Xyratex Reviews

Pros

Competitive pay, good work life balance, great benefits, great people, interesting product, global, solid training, opportunity for growth and development.

Cons

Sometimes it seems the company is a little resistant to change, they want to keep things as they are. Makes it hard to get to the next level or make things happen.

Advice to Senior Management

Open up to change, you have a lot of smart people working for the company with great ideas and experience that want to make a difference.

Pros

One of the remaining manufacturing companies in Sacramento. Strong dedicated site boss looking after us. Company financial ok, make money for now. Good location, easy commute. Getting paid on time. Stupid boss let me do anything. Lots overtime is good.

Cons

A good old boys network. If you are an English white male, you have a bright future. Anybody else sit and wait. Evidence? Look no further than recent high level promotions in UK and Asia, young English white males. Blame my parents for wrong skin color.

UK is king and cannot do wrong. Local is junk and cannot do right.

Advice to Senior Management

Big layoff is near. You take care either the right people, or they will vote with their foot. I can not count on CEO. I better search for new job now.

Pros

Great people to work with, very talented in the mid-level of the organization.

Benefits are good compared to some places I have worked in the recent past.

Cons

The product road map is non-existent but we continue to move forward in spite of it (usually in crisis mode).

There are many processes in place but they are rarely utilized which adds to the chaos.

There are also missing processes that cause everyone to do critical items differently also adding to the chaos and a sense that we never do the same thing the same way 2 times in a row.

Advice to Senior Management

Get control of the organization and the processes (define who does what to/with whom).

Set a product road map and communicate it to the masses.

Pros

nothing positive about working for this company. Ok, it was good pay, but not worth it because of all the Cons. I couldn't get out fast enough.

Cons

I worked in the W. Sac office. Everyone was running scared, poor management, the worst I've ever experienced professionally. Overworked employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Dump the VP/Senior management, dead wood.

Pros

decent pay
great people to work and travel with
lots of personalities to learn from
great technologists who are willing to share and collaborate
ample free lunches and dinners

Cons

sweatshop for all engineers and technicians
no communication from senior management
senior management lock themselves in their offices
bicker with customer - philosophy of "customer is right only when they agree with us"
do not understand the needs of the customer
in-fighting between technical and marketing deparments
poor market research / understanding
loyalty is strictly a one-way street
lead from behind

Advice to Senior Management

understand the voice of the market
understand the voice of the customer
involve yourselves with the "common worker" at all levels at least once quarterly
be as straightforward with the employees as you expect them to be with you
in other words, follow the advice of the "best" CEOs, and follow the "Golden Rule"
Think about how these things stifle innovation.

Pros

- great technology
- business has economies of scale to leverage
- blue chip customers
- good direct management
- talented recent hires

Cons

- limited financial upside opportunities
- does not invest in internal IT (7 year old email system!)
- not a fun or cool place to work
- executives not accountable for product slippage or deficiencies
- UK based company does not have Silicon Valley drive!

Advice to Senior Management

Hold senior executives accountable for their deliverables.
Staff needs motivation, limited visibility of management does not help the situation. There is hard work ahead to reach the next level of success and there is little drive from management to motivate staff to go the extra mile.

Pros

Great opportunity to learn how to deal with difficult people
The individual contributors are a joy to work with
Travel to third world contries in Asia -get to see cultures at their best
Pay is competitive

Cons

Cannot rely on the word of senior management
too many offices with doors - closing the door is common practice, where passive-aggressive battles are waged by management
Company values are written very vague, seemingly on purpose
Backstabbing by senior management to all levels of employees is the standard operating procedure
Poor communications by senior management with direct reports
Poor performance feedback system - employees hit with surprises at end of year
Devicive and vindictive managers toward technologists - bickering and infighting prevail
Not constructive confrontation, but passive, destructive confrontation from senior management

Advice to Senior Management

learn the true meaning and value of these three words: honesty, integrity, honor
not the dictionary meaning, and not to use as devicive tools, but as a way of being.
Consider the impression given to customers - the are far more savvy then your realize.
This is the true path to the success that remains out of the grasp of the SI division.
Good luck - I know the heart of the Senior Staff is in the right place. It is mostly the directorship that does not understand.

to Steve: sorry about the low rating toward you as a leader, but it is your team, so...we must hold you to the same standard that your leadership team holds us.

Pros

There are only three pros, and in better economic times none are compelling enough to consider working for Xyratex in Fremont.

1) The fellow Fremont SI development team is wonderful (under different management we could do great things)
2) Pay is decent.
3) Benefits are decent

Cons

1) The SI Fremont management is terrible; its the worst I've ever worked for, period.

2) Project planning is terrible and a known issue that the Xyratex SI - Fremont management continues to ignore. In my tenure with the company, I never saw a project, regardless of size, completed within 9 months. However, every project is allocated 4 months, and in reality most take 9, 12, or 15 months to complete due to a complete lack of vision and direction by management.

3) Excessive overtime is expected or out right demanded without consideration for the personal life of the employee (FYI: many on the development team worked 3 to 4 man-months of uncompensated overtime in 2010).

4) With only two or three customers left in the magnetic storage industry, the business cycles for Xyratex SI Fremont have significant peaks and valleys. Hence, job security is non-existent unless you follow managements orders for overtime, spur of the moment international travel, and doing "whatever it takes" to stay in the graces of middle to upper management.

5) Fear and bullying are the common methods used by management toward employees.

