TENURE BASED PROMOTION AND RATING SYSTEM. We tout being a meritocracy (to the point it was included in our prior S-1), but this is simply not true. You have to be in level for 2 years before becoming eligible for promotion (the promotion cycles are 6 months apart). By being in level 2 years, I literally mean 2 years - I started in October 2 years ago, the same month as the promotion cycles, but they cut off to the exact day so I'm not actually eligible. While there is an exception process, it is notoriously impossible to get through. Additionally, the rating system is also tenure based. For the first rating cycle, even if your boss tells you that you've outperformed expectations, are ramping extremely quickly, and delivering high impact, you can still only ever get "meets expectations" (my boss had directly told me she thought I deserved higher but couldn't give me anything other than meets since I was only 6 months into the job). Even more unfortunately, this has a direct impact eligibility for the exception process, enforcing the tenure based cycle.
The early indication is we're being ripped off in our share conversion ratio for going back into an independent company.
Decisions are made by a small few in the organization.
No permenat WFH options. Post-COVID, this might be the straw that breaks my back and forces me to leave for somewhere else.
Communication is lacking. For example, we've made a statement that we want to lead the industry in slowly returning to work. However, it's now 2 months from our return date and all the big tech companies have pushed out into mid-2021, yet there's been crickets on what our plan is. One of many examples.
VERY political for a company of our size (this was the case pre-SAP). Biggest surprise.