Stop and start-up mentality; Culture of haste; Good Product
Pros
The ship is not sinking and it's certainly not rudderless but it does very much feel like you're be Shanghai'd. I spent 2 1/2 years on the Technical Support Team. Within 5 months half the team was terminated for cuts. We’ve remained understaffed since then, yet also constantly in fear for our jobs if the company is sold, merged, or, frankly, the wind in San Jose changes. If you work in Denver, you’re not getting much attention, feedback, or mobility. HR is an outsourced portal. The company HR representatives simply provide links and navigation instructions. Stress management, workflow, and employee welfare are not addressed. The company's choice for a team building retreat was centered around alcohol; flying half of the staff from one location to the other to go on a bus tour of wineries, distilleries, and breweries. This is where the CEO delivered the line 'tighten your belts' to already over-exhausted talent.
Cons
Sadly, I can’t imagine great things for this company if they don’t recognize and appreciate the talent they have outside of San Jose and especially at the ground level. Instead they hastily make major decisions without concern for how they are going to affect the customer-base or their own employees who are tasked to defend them. Most recently cutting the home-pro licensing to only 15-seats with no notice, quickly backtracking, and then a week later launching a new hardware product that had not been properly regulated. It's defeating and too difficult to maintain motivation when the company sets it's own employees up to fail. It’s a culture of haste in which no one and no one’s direct superior has enough time for their full job. This leads to quick and stern discussions that often end up contradicting previous directives as the situation fits. The CTO and lead engineer make themselves available for all employees especially when dealing with user/customer-based issue; however they almost always react defensively or condescendingly often providing no resolution. Too often I’d be fully invested in a customer or network issue (sometimes even a product bug) and would reach upward for assistance only to receive a snide comment about the customer, the use-case or a verbal dressing down. Customers and especially the ability for the internal team to support the customer-base were never shown any attention or priority. Profits and Sales numbers are the daily news.
