Webroot Software Reviews

Pros

-many great people to work with
-pay is better than similar jobs at other workplaces
-good benefits
-rewarding opportunities for personal growth for those who seek it
-some exciting projects to work on
-management shows appreciation for hard work, though more actions would be better
-since 2009 company policies and environment has improved significantly and continues to improve overall (keep this in mind when reading posts - look at the date)

Cons

-disharmony and lack of communication between teams can be discouraging
-management decisions often lack either transparency or show inadequate knowledge of lower level work needs or both
-while there is opportunity for promotion, it is often well after its due and they usually make you do all the duties of the promotion for no additional pay or recognition for a long time first

Advice to Senior Management

Overall I have enjoyed my time at Webroot and I think that most changes in the past year or so have been extremely positive. Most of the "cons" I described above are getting better. I am happy to continue to work here for as long as that keeps happening. That being said I want to express some continued concerns with the hopes management will see it.

***On a side note, I don't think that all the posts in here that people accuse upper-management or faking are faked. (I'm not naive enough to think that none are though...just not most.) As you would expect, this can be a site where people vent their anger and I can see why you would want to vent about some aspects, however there are absolutely positive experiences, especially in my experience those found in new employees. (Either because the company is getting better and they have not experienced the darker times or because they have not gotten in deep enough to see how jaded they should be - the jury is still out on that.)***

Management, many of your employees are expected to either do too much or be in too many varied roles. This lowers quality and morale. This causes good employees to seek work elsewhere, while bad employees are kept on unnoticed. As mentioned above, those who are gullible or desperate enough to stay on through this eventually get promoted (much too late) but this is not a good business system if you want the quality product and company experience you say you do.

Also, there are several employees who stand out for their terrible performance and everyone having to clean up after them for years. Then you hear lots of stories from middle management dealing with significantly bad workers causing a drain on resources and they are either not able to fire them or not able to replace them if fired. THIS IS A REALLY BAD POLICY! Why would you do this? Employees like this are detrimental on all levels and everyone else has to put up with them except you. Some have even asked me why they haven't been let go since they are so bad at their job. I can't figure out a possible reason for this action so don't bother giving me one. Just change it.

There are rumors that people who have performed well in their job but later left the company have been unable to get a good employer reference either due to politics or due to a policy that only HR can give references and HR was misinformed. This scares me if true. I hope it will not be true for me.

Pros

Salaries are good. Work/Life balance is good. Vacation time pretty good after two years with the company. Lower level managers are fairly laid back.

Cons

Since moving from Boulder things have really changed. No game room, no beer Fridays, no dogs - just another corporation at this point, nothing special at all. if you prefer to work at a job with a small company/startup feel where everyone pitches in when needed, then Webroot definitely isn't the place for you anymore.

Executive team appear to not know what is going on at lower levels. This is not surprising. They couldn't build their own next generation product - they had to get it through an acquisition. Executive and senior management simply lacked the vision and organizational talent to do it themselves, in spite of the fact that they had substantial talent working for them both in Colorado as well as California.

Acquisition has also been handled badly. Right hand does not know what left hand is doing, and this is apparently policy. Extreeme compartmentalization in terms of information sharing - at last all hands meeting CEO basically said it was never going to happen. It's so bad the senior guy in charge of QA can't even get enough information about their latest product to properly test it. Get comfortable in your rut, because you won't be moving out of it.

Lots of reorganization on US side. Lots of layoffs and those that aren't being laid off are leaving in droves - in the past two months they have laid off 8 development staff. They have said they will be reorganizing for the rest of the year, so 5 more have quit just in the last two weeks to avoid a similar fate. Zero job security on the engineering/technology side, even less morale.

Advice to Senior Management

If I thought they would listen I'd tell them in person. As it is, they are pretty much tone deaf. I'm actively looking for another job right now (along with virtually everyone else on the U.S. engineering/technology side), so what they do makes little difference to me at this point.

Pros

The people I worked with were great.
Vacation/pto and benefits were reasonabally good.

