've ever participated in. Your entire work existence is narrowed down to Jira points and throughput. My boss thought he was onto something when we would have multiple standups per week to go over delivering stories/epics and planning future ones. And then every month, a "look over" from the previous months work to basically grill employees with "Why did that take so long? How can we be more efficient? How can we automate?" and it is mentally EXHAUSTING. The idea is to continually keep innovating, automating, being more productive and efficient....but clearly no one will ever acknowledge that eventually you will hit a wall because that mindset is NOT sustainable or practical. You cannot squeeze blood from a stone.
Do managers care? Of course not. My manager was the saddest excuse of a "people leader" I've ever had the mis pleasure of working with. I went through some personal things and it reflected in my performance. When being proactive and bringing this up to my manager before he has to come to me about it, all I got was "I don't care when you work or how long you work, the work just needs to be done". Bravo, absolutely grade A work on empathy!
Managers will also set you up for failure and think they are sly about it. For several months, I was setup for failure because when I got to the year-end performance review, I was absolutely GRILLED on SOOO many things and got rated as "below expectations" and immediately got PIP'd. Absolute shocker to me, because I had some issues I agree with that, but no where near enough to get that rating and be PIP'd as well. Turns out, my manager was keeping notes on my work through the whole year and rather than be a real leader and provide feedback in REAL TIME so I can have time to improve, he kept it all to himself and blasted me during my performance review with it. If that isn't clear cut proof that I was intentionally being setup to fail or to make me quit, I don't know what is. I even made it clear "if you don't want me on this team, tell me now and let me leave with dignity". My manager couldn't even do that, gave me a wishy washy speech on how he wants me to be better, not leave. Yeah, ok sure buddy, and the earth is flat too I guess.
When initially joining this company, I ignored the negative reviews (it was a 2.4 at the time, and now its 3.1? 100% fake reviews are being done because things have only gotten worse) and told myself "oh those are from the business, IT isn't like that!" Turns out, IT is just as cut throat. Many people working incredibly ridiculous hours and no one cares. My boss could CLEARLY see my work being done very late in the night (past midnight...) and never have I ONCE been thanked or acknowledged. Understand that management just DOES NOT CARE, and if you hear anything else then you're being lied to.
Now lets talk about the new CEO and board. When Quentin become CEO is when things really started going downhill. A worse experience for the customers, layoffs, outsourcing, more stress and work being put on the on-shore team to make up for the terrible outsourcing decision...all in the name of the mighty dollar. Not just that, but he also brought in a bunch of his buddies from his previous company Dexcom as well, who are honestly clueless and are not qualified for the positions they currently hold.
This company took away years I will never get back, gave me many nights where my partner went to sleep alone and upset because I was WORKING on their seemingly endless supply of "urgent" deadlines. There was never space or time to breath. Oh and the kicker? Everyone on my team always worked overtime; it was just a given. Guess who didn't? My manager who always promptly logged off at 5 everyday, and if they did work a little overtime, they ALWAYS made a big deal about it and had to reference it multiple times. This company actively endorses sociopathic managers to squeeze everything they can from their employees, because on my team I am NOT the first person this has happened two. 3 other people that were on this team under the same manager were setup for failure and PIP'd and let go shortly afterwards. How does this pattern NOT raise any eyebrows with HR? Because they know, and they could care less.
In comparison to another company I worked for in the past, when I was going through some personal issues, you know what my boss did? Actually acted like a sympathetic human being. I was told, "How can I be of any help in what you're going through?" and I said that I just need you to be patient with me, this is a rough patch and I will heal from it and become better. Surprise surprise, know what happened because I had a solid foundation of support from my manager? I bounced back shortly after and THRIVED because I knew my manager cared about my success and my goals. And unfortunately life circumstances forced me to leave that and come work for this terrible company instead.
In this economy, if you get a job here and have no other option, take it. But ALWAYS be interviewing on the side. This place will wreck you mentally if you aren't careful. This job made me a workaholic and also started making me gaslight myself into thinking I'm a worthless person because I'm not working even LONGER hours. Now at my new job, I can't help but work after 5 and my partner comes to me and says, "why are you still working" to which I reply that I....have no idea. Overtime was so ingrained that its honestly very hard to stop. I'm currently in therapy for the damage this job did to me.
Can't wait for the canned and robotic response from the HR crony on here about "we care about our people, please reach out to us to discuss your concerns" blah blah blah.
