Uses you up and spits you out - Software Engineer Valorem Reply Employee Review

- Upward mobility is determined on a whim. Perfect annual reviews do not equal promotions or raises. Reasons are usually just "it wasn't your time this time around" - Work/life balance is not guaranteed here. Personally I had 0 work/life balance with NO support to get it to a better place. - Seriously, if you put in 80 hours a week for a month (which I did), nobody will ever ask you if you're OK. - You will likely not get a raise or promotion unless you turn in your 2 weeks or talk about doing so. Everyone who gets promoted or salary bumps has done so by complaining or threatening to leave. - New hires are hired in at much higher salaries than people who work there doing the same position with the same responsibilities. - Takes advantage of their workers through uncompetitive pay, layering on responsibilities without promoting, and not doing market salary adjustments. - Communication is terrible post-pandemic. Engineers or other billable workers which require focus time will have to work after work hours just to avoid the cold-calls and random messages throughout the day. - There are multiple project managers which have 0 experience in project management tools, SCRUM, AGILE, etc. They are just winging it. - Stakeholders are never told no. Timelines are commonly accepted before there is any discussion with the development team. - Management has favorites. The CEO and upper management would frequently converse with their favorite people but never make time to meet or mingle with others. - Valorem was sold to Reply, an Italian parent company, and the benefits have never been clear to anyone except for the partners who got huge payouts. - Rumors are rampant, largely due to management telling everyone to keep things secret. As an example, the lead on my project once put in their two weeks and the rest of the team wasn't told until the day he was leaving. - I was bullied early on during my time at Valorem and reported it to HR. No action was taken and it was sweeped under the rug. Two employees told me that I was "a better person before I lost weight" (granted this was before HR was changed around and put under new leadership) - Payroll has been missed 3 times since I worked there. All three times were blamed on external circumstances. I've never heard of a company having this many payroll problems. - Morale is incredibly low amongst almost all of the engineers (due to the cons listed above) and it spreads negativity and makes you feel bad about being at work. - Burnout is incredibly high amongst engineers and other billable workers. Projects do not have enough people assigned to them. This is often referred to as "lean projects" by management. - Input usually does not lead to action, only words. Positive changes get "caught up in the grind" and never enacted.