LifeSize Reviews

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Interesting people to work with. Interesting products.

Cons – Company as a whole has been struggling ever since acquisition by Logitech

Advice to Senior Management – Keep doing what your doing

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize full-time for more than a year

Pros – great people, atmosphere, environment, culture, good benefits

Cons – people need to feel empowered to be strategic thinkers, need a more progressive sales model, need more creativity (let's think out-of-the-box)

Advice to Senior Management – Sales model needs revamping

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize

Pros – Some of the best reasons to work for LifeSize are the ones you desire most when looking at any company to work for: great benefits, competitive salaries, central location, and extra perks such as Profit Sharing or an Employee Share Purchase Plan. The company still maintains a "start up" culture offering things such as breakfast tacos and beverages/snacks in all the kitchens.

Cons – There have been some major changes the past few years. If you like to work for start up companies and the changes that come along with it, then you will be successful in your career.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize

Pros – Great energy
Innovative products
Team environment
Good work life balance
Strong managment structure

Cons – Office buildings outside of head office are not as well equipped

Advice to Senior Management – Lifesize has a tight and strong leadership team, that supports their employees. Despite the growth targets being high and the expectations of the employees just as high, the support for employee success is apparent throughout the leadership group.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize

Pros – Fast Growth, Profitable Company in an industry that's projected to grow to 5 Billion in the next 5 years
Offices for confidential HR positions.
Global/International Environment.
Fast Paced Environment
No red tape to get things done
Supportive
Friendly People!
Open Door environment.
Competitive compensation packages
Great brand name in Austin
Opportunities for growth

Cons – You need to be proactive. People will not tell you what to do or hand hold you to get things done or to advance your career. That could be a bad or a good thing, depending on your perspective. There have been some challenges, mostly on the operations side resulting from the integration with Logitech (nothing that comes as a surprise though and certainly something that is being tackled head on). I am a big proponent of rewarding top performers, and I think Lifesize could do a better job, overall of rewarding their top performers with stock options/restricted stock, bonuses, rewards etc. But overall, Lifesize compensates and treats all of their employees equally as top performers because for the most part, they hire all top performers. Taco Deli is served every Mon/Wed. I've been here for a year and they have not changed up the tacos they order. They are the same ones everyday. And also, there is a lot of unhealthy food in the snack cabinet - again good or bad, depending on your perspective. And on a final side note, sometimes the cleaning lady blocks the bathroom and I have to go to another floor to use the bathroom! If I'm bothered by tacos and access to the bathroom, I think we're doing alright :)

Advice to Senior Management – Think of innovative ways to reward and retain top performers. Most companies do a good job on this for salespeople but what about Finance, Operations, HR, etc? Foster more inter-department dialogue/conversations. Departments tend to get silo'd into their respective business units/functions. ie: Engineering has no idea what Marketing is doing or who the marketing people even are. Accounting doesn't know what Recruiting does. IT is typically left alone unless something breaks. Understanding Lifesize as a whole and how all the pieces fit together is very important, no matter what department you are in.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at LifeSize

Pros – LifeSize offers a good work/life balance with a competitive atmosphere, which encourages professional growth. The people at LifeSize are for the most part extremely competent and friendly, which makes the vibe in the office very enjoyable. Everyone has something to contribute to the team and something to learn from one another. Social and team building events within the company and with families are also routinely encouraged to strengthen work relationships and bonds.

Cons – Since merging with Logitech, LifeSize is growing at a fast rate. This has brought about changes a little too fast for employees' taste. Also, sometimes it feels like the two companies are a little disconnected between what each does. Nonetheless, it is nothing that will not be resolved given time.

Advice to Senior Management – For those who do not do so already, just to take the time to meet with each of the individuals in your group, no matter how high or low their status in the company. Understandably, time is an issue with the immense amount of meetings and engagements that upper management needs to attend, but sometimes weeks go by and it feels like no one has heard from you. Even a small appearance and acknowledgment can make a person feel recognized.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at LifeSize

Pros – This is great technology to work with. Before the acquisition this was a good place to work. Exciting growth and lot's of flexibility.

