Pros
- Good company mission makes projects generally more interesting and/or rewarding to be a part of. There is a sense of pride when I tell people what I do. - Good company reputation in business world - People are generally nice and want to help when and where they can - Benefits are easy to sign up for and fair. HR is responsive - A sense of "local identity" with local peers due to regional structure - Company-wide emphasis on safety - Strong performance bonus eligibility creates additional incentive - Good resourcing up front (laptop, dual monitors, etc.)
Cons
- Company is owned by private equity. Emphasis on profitability and margin flows down to all levels/culture and dilutes some of the "feel good" of being in the organization. - Everyone is fully booked and very busy, making cross-functional meetings/planning very challenging, Especially when time sensitive. - Salaried roles are generally expected to work more than 40 hours (fine, pretty normal) but don't seem to get recognized for going above and beyond expectations. I have seen colleagues online and busy at 11pm. - No cohesive file sharing platforms. Some teams use sharepoint, some "R drive", some onedrive. This makes multi-regional work more challenging. Similarly, the company has both zoom (primary) and teams. This isn't an employee issue but does feels redundant. Why not use teams/sharepoint unilaterally and save $$ as well if it is such a concern elsewhere? - Emphasis on in-person attendance in cases when no value is added. Often most technical personnel leave the office midday to do site visits or focused scientific work, leaving desk workers alone in office and not reaping any of the alleged social "in person" benefits. Travel is frequent and occasionally redundant, as company will not spend on some subscriptions that allow employees to gain similar knowledge remotely. Same argument as above - why not reduce travel spend on occasions when alternatives exist? - Lack of feedback, goal setting, or any sort of development time with team leadership (being optimistic, this may be due to bandwidth constraints, otherwise there's an additional problem of not caring). With performance based bonuses, this creates additional financial stress.