Novellus Employee Review

I have been working at Novellus

Pros – Compressed work week is great.
For not having a degree, the pay is not bad.
Medical benefits are pretty good.
Profit sharing is nice when it happens.

Cons – Multiple medical insurance cost increases over the last few years. Elimination of HMO option.
Stock purchase plan was cut a few years ago.
Car allowance was cut a couple of years ago.
Slow to promote and give raises.

Because of the above items, after 7 years with the company, my take home pay is now less than it was when I started. Then factor in inflation, the cost of gas, etc and I'm worse off than when I started with the company...

Advice to Senior Management – Spend a few extra dollars to take care of your employees - And I mean more than a lame team activity once a quarter, or pizza at company meetings, those don't carry much weight with us. We know you have plenty of cash in the bank and it wouldn't take much to make us happy. We see how many stock options the senior management get and how much they sell them for - and that only serves to anger us further.

I don't know about other departments, but Field Service is on the verge of revolt, moral is in the dump and you can bet that as soon as the economy picks up, many of us will be moving on to other companies. Some of us are actively looking right now and have promising leads...

Bring back the car allowance and stock purchase plan - some of your competitors still offer them and it would go a long way toward bridging the gap that has been created.

Give out some promotions and raises of more than 1 - 2 % every other year.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend