Nest Employee Reviews about "manager"

Cons

HR team is really lacking. The atmosphere has been very negative and people are across the teams are unhappy (probably the reason so many people are leaving). There are also people in leadership who probably shouldn't be there. They also write fake glassdoor reviews. A lot of the 5 star ones you see aren't accurate.

Cons

Long hours. Managers need to train more.

Cons

Too many email accounts to keep track. One account from Google, another from Nest. People can send email to you from any account. I don;t do email well even with one account. Now I have to deal with 2 accounts. Verbal communication is tricky here. People go to you and ask if they can do the thing you're doing, if you say yes, the manager will complain, including throwing tantrum at you for not enthusiastically do your job but rather letting his FTE do it (even the FTE asked you so). You have to 'enthusiastically' do any job shoving down your throat. I was hired in as a Hardware Test Engineer Contractor, but I was assigned design engineering job without any compensation for the more advanced work I did so successfully for them. Politics run deeply within the division. Managers do not have enough technical background to manage - All just power play, very rude.

Cons

Well, should I start from the fact that I felt like in high school again? Where everyone judges you by the way you look, the amount of money and car you have, the color of your badge. People won't even talk to you if you have a red (contractors) badge. You won't be allowed on most of the corporate events. You won't get swag (so miserable, it's just a t-shirt), you won't get access to important tools like your Google email or information you need to fully operate your job. If you don't drive a Tesla or if you're not from Apple, then you are not a valuable person. There are so many managersre are so many managersre are so many managers and so little people who actually do the job. There are so many people, who point their fingers at the others instead of taking the blame for their mistakes. So many assistants for assistants. So many managers for managers for managers. They call it 'startup environment'.

Cons

Management structure is still alphabet so performance review cycle 2x per year, and projects can be geared towards performance reviews instead of product optimization which can be frustrating if you are a product altruist. Satellite offices outside of California can be a little isolating, so evaluate your capacity for remote work honestly.

Cons

- Everything revolves around the CEO. It's a dangerous mix of cult of personality and Stockholm syndrome. Comments like 'he's the next Steve Jobs' are not uncommon, while people proudly say things like 'I'm used to Tony screaming at me.' Everyone dreads meetings with Tony because he *will* flip if he doesn't like what he sees. Somehow that's perceived as good leadership. - Everything has to go through Tony. From product development to retail marketing, every decision is ultimately made by him. This leads to two week turnaround times for every decision. Which leads me to the next point: - Nest wants to be nimble as a startup, and yet the management/development process is what you'd expect of a 20,000 employee corporation based in Cupertino (wink wink, nudge nudge.) Most people I know coming from startups, and even big companies, are incredibly frustrated by it. - Talking about startups: even if the roadmap looks great and the pace is 'set to eleven', this is a big company now. Your contribution won't make you a millionaire. You won't get a significant stake in the company, so the expectation to work long hours (which other reviewers clearly mark as a con) is misguided. - Career development is not really a thing. If you are an Engineer, that's what you'll be for the rest of your stay at Nest. Most managers are hired from Apple.

Cons

- late night finishes on weekends

Cons

Sometimes difficult to align between HQ in the USA and EMEA, getting local needs on the map was difficult as is often the case with California based tech companies.

Cons

There is a lot of animosity and territorial battles among teams. This is creating a pretty horrible culture in which employees are just flat our disrespecting each other. Feels like people don't want to be here despite the passion early stated above. Decisions that should happen at the manager level or below and only take 20 minutes end up getting put into Keynotes and going all the way to the top for Tony approval. This means so much time is wasted on the easy stuff and that the really important decisions and work is rushed. The least agile company I've ever been at. Deadlines get pushed back constantly, not for lack of resources, but because of constant meetings and planning: MRDs, PPRs, blah blah. Just do it! Keynote presentations galore. People at the lowest level wasting time making Keynotes they shouldn't. Emails at 10PM for things to be completed by 9AM... really? There are several employees that seem to be just counting the days to their 1 year cliff so they can collect their share of the 3.2 billion buyout and stopped caring about making a great product. You'll hear things like, 'only X number of days left' A whole lot of yes men going around saying, 'Tony said', 'Tony wants' when they likely weren't even in those meetings. No one is thinking for themselves and the best ideas are not heard if the people in the room think Tony wants blah blah blah. Smart people having redundant meetings over and over and over and over and over.... because it's what the culture does, not because they want to be in the meeting. People don't really work together. It is all a facade.