Once A Great Place To Work - Production Builder Penumbra Employee Review

3.0
Feb 16, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The hours are consistent (most of the time) and the benefits are nice. Depending on who you work with, you can meet some great people.

Cons

Penumbra was once a great place to work. Not so anymore. The company has been expanding, and has resorted to rather draconian measures to keep control over its workers. From having to sign out every time you use the restroom to a much stricter new attendance policy, things have been going downhill. I've had sick coworkers get fired for not having enough sick time to cover hospital visits - there is a sick leave policy, but if HR doesn't like you, they won't help you apply for it. Nepotism is rampant. If you know people, you get put in leadership roles even if you don't know what you're doing. This applies to everyone from supervisors all the way to the highest level. This is evident when you realize a lot of higher ups are related. Production has been slowly transitioning all of their lines to a lean line system, which, in short, is supposed to increase the efficiency of the line. What this means for the workers is fewer breaks, less downtime, harder work, and the same pay as before. It's easy for engineers and supervisors to tout this system when they make $100k + and we make $40k pre tax. On the subject of pay, it's pretty low for the industry. Other medical device companies and manufacturers in similar fields pay more. Penumbra knows it can retain people with crummy pay by just not being Amazon. That may soon change should they keep going downhill. Most of my coworkers worked two jobs, and would get chastized for coming into work bone-tired. The CEO has said that our pay won't be raised to keep up with inflation. A few years ago, we did get a $3/hr raise across production - this was because our retention was terrible, and other companies like Abbot were poaching our employees. Can't say I blame the people that left, I nearly did myself.

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5.0
Jun 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly people and everyone wants to help

Cons

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5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

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Cons

High growth environment isn’t for everybody

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