Cons

Engineering has been taken over by a company they acquired. Current employees have been shutout from development. Lots or reorganization taking place. It may be a better place to work in the future than right now but that remains to be seen.

Advice to Senior Management

Maybe fewer levels of management would be better. Long term planning seems to be an issue (moving into a big new space and then start reducing the number of people that work there).

Pros

Team I work with are great

Cons

Low Morale
Failing products
Overly US centric
Poor internal systems
Unrealistic targets

Pros

The few hardworking people that keep the place running.

Cons

Too many people planning that lack the ability to execute.

Advice to Senior Management

Hello... Is anyone there?

Pros

Company needs heroes and quickly to help it re-ignite the business. Comments about new products in the pipeline could change the company's fortunes making it an exciting place to be.

Cons

Top heavy company structure, more execs, managers and supervisors than workers adds its own challenges. Organization needs balance, staff need help.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to get closer to the action. Find the heroes and listen carefully to them even if you don't like what they have to say.

Pros

My co workers are friendly
Great marketing

Cons

-Constant worry of layoff looming after the next product release.
-Morale is at an all time low. (which is really saying something)
-Talented people have their resumes prepared and are actively looking. (or already gone)
-Employees supporting/selling products that haven't been updated in literally years.
-Constantly putting out fires.
-Management treats the staff as if there is no other companies hiring.
-Management trying to rally employees by placing huge signs everywhere. (Think an Office Space like:"Is this good for the company" sign but with misspellings. sucessful != successful)
-Senior exec staff further motivating employees by saying "You're either with us or against us!", perpetuating the abysmal atmosphere.
-Communication from Senior management is 99% self-congratulatory back patting.
-Management continues to show they have no clue who the employees are or what they are working on.
-Middle management is largely against the senior exec staff (we constantly get to hear about the senior execs horrible decisions and complete ineptitude)
-Every time the senior exec staff communicates to the company it is painfully obvious they are completely clueless on both what we are working on, and what the security industry is doing currently. It is as if the senior exec staff doesn't realize we are being forced to build old technology inside a vacuum because they are completely ignorant of our industry and our competitors.
-Senior exec staff has started a mass exodus. ( in the last 4 months Webroot has lost its CTO, CFO, SVP of Sales, VP of HR, and Chief Scientist/co-CTO to the "pursuit of other opportunities")
-The office in Broomfield has only gotten worse. The atmosphere is sterile, lifeless, empty cubes everywhere.
-No innovation.

Advice to Senior Management

Board of Directors: Ask the Senior Execs some hard questions on what our competitors have released and what they are working on to compete with them. Ask for detailed information beyond marketing bullet points and don't let the silence surprise you.
Senior Execs: Get your excuses ready, and prepare your parachutes.

Pros

There is some amazing talent working here.

Cons

Low Morale
Unsupportive Management giving no direction
Uncompetitive wages
Uncompetitive benefits
Failing products
'Threat' style of management
Overly US centric
Poor internal systems
Unrealistic targets

Advice to Senior Management

Stop: You congratulate yourselves continually. What about congratulating your employees?
Look: Does this look like a place oozing with high morale?
Listen: You will gain from listening to the workforce. There is a big barrier dividing you.

Contrary to your belief, there are lots of jobs out there and there are plenty of companies who know how to treat their staff. Happy staff equals positive results and positive results equal success. It isn't rocket science.

Pros

Good benefits, nice work environment, good people to work with are all part of why I enjoy working at Webroot Software. They also like to promote from within so there is opportunity for advancement.

Cons

Extremely competitive as expected from any corporate landscape, everyone is looking for that next promotion so there is always competition for any promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is doing a great job of making us feel as if our efforts are appreciated. There is always positive reinforcement whenever you've done a good job as well as nice perks associated with when the team does a good job.

Pros

Great group of dedicated employees

Cons

too many sr. mgmt changes resulting in terminations of experienced employees in favor of new hires buddies

Advice to Senior Management

stop throwing the babies out with the bath water.