Pros

Hotwire is a good place to work if you want to chill out and not work hard. The hours are fair and you can arrive and leave pretty much when you want. Even more-so if you are a manager it seems. The company is still hiring which could be viewed as a positive to some. If you aspire to run for senate or governor you could learn a lot here with such a rich set of politics. Most people do not roll in until after 9 and after 6 its a ghost town so if you want fair hours it is very good as well. You do not have to innovate or push the envelope here so if you want to relax and coast you will like it.

Clem is a great new President. Eric was good but quiet. Clem really is energetic.

Cons

Innovation. There is not much. 4 or 5 years back there was a lot more and then innovation stopped. Working on a new 'agile' project has introduced more procedure then the already over whelming amount of procedure. The economy is down yet we are still hiring even though half the employees seem to surf the web all day. There is not much innovation. Apparently we have a lab here for innovation and I just found out about it recently. Thus bad communication. They promote 'family' values however working a day a week at home was not allowed for me. However, some managers seem to work at home at-will. What a double standard. They will also make 'rules' for you if you want to work at home. For example if you live say 45 miles away you can work at home. But if you live in daily city and it takes you 1 hour to commute here you can not. There is very little collaboration here. Very waterfall in all aspects and very risk adverse. It seems the less you do the more you get rewarded. If you go the extra mile and screw up a small something you will get scolded instead of a 'good job'. The pay is below industry standard and even in this 'down economy' you could get better pay and probably work at home privileges. Also some depts let people work at home and some do not. What a double standard.

If you read all these other people saying things like 'startup' or 'nimble' or 'scrappy' do not even believe it. There is nothing startup here at all. Its one step below a huge corporate machine.

GLASS CEILING - Very hard to promote. Unless they create a position for you.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication.
More flexible work hours, let people work at home if they perform.
Put emphasis on what people do and not if there are in the office 9-5.
Reward those that work hard, say thanks one a year to somebody.
Use this economy to have a RIF and get rid of all the slackers and middle managers.
Try to innovate.