Not impressed - Anonymous employee F5 Employee Review

2.0
Oct 13, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Location is great if you live in Ballard or Magnolia. Work/life is respected (generally emails can be ignored until work hours). Pay is probably fine if you are in a tech engineering role. New executive leadership in place (too soon to tell).

Cons

I've been here over a year now and not impressed. The management culture is highly distrustful for a high tech company - for example, employees are discouraged to work from home, no matter their commute and whether or not they have meetings that day. Managers are average to poor quality, as most have only worked at F5 or seem to be castoffs from elsewhere (my experience), so they are more concerned about protecting their space than helping you achieve your goals. My annual review (they are still doing this, which is loosely tied to pay), was one of the most paper-intensive and least helpful reviews I've ever had. They remodeled my team into an open environment, the only plus being a desk that performs stand up and sit down. It is too loud without white noise, and when you stand up you are weirdly exposed to the entire floor, plus they can't seem to control the temperature adequately. Really have noticed my productivity going down, especially for tasks which require reflection and thinking, which we could do this from home more effectively. For a company that's supposed to be a Seattle darling, I'm not seeing it.

Explore other reviews about F5

5.0
May 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* I enjoyed the collaborative team culture. Everyone was supportive and willing to help each other. * The work-life balance was good, and the overall working environment was relatively low stress. * I had opportunities to work on large-scale enterprise products and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Cons

* One area I felt could be improved was compensation growth. As my responsibilities and technical skills expanded, I was looking for opportunities that offered stronger career and compensation progression.

4.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits and good culture

Cons

Sales compensation changes frequently and randomly

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