6) Vacation is difficult to use because of overtime, excessive work loads, and consistent stream blazing wildfires. Laptops and cell phones are given to employees while on vacation. Nice vacation, huh?

7) Executive management seems to direct by immediate business performance and its impact on short term stock price performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Executive management, there are two business axiom you should know:

1) The coal-face workers are the best personnel to rely on for identifying business, operational, and development issues.
2) The coal-face workers have many great ideas on solving these issues, if only you would listen..

The reality TV show Undercover Boss is proof to this fact, as well as the accounts of more successful executives.

This forum contains feedback from what looks to be a majority of rank and file workers. Based on these axioms and this forum then; Fremont SI management is a major issue and removing a majority of that middle management is part of the solutions to improving business performance, moral, employee retention, customer perception, and growth.

Pros

A lot of very talented Engineers work here and the commitment that they have shown has been extraordinary. Facilities are good and staff are generally provided whatever tools are needed to do their jobs effectively

Cons

There appears to have been significant cronyism going on at senior management level in the last couple of years within the SI Division, leading to the Division following a strategy that is not appropriate for the industry in which SI operates, as the senior staff team now has insufficient HDD industry experience or knowledge (those with experience and who disagreed with the strategy get removed). The Division now operates with significantly higher numbers of VP's, Snr Directors & Directors than ever before, yet the revenue is less than 2006 ($385m then, $343m in 2010)

Advice to Senior Management

Starting at the SI EVP level and working downwards, dismantle the SI team that has been brought in over the last couple of years and rebuild

Pros

This review is regarding the Xyratex SI Division in Fremont, CA

To write this review I had to fill out a questionnaire with seventeen questions ranking certain aspects of the company on a 1 to 5 scale. I read each question carefully and my honest response resulted in 14 "1-stars" (no "0-star" option, unfortunately), and the following non 1-star items which I would consider the "Pros":

3-star: Okay pay for the area and industry (haven't had a raise in two years though)
3-star: Okay opportunity to improve professionally (outside the company through contacts)
4-star: Better than average benefits (good health plan and four weeks PTO that is hard to use)

Aside from the "Pros" indicated on the questionnaire, I would say, as others have, that the rank and file are wonderful people to work with and deserve much more respect. For those looking for work in this tough, consider Xyratex SI Division a paycheck, with benefits, until something better comes along (I survey many fellow employees, and this is the sentimate of 60% or more of the staff at Xyratex SI in Fremont).

Cons

Once again this review is regarding the Xyratex SI Division in Fremont, CA

There are so many cons outside the pros mentioned above its hard to determine where to start. The "Run Away Fast!" review is an accurate list. I feel this review will best serve the public by detailing the typical experience of working at Xyratex SI in Fremont.

Starting Out:
Formal training and a sound business process are non-existent. You are expected to hit the ground running and navigate the bureaucracy from day one with lightning speed. Why? Xyratex SI Fremont operates in constant fire fight mode 24/7. For newbies, the honeymoon last for about one or two weeks, as that is when they figure out that Xyratex SI Fremont is incredibly dysfunctional. I as well as many other have to constantly (25-50% of our time) help new hires and contract workers navigate the chaos while battle the blazes. The problem is exacerbated due to a constant turnover of people (i.e. the management ideology is front-line employees are expendable). For example, it's hard to find anyone that has been with the company beyond three or four years in Fremont.

Grinding On:
Once acclimated to the dysfunction and fire fighting, you adjust and work to the best of your ability. Project requirement focus on "how" customer needs are met. The "how" requirements are developed by marketing, and middle to upper management, as they are the only personnel that interacts with the customer. The rest of the organization is their to implement their vision for the project.

Unfortunately, marketing and management lack customer relation skills and diplomacy, and let the customer change the 'how" requirements continuously throughout each and every project. The deadline is never moved, and the fixed deadline is used to extract substantial overtime out of the rank and file as the project progresses. Deliverables, regardless of quality, are passed over the wall from department to department, each feeling the pain at some juncture in the project in a valiant effort to meet managements unreasonable deadline. Regardless of all the effort by the rank and file, the projects are substantially late and over budget. Worse yet, the next project assumes the prior projects deadline will be met. Therefore, the late project leads to a late start on the next project, leading to another late project; in a continuous and vicious cycle. Hence the environment of constant fire fighting and overtime!

Burnout:
Obviously operating an organization this way causes frustration, burnout, and down right resentment toward management. Hence, Glassdoors has many poor review regarding the management at Xyratex. Bucking the trend leads to being black listed and on the fast track for layoff or firing (Fear based management). Becoming a "yes-man" results in job security, a compromised character, and a complete loss of work-life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

First, read the above review, in particular the cons, and you'll know exactly what is wrong with Xyratex SI Fremont, as well as potentially other areas of the business.

Second, clean out middle management, and flatten the organizational structure. There are way to many chiefs and not nearly enough indians (last review of the org-chart relieved 1 (chief) to 3.7 (indians)). Accept a quarter or two of substantial losses for Xyrates SI Fremont, to correct the systemic issues with the management, the organization, and the customer. Your long-term health is more important to the investors that matter, not the traders you keep listening to.

Third, the hand disk drive industry is dying, denial of this fact has directly impact your revenue, resulting in downsizing the expendable rank and file once again. There are other technology industries that are growing, which require test and automation equipment, obtain some vision, plant a seed, and watch the money tree grow!