Lionbridge – “Not As Good As You Might Think”

Pros

Lionbridge gets contracts. They provide testing services to many companies: HP, Belkin, Palm, and many others. They are always hiring.

Cons

Lionbridge gets contracts because they can undercut the competition. They can do this because they pay their employees next to nothing. Test engineers are paid very little, and, since most of them are flex employees (no benefits, no job security), they simply lay off a few when their margins need to look good. Career employees aren't treated any better. Lionbridge is one of those companies that thinks that "salary" means "we can screw you over any way we want and you have to take it". Simply, Lionbridge thinks of their employees as nothing more than commodities.

Added to this wonderful corporate attitude is the quality of Lionbridge management. Most managers have little managerial training and take their cues from the other, poorly trained managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit treating your people like chattel. Sure, in a bad economy people are desperate. They'll take the crap you shovel to them and ask for more. You can lay people off and then expect to rehire them whenever you feel like it because chances are they won't have found a job. However, when the economy turns up, people will abandon you in droves and you won't be able to keep contracts.