Pros

Large and growing market
Strong, compact, complementary product porftolio
Strong global band - although only around web filtering
Large customer base

Cons

Top heavy compensation (2 additional levels of VP added in sales in last 2 years with flat growth, why do they need a president and a COO each at north of $500k per year total comp)
Rampant Politics
Micromanagement at officer level (even relatively minor decisions must be approved at highest level by only 2 people)
Flaky executive recruitment has resulted in repeated hires and fires at VP level
Uncompetitive compensation below executive level
Low employee morale
Weak sales execution
Now competing against huge cmopmetitors, no longer big player in market, risk of being squeezed out competely over long term

Advice to Senior Management

If you're going to cut costs, thin out the spend at the officer/SVP level. Remove the Gene/JMac stranglehold over decisionmaking and start to delegate. Increase positive communication and recognition of employees.

Pros

Great space to be in
Good technololgy - when it works
Fantastic parties/kick-off
Some good people left - but not many

Cons

Management takes zero responsibilites for thier own actions
Lot's of backstabbing and politics
You never know where the next bullet is coming from
Not much work life balance

Advice to Senior Management

Please fire yourself upon the next RIF and save the company some money!

Pros

There are some good people here, however based on the lay-offs, there are many left
Compensation is good, but not sufficient to make-up for the abuse and lack of respect.
The company does blow >$1M on fun kick-off parties (aka drinking binges)
The senior management never makes any mistakes, as its always someone else's fault for any problems (at least in their minds)

Cons

Senior management does not value nor respect their employees.
Employees are not empowered in the slightest - almost at a level where you need permission to use the bathroom
The company has a whole does not believe in open and honest communications.
Employees are discharged without warning, notice or the ability to defend themselves.
Lots of swearing
Management manages by fear and intimidation
A horrible lack of communication
They monitor and gravely restrict your internet access
Very political company with lots of back-stabbing

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the swearing and get some training on Personnel Management

Pros

- being located in san diego is a plus
- company seen as growing
- hands on with lots of projects (you're not just in a silo)

Cons

- management egos are way too big
- one minute you're valued the next your the worst employee ever
- horrible at sharing the strategy, and why you'd want to work there (other than to put more money into execs pockets)

Advice to Senior Management

- focus on customers
- listen to subject matter experts: the employees you hired to do the job
- stop the finger pointing

Pros

Great people, decent benefits and great location make Websense an attractive option in San Diego. A history of stability and solid financials have made it a stand-out technology and software company to be on your resume. If you like the feeling of being the "little dog" fighting the "big dogs" and like the challenge of doing a lot with few resources, Websense might be a good fit for you.

Cons

Be prepared to work hard. You must be motivated by a personal sense of accomplishment to feel fulfilled in this pressure cooker. Company needs to make major management changes and bring in passionate, experienced sales and marketing pros who understand how to build and nurture these types of teams if it is going to meet it's goal of being a major security player.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize the great ideas, hard work and sacrifices made by employees worldwide. You are overlooking many dedicated, resourceful employees in favor of insiders and "yes" men.

Pros

Websense provides an excellent benefits program, and in some departments, there can be high pay, but the amount of work demanded requires huge amounts of unpaid overtime.

Cons

Unrealistic management expectations regarding what is possible for existing staff to design and develop in a reasonable timeframe. The quest is to be the best - leader in the Gartner's Magic Quadrant and favorable market research reports from Forrester Research - this is great but Websense morphed from a 1 product company to hardware, software, web, data and email without sufficiently building out support infrastructures (documentation, training, technical support) Websense is not employee burn-out central. A popular saying in the halls of corporate HQ is, "Websense is a wonderful place to be from..."

Advice to Senior Management

A sprint, by definition is not a marathon, but is supposed to be a burst of high energy and output followed by some sort of slowed pace,

Pros

Good people at individual contributor levels. Websense has a tremendous amount of talent, although the turnover over the past year+ has been extremely high - in middle and upper management due to political conflict, and at the individual contributor level due to burnout.

Cons

Expectation of 80hr weeks, year 'round. There are no peaks and valleys, only 'Sprints', month in and month out. HR is not focused on retaining talent, nor managing an internal pipeline of candidates for opportunities and promotions. They don't even have a new hire program (although the Sales team does).

Advice to Senior Management

Build a talent management program for ranking, training/coaching, and promoting from within.

Pros

Located in San Diego - one of the best cities to live in the US
Depending on the team you work in, work life balance may be achieved
Some of the colleagues are very bright individuals

Cons

Business is stagnating the days of stock appreciation are behind us. However, salaries (are on the lower side) and reflect upside from stock based compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe it is an outstanding team in the making and will be very effective once they forge a solid working relationship.

Pros

Secure place to work. Engineering process is very well defined. Decent number of vacations per year.t It use to be a great place to work. Company picnics were fun. People working in engineering were very helpful and they create a great atmosphere.

Cons

There is not much of a career as an engineer; you will hit the wall pretty soon. Options are given to engineers very frugally. The good employees are not compensated until they ask for it. To grow in this company you might want to consider a job in sales. Since the arrival of Gene Hodges the moto seems like acquire any other American company; buy other smaller companies and integrate with their product suck out as much as possible; but do not take any risk to create new technologies yourself.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a career ladder for engineering; not every one wants to be manager to grow.

Pros

The people that work at Websense believe in the product and enjoy working with each other for the most part. It is a good (not great) environment and location. The benefits and compensation are pretty competitive and it is watched closely. The best thing about Websense is the people.

Cons

Very political at the upper management levels, sometimes blindly --- important work doesn't get done from people protecting or covering up their ass. It is sad really because it has the potential to be a great product and a great place to work. I just don't know that the management has the capability to trust each other and the employees. Employees hold back saying what they really think out of fear of retailation or because they just don't think anyone will take them seriously. It is a bit dysfunctional that way.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a close look at how you are perceived by the employees and your teams. If you want to get the most from them, develop trust, don't demand it. Be aware that the political infighting affects your numbers. Strive to be a GREAT place to work and you will get more in return.....you only get what you give.