Cons – In all of my years of work I have never worked for such an unethical and brutal management structure. As the company grew past 100 employees and the need to make the growth targets set my Logitech it became a brutal place to work. 2010 was a brutal year at LifeSIze and there has been a steady exodus out of there in 2011.

Advice to Senior Management – I actually like Craig and in general he is a good manager. He has surrounded himself with people who do will do just about anything to their employees to attain their goals.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at LifeSize

Pros – Great Salary and benefits. Awesome office building. Pretty strong brand name and decent patents in place to protect future profits.

Cons – The only effective corporate communication occurs between the CxO's and their minions...and all they do is pass blame onto everyone not in a position of power.

Seems that the CxO's and VP's checked out mentally when the Logitech purchase occurred. Now they are more concerned with the latest additions to their McMansions then they are with treating their employees with respect and/or fixing the gaping holes in their corporate culture.

The sales and marketing teams are bleeding good/great employees as these employees realize the decent salaries LifeSize pays just aren't worth the managerial incompetence. Any manager who stands up for the "little guy" gets shunned by the middle-management hen-house, or simply fired.

All in all, this company is positioned so well within the market that it's no wonder Logitech coughed up $400M for it...alas the word is out that it's a terrible place to work in Austin, so I assume something drastic will happen before too long. ...and I am sure the CxO's will float softly down to earth in their golden parachutes!

Advice to Senior Management – Huge management shake-up is needed immediately.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at LifeSize

Pros – LifeSize treats employees very well, from a work/life balance standpoint. Many people in development work from home 50% of the time or more. People even have moved away from the office and continued work telecommuting. They practice what they preach. Pay is generally inline with industry. They are very understanding of sick time, maternity leave, and family related absences. If you have kids you are in good shape, LifeSize likes kids, babies and family.

The work place, a new office as of summer 2010, is very nice. HR makes sure people are taken care of. Most employees have an office or a decent private cube.

If you do a good job, and don't upset upper management, you can have a solid job here for a long time. Also, upper management is very loyal to long time employees.

Cons – Beyond adequate pay, and giving employees plenty of leeway in working from home, LifeSize leaves a lot to be desired. Young motivated people are immediately smothered by middle managers who aren't sure what to do with them. Often they quit within a year or less. The company suffers from very weak leadership in its upper ranks who, while grinning at everyone, provide no genuine direction, are wish-washy in decisions, and simply can't motivate the team. Many walk out at 5pm or earlier, while the rank and file work late. The best motivated teams are in Sales, the worst in Development, with Marketing (since they recently divided this department) , Manufacturing, and the rest sort of limping along..

If you are ambitious, young, and looking to make a name for yourself, this is simply not the place for you. There is no where to go... Those in middle and upper management have been there a long time, and are well entrenched. The Logitech acquisition has almost no effect on these ranks.

No one in the management team is the true leader. The highest managers are very amiable, and individually great people, but let their loyalty to long time employees get in the way of putting the right people in charge. This also finds its way into LifeSize products. LifeSize can't decide what it wants to be. Is it an enterprise video conference unit company, or an expensive Skype want to be. The company chases OEM deals, but then says it doesn't like OEMs, and so forth.

Unfortunately, over the last year, LifeSize has hired more and more second rate players. These employees, some now in upper management, are as concerned about the way they appear, as they are the performance of the company's products and sales. Those are tell-tell signs of big, slow company behavior. Most of these folks came from much larger, more bureaucratic companies so they naturally feel at home.

In short, this is a 400+ person company, which operates with the slow, political, management of a 5,000+ behemoth.

Advice to Senior Management – You need leadership badly. Get in front of employees and tell them what you believe in. Figure out your market and stick to it. In all honestly, I think LifeSize needs a refresh of upper management.

Former Employee – worked at LifeSize

Pros – Excellent engineering development team. Smart people dedicated to creating a great product.

A good life/work balance.

Cons – Several upper management fell into roles not earned who lacked the experience to competently lead or mentor.

They talk about it being a family like culture but they are known to backstab those that won't think like they do or fall into line and do as they say.

No room for career growth. Siloed teams who covet their own and don't always play well with others.

Advice to Senior Management – Walk the talk. Don't talk out of two sides of your mouth to your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend