Serf's Up: Tech Employees Bash Their Bosses
Ever wonder what the employees at top tech vendors really think about their bosses, their work environments and the general direction their companies are taking? GlassDoor.com only launched its beta version Web site in mid-June, but it already boasts some 40,000 anonymous reviews from employees at more than 11,000 companies across a host of business sectors. Employees rate their companies and CEOs by the numbers, but are also encouraged to post pro and con commentary about the firms they work for -- and there are some real doozies.
In the following pages, ChannelWeb pulls out some of the choicest employee ratings and quotes for a sampling of the top IT vendors in the channel. But there's a whole lot more on GlassDoor.com, which also drills down into specific employee ratings of areas like work/life balance, as well as offering an inside look at salary scales inside companies.
You can register at GlassDoor.com for such inside dirt, but you're required to post a review of your own company for access. And you might want to take all of this in with a large grain of salt -- the anonymous nature of the site seems like an open invitation to moles of various stripes.
Company: Microsoft, Redmond, Wash.
Technology Sector: Development Tools, Operating Systems and Utilities Software
Size: 85,000+ employees, $50+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.8/5, 380 reviews
CEO: Steve Ballmer (pictured)
CEO Rating: 51% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Despite Microsoft being broadly painted on the outside as a faceless corporation, it is a West Coast tech company on the inside and it is full of a lot of geeks who are passionate about what they do."
CON: "Microsoft is the new government job with better pay, better benefits, nicer offices, free Starbucks coffee, flexible hours and fewer hours overall ... as long as you don't actually want to build software that serves a purpose, or make it work for customers."
Company: VMware, Palo Alto, Calif.
Technology Sector: Storage and Systems Management Software
Size: 7,000+ employees, $1+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 4.2/5, 61 reviews
CEO: Diane Greene (pictured)
CEO Rating: 87% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "The products this company creates are the future. This is one of the few places where you can still come in and see a direct impact. While the place is getting bigger, you still have the opportunity to directly impact that growth."
CON: "As a company that has grown very fast, VMware is lacking internal processes and typically feels like a free for all where people just do what they think is best with no one coordinating or even defining an organizational goal to work towards."
Company: Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.
Technology Sector: Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
Size: 80,000+ employees, $38+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.4/5, 226 reviews
CEO: Paul Otellini (pictured)
CEO Rating: 61% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Entrepreneurial spirit in the company and in ownership of one's own job. Awesome products that are changing the world. Company maintains a growth mentality and has some high-growth products, along with stable products and a huge manufacturing capacity."
CON: "I ran into more social conservatives at Intel than perhaps in the rest of all my jobs combined. During my three years at Intel I experienced an ongoing albeit subtle sense of hostility directed at me due largely to my homosexual orientation. One boss actually went so far as to try and arrange a 'date' between myself and her daughter."
Company: Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif.
Technology Sector: Routing and Switching Equipment
Size: 60,000+ employees, $34+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.8/5, 189 reviews
CEO: John Chambers (pictured)
CEO Rating: 82% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Cisco is a great place to work if you truly believe in the vision, have a true passion for the technology and are in it for the long-haul. It's a place you can thrive in if you're able to work with little to no supervision, are willing to go above and beyond your day job in order to 'push the ball forward' and can thrive in a hyper-competitive environment with a bunch of A-type personalities."
CON: "Cisco is no longer a growth company and is focused on sustaining measured growth. Therefore it has become a bureaucracy where new ideas and changes must navigate through red tape."
Company: McAfee, Santa Clara, Calif.
Technology Sector: Security Software
Size: 3,500+ employees, $1+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.6/5, 8 reviews
CEO: David DeWalt (pictured)
CEO Rating: 100% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Your computer is already there and waiting for you when you arrive -- I've worked at enough places where you may wait up to two weeks or more to get your computer, so I'm appreciative of that. Flexible working hours and very open to telecommuting. Free soda."
CON: "Bad products, bad client support."
Company: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.
Technology Sector: Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
Size: 16,000+ employees, $6+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 2.9/5, 95 reviews
CEO: Hector Ruiz (pictured)
CEO Rating: 7% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "AMD provides great work life balance and flexibility for employees. In general, my peers are very talented individuals who genuinely care about the company and want to see it succeed. There is good camaraderie among workgroups, which helps, given the overarching situation the company is facing."
CON: "Intel essentially has us under their thumb, similar to a puppet-master over his puppet. They never want us to go away because they would encounter so much more scrutiny from the government, but they want us to bleed until we're on life support -- only to let us up long enough for us to stay alive."
Company: Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif.
Technology Sector: Personal Computers
Size: 300,000+ employees, $104+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 2.8/5, 256 reviews
CEO: Mark Hurd (pictured)
CEO Rating: 44% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "HP still has probably the best political and cultural support for work/life balance. HP is very understanding, in all the various departments I've been associated with, in letting employees take time off or carving out an hour or two here and there to take care of children."
CON: "HP has managed to destroy what used to be a world-class support organization. It is simply a dismal place to work now. Not only has the outsourcing not produced a competent frontline support organization on par with the previous one, it has succeeded in destroying HP's reputation among customers for many years to come."
Company: 3Com, Marlborough, Mass.
Technology Sector: Routing and Switching Equipment
Size: 6,000+ employees, $1+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 4/5, 1 review
CEO: Bob Mao (pictured)
CEO Rating: Not yet rated
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "3Com has a good corporate culture. Things still get done efficiently and business stresses are not directly passed down to engineering."
CON: "Since 2001 and beyond, 3Com has lost focus on its engineering RandD interests. Various re-organizations and executive plans for breaking up the company and then regrouping it back-and-forth are adding to the spiraling downturn of 3Com's reputation. At the end, it simply becomes a sales channel with a higher prized product but just 'street-level' router/switch quality. Sigh."
Company: Google, Mountain View, Calif.
Technology Sector: Internet Search and Navigation Services
Size: 19,000+ employees, $16+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 4.1/5, 110 reviews
CEO: Eric Schmidt (pictured)
CEO Rating: 85% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Google is the closest thing to a pure meritocracy that I've seen in this industry, and I've been in the industry a fair bit longer than most Googlers. It doesn't matter what your degree is in or how long you've been at the company -- if you get stuff done and do it well you'll be treated well."
CON: "If you enjoy your individuality and time alone, Google is not the place for you (keep in mind I'm not an engineer). Google pushes a highly 'googley' atmosphere, which is something akin to what the Brady Bunch would be like if they lived in communist Russia."
Company: BMC Software, Houston, Tex.
Technology Sector: Storage and systems management software
Size: 6,000+ employees, $1+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 2.8/5, 6 reviews
CEO: Bob Beauchamp (pictured)
CEO Rating: 17% approve
Choice Employee Quotes
PRO: "Great teamwork, the office environment is great. All the technical staff are very competent and have a deep knowledge of all technologies, and middle management are generally well-trained."
CON: "Management has little understanding of the work people are doing so employees need to be able to judge their own contribution and development and be satisfied with that judgment. Education and training is OJT and self-directed with weak online courses."
Company: IBM, Armonk, N.Y.
Technology Sector: Information Technology Services
Size: 380,000+ employees, $98+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.4/5, 280 reviews
CEO: Sam Palmisano (pictured)
CEO Rating: 46% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "The absolute best aspect of working at IBM, at least in my product development area, is the quality of your colleagues. You truly are surrounded by some of the brightest, most creative and driven people in the world of technology, and that pride shows through, even in the face of poor management."
CON: "IBM really does stand for 'Idiots Become Managers.' I did time with IBM as a contractor -- the kind of employee they hire through another agency so they don't have to give them perks like decent pay, benefits, raises, vacation/personal/sick time, job security, or respect. Maybe if I worked harder on my golf swing I could've had a shot."
Company: CA, Islandia, N.Y.
Technology Sector: Storage and Systems Management Software
Size: 14,000+ employees, $3.9+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 2.8/5, 6 reviews
CEO: John Swainson (pictured)
CEO Rating: 75% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "In the right product line group, you will find aggressive and creative management teams that support team members and provide opportunities to improve pertinent skill sets and advance."
CON: "My manager has the worst organizational and man-management skills of anyone I have ever worked for in a lengthy career. But in order to irritate his staff more thoroughly, he dedicates himself to working long hours ... and that alone means he's seen as conscientious by his naive seniors."
Company: Lenovo, Morrisville, N.C.
Technology Sector: Personal Computers
Size: 19,000+ employees, $16+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.2/5, 5 reviews
CEO: Bill Amelio (pictured)
CEO Rating: 40% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "A new, world-thinking company that takes a very innovative approach to everything the company does. The company has fused the Eastern and Western cultures beautifully. With its already strong position in growth markets, the company is poised to be a formidable competitor soon."
CON: "Lenovo is Chinese-owned so jobs are constantly moving to China. This means that you have little or no job security. The first and second line management do not know how to manage software technology and continue to think you can make last-second changes to code bases and not obsolete all the testing you have already done."
Company: CDW, Vernon Hills, Ill.
Technology Sector: Computer and Software Retail
Size: 5,000+ employees, $8+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 2.6/5, 8 reviews
CEO: John Edwardson (pictured)
CEO Rating: 38% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "The best reason for working at CDW is that it is not going anywhere anytime soon."
CON: "At one time CDW use to be a GREAT place to work and I was proud to say I worked here. But in recent years, with the acquisition of Berbee and#91;Information Networksand#93; and then us going private, I have seen many negative changes and the corporate sales team's morale is down big time."
Company: Sun Microsystems, Santa Clara, Calif.
Technology Sector: Servers and Mainframes
Size: 33,000+ employees, $13+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.5/5, 150 reviews
CEO: Jonathon Schwartz (pictured)
CEO Rating: 39% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Sun has an awesome flexible work policy. You can work full-time from home, go flexible (i.e. office and home) or full-time office. This allows for a great way to balance your work life and personal life and have a large degree of control over things."
CON: "If you're someone who is looking for a place to hide out, Sun may suit your needs. If you think the way to get ahead is by playing politics, this is the place. If you think that benefits, affinity groups and extra-curricular programs are more important than working with a competent and focused team on a well-directed, commercially feasible project, come on down!"
Company: Symantec, Sunnyvale, Calif.
Technology Sector: Security Software
Size: 17,000+ employees, $5+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.0/5, 82 reviews
CEO: John Thompson (pictured)
CEO Rating: 39% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "My favorite thing about working for Symantec is that we're on the leading edge of software security research. It is really exciting to learn about (and occasionally discover) new software vulnerabilities, malware, and figure out ways to protect people from these threats."
CON: "There's constant cost cutting. Being asked to do more with less. Outsourcing. Inadequate recognition programs for low-level positions (and the $100 Quarterly Kicker award is INSULTING to those eligible)."
Company: Yahoo, Sunnyvale, Calif.
Technology Sector: Internet Search and Navigation Services
Size: 13,000+ employees, $7+ billion 2007 revenues
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.5/5, 132 reviews
CEO: Jerry Yang (pictured)
CEO Rating: 42% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "I like working at Yahoo! because I get to see the results of my work in use by millions of people every day. By and large I think most of my fellow Yahoo!s really do work hard to live the company's values and truly love what they do."
CON: "My biggest issue with Yahoo! is that the culture is just far too nice. There are a lot of daily screw-ups and miscommunications that I see, that I'd like to see taken more seriously. ... I'm not the only one I've heard say that Yahoo! is poor on execution. A relaxed atmosphere is good, but sometimes I think it's too relaxed."
Company: Oracle, Redwood City, Calif.
Technology Sector: Database and File Management Software
Size: 72,000+ employees, $17+ billion 2007 revenues
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.3/5, 148 reviews
CEO: Larry Ellison (pictured)
CEO Rating: 65% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Oracle continues to succeed where others have failed. Being the largest enterprise software vendor, there are numerous opportunities for advancement and transfer within and between lines of business."
CON: "Larry's hatred of Microsoft means we have to avoid their stuff wherever possible. We don't use Exchange servers, and our e-mail system is clumsy and painful. We seem to rewrite even basic applications for internal use -- why are we using 'Oracle Chat' when there are at least 10 good alternatives already out there?"
Company: Dell, Round Rock, Tex.
Technology Sector: Personal Computers
Size: 88,000+ employees, $61+billion 2007 revenues
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.2/5, 126 reviews
CEO: Michael Dell (pictured)
CEO Rating: 60% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Loads of autonomy and opportunity to own the set of responsibilities a specific role has. It's a good place to learn and grow as long as your goal is to learn and grow and not to boot strap your way to some jive-assed job grade change by stepping on the necks of others."
CON: "After spending five years in Dell trying to make something positive of this career mishap, I cut my losses and moved on. To this day I cannot laugh at Dilbert anymore, because it hits too close to home. ... There was an annual survey question placed to all employees like, 'If you were offered similar compensation and benefits at another company would you leave Dell?' and the survey results were always between 65-85% 'Yes.' I believe they stopped asking this question a few years go."
Company: Nvidia, Santa Clara, Calif.
Technology Sector: Graphics and Video Chips and Boards
Size: 4,000+ employees, $4+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.4/5, 49 reviews
CEO: Jen-Hsun Huang (pictured)
CEO Rating: 83% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Nvidia is a well-run, aggressive and focused company. Jen-Hsun personally sets a tempo and culture that permeates the organization and make it a great place to work. Nvidia is not a political company, and it's great to work in an environment where everyone is pulling in the same well-defined direction."
CON: "Lots of arrogant managers who have no clue of what they are doing. The future of Nvidia is bleak. Basically smart people are treated like a distributed server farm. The perfect place to become a dumb machine and work like an ass. No innovation. The free food is horribleeeeeee."
Company: Citrix, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Technology Sector: Enterprise Application Integration Software
Size: 4,000+ employees, $1+ billion 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.9/5, 29 reviews
CEO: Mark Templeton (pictured)
CEO Rating: 86% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Innovative products, supportive management and an excellent benefits package make Citrix the best place I have worked in the technology sector. Citrix is small enough to feel like you can make a difference and have ownership of your project or product. Yet the company is big and established enough to feel relaxed and not like a crazed start-up."
CON: "There's too much individual work and not enough group efforts. The work is divided up and everyone works on their piece. When it's done, it gets thrown over the wall to the next person to integrate or test."
Company: Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, Calif.
Technology Sector: Computer Products Distribution and Support
Size: 15,000+ employees, $35+ billion 2007 revenues
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 4.0/5, 1 review
CEO: Greg Spierkel (pictured)
CEO Rating: 100% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Ingram Micro is a good company to learn at and the benefit package is good.
They give you all the tools of a big company to do your job ... Respect is very important in the company."
CON: "Ingram Micro is not the best in pay grades. Retaining the best employees is one of the biggest problems of the company. People are leaving the company for smaller companies with better pay grades."
Company: SalesForce.com, San Francisco
Technology Sector: Customer Relationship Management, Marketing and Sales Software
Size: 2,600+ employees, $700+ million 2007 revenue
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.6/5, 32 reviews
CEO: Marc Benioff (pictured)
CEO Rating: 69% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "The culture at Salesforce.com is amazing. Young, vibrant and a lot of fun. The office is in a great location and they really do attempt to make it a nice working environment with great benefits and a competitive package."
CON: "Lies, deceit, mobbing and alcoholism. And btw, nobody takes lunch unless it's happy hour at 1 Market to keep things in house. Most of the folks are sub-30 so therefore it's rampant drinking. Particularly in sales. So if you are even pushing mid-30s, either be prepared for a liver issue or pursue a company that doesn't promote alcoholism (e.g. IBM, Microsoft, Google, etc.)."
Company: Apple, Cupertino, Calif.
Technology Sector: Computer Peripherals
Size: 17,000+ employees, $24+ billion 2007 revenues
Employee Satisfaction Rating: 3.9/5, 194 reviews
CEO: Steve Jobs (pictured)
CEO Rating: 90% approve
Choice Employee Quotes:
PRO: "Apple doesn't just have employees, they have True Believers. Most people begin working for the company because they're long-term Apple customers. Some grew up hoping to work for Apple one day. It's exciting to be part of something that inspires awe, curiosity and sometimes envy among even the most stubborn detractors."
CON: "Management burns through employees with no regard to their long-term value. ... Depending on your exact job and how little time is left in the product cycle, vacation time and even weekends are privileges that you may not be given the opportunity to afford. ... At the end of a cycle, a $20 bottle of wine or a $50 iPod shuffle reflect the gratitude you'll receive, and the value of your work to your management. It is against Apple policy for your name to be recognized externally; only Steve Jobs' name, or the names of those he picks to introduce them, can be associated with a product release."