I’m generally not one to complain or dwell on issues, but this company really needs to treat its people better. During my tenure, I saw a lot of negative changes, especially since the acquisition and things became more corporate and regulated. Sure, the benefit packages are nice, and the “unlimited PTO” is alluring, but when your day to day is nothing but a Groundhog Day-style hell, they don’t carry a lot of weight.
1. Unlimited PTO. Unlimited PTO is scam, not just at this company, but at any tech company you will work for as it puts the decision on the amount of time to take off on the worker and not on a legal agreement. And here, it is especially hard to use given the approval chain involved. You must inform at least 2 people per project of your plans a month in advance and get their written approval before you even ask your manager. I understand this is in place to make sure projects don’t stagnate, but it can be quite a challenge a. finding a time that works for each project you’re on (usually 2-3 at a time) and b. preparing to ask X amount of people if you can even take a day off. I found it extremely hard to find PTO time and thus, became burnt out quite quickly. And that’s not factoring in the pandemic as an additional challenge or how taking PTO impacts your bonus. I think management rubbed this in even further by introducing mental health days…that you had to notify your teams about two weeks in advance.
2. Workload. The workload, like at most consultancies, fluctuates depending on the time of year. Sometimes, I’d be swamped working late into the early AM trying to complete deliverables and other times I’d be twiddling my thumbs trying to be as productive as possible. This ties into the bonus structure being unattainable unless you are fully staffed, which was a rarity for me.
3. Culture. To be honest, it felt very cult-like and fake and the communication from leadership could be improved. The culture was preached, not practiced, especially by lower management. Communication from management is usually delayed and you hear more through the grape vine.
4. Work-Life Balance. I never found it here and no one in management demonstrates this being important. At times, it felt like if you only worked 40 hours and your billables were low, you were looked down upon. Some people in management willingly work 50+ hour weeks, so it shows to the people working below them that is the norm and expected of you. I certainly felt pressured to work longer hours, especially working from home given there’s no clear, physical divide like there is with an office job.
5. Feedback. This might seem silly, but not receiving feedback was challenging. Under my first manager, this was a big issue for me. I was told on one of the first days working that I would never meet their expectations for our group. And through out my tenure, I only received feedback a handful of times. When you aren’t encouraged to do your job or at least have touchpoints on how you’re doing, it becomes challenging to perform at all, let alone well. Part of the culture is providing feedback to teammates weekly, but this rarely happened on the technical team.
6. Management. I didn’t feel supported by management to be successful and sometimes felt like my career progress was put on the back burner.
Overall, this company has some serious growing and acquisition pains. When I was hired, I was sold on a company that “cared” about me. I have had to learn the hard way that companies don’t care about the people they hire, but the money those people can make them. When I left, I felt so relieved to escape. This place used to be better at pretending like they cared about their employees, now they don’t hide it.
