Pros
Brilliant CEO who has carefully created and articulated an inspiring mission and vision for the company. Intelligent and talented people abound – it’s not difficult to surround yourself with smart people who care. The holy grail is to find these people and stay highly motivated and engaged by being in their company and not becoming jaded by the negative forces that drag down even the best people. Decent benefits.
Kontras
Work-life balance is discussed at the corporate level as being a priority (typical HR “obligation”). In practice, it does not exist much, unless you happen to work for a highly tiered organization that is top heavy director level or above (and you’re the director or above), and there are lower level individual contributors performing all the tasks. Poor management, rampant nepotism at the middle management level. Micromanagement by the ranking officer of certain functions, down to dictating the fate of each individual contributor. How does an executive even have the time? Or more importantly, why? Why not focus on what to do to slow down the quarter over quarter turnover rate? Why not let people do the jobs they are hired to do rather than insecurely obsessing over micromanaging the responsibilities that are held by direct reports, and incessantly criticizing individual contributor-level execution? Why not recognize, value, and retain good talent? Too many spineless, delusional middle managers lacking integrity yet expressing fear of this tyrannical environment and rolling over, perpetuating an environment that lacks trust. It looks nice & shiny on the outside, but smells bad on the inside. Two-faced management. No people development, but certainly a good heaping of oppression and suppression. Typical diversity talk at the corporate level, no follow through. Cookie cutter demographic characteristics – if you fit the characteristics and the profiling targets, you’re likely a shoe-in to fit the story line. Knowledge or experience does not get one promoted or retained. 401K annual contribution of $1500 is a joke. Although the employee stock plan is a good benefit, not every employee has the ability to take advantage of the opportunity to buy stock. The company assumes since the stock has performed so well, that having a 401K is peanuts, and therefore places a low priority on providing a meaningful retirement contribution. Stop the elitist mentality! Not everyone has the means to trade stock to make bank and buy an Audi and Tesla SUV, or whatever is the flavour of the day, while being less concerned about retirement planning.