Failed Company -- Extremely Hostile to Full Time Employees - Senior Data Engineer 84.51° Employee Review

1.0
20 Mar 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

THIS IS NOT A PRO, BUT I WANT TO PUT THIS RIGHT AT THE TOP FOR VISIBILITY. The company will very shortly be bringing on a few hundred offshore engineers to replace the US based engineers they laid off. These offshore engineers will be given company emails. I would not put it past the company to ask them to write copious amounts of fake, positive glassdoor reviews. As you read any positive reviews written after early March 2025, keep that in mind. Pros I used to believe this company had some redeeming qualities. I absolutely no longer do. The only quality worth mentioning under pros is the fact we have good PTO. That perk only matters if you will keep your job long enough to use your PTO, which, if you are an engineer, you will be fired and replaced long before that perk matters.

Cons

I truly have so much to say here, so if you want the long version, look below. The short version will have everything but condensed. Short version This company is awful and will absolutely serve as the graveyard for your career. Over my tenure here, this company has slowly and methodically dismantled the culture and perks that made this place great in the first place. The biggest con, especially for engineers, is that they have made it completely clear they want to be an offshore contractor first organization. This place is hostile to full time employees. Your jobs is not safe. Some other problems - from remote to 4 days a week in office. Layoffs are the norm. Awful bonuses are the norm. Upward growth is exceptionally difficult for no reason. Stability is nowhere to be found, reorgs are the norm. Long hours are endorsed by leadership and nothing is done about it when it is brought up. Long version The leadership of this organization seem to prefer the slow boil approach of leadership. Over my tenure here, this company has slowly and methodically dismantled the culture and perks that made this place great in the first place. I want to open with a common thread you will see throughout all of my cons. This company is incapable of telling the truth. If you come here, you will be lied to your face in every announcement meeting you ever are a part of. Now into the things that have gotten worse: By far in a way the worst thing to happen is the complete reorganization of the engineering org. They have hired offshore contractors to replace their previous full time engineering staff. When asked why, it is because it is easy to scale up. This info, combined with the firing of new grads from their new grad program, proves that their long term goal is to completely gut the full time portion of this function. Proceed with the knowledge that if you are being hired full time, your role is not safe. Another awful change, the sudden shocking twist from being a "remote first" company to being required in the office 4 days a week. This is despite the fact that teams are dispersed across the globe, so all of your meetings will be virtual anyways. Their incessant branding about being "#together" only made this announcement worse. They are unable to treat us like adults. If this is because rent is expensive, say that. This is yet another example of how they are unable to be honest about why they do anything. Mass layoffs happened in March 2025. Why? We will never know as once again this company is unable to tell us their reasoning behind any decisions. High performers and loyal people were let go, so even if you do a good job and tow the company line, you are rewarded with not having a job. Speaking of being punished for performing well - We had very solid growth in our YoY revenue and profit, but the goals were set unrealistically high, so we had an awful bonus for a second year in a row. Imagine having double digit growth and being told we failed and being actively punished for it. When asked how our goals were set and why, they said it was completely reasonable and refused to elaborate. Yet again, zero transparency. Upwards career growth is essentially impossible here. They have the model set up in a way to trap you at every grade level for roughly 3-4 years. Regardless of how you perform, that is how long you must stay before being promoted. They do this because they can reap the benefits of having people paid below their market value for longer. They also froze promotions at the exact time they doing their annual promotions. Reorgs are the absolute norm. Every year like clockwork they do another reorg. If you want consistency, steer clear. There has been a slow trickle of top talent leaving since the return to office mandates. If the market wasn't as tough, everyone would be gone by now. The whole employee base is trapped here. If this all wasn't bad enough, it is acceptable and encouraged for people to be forced to work nights and weekends to get stuff done consistently. When the point is raised to management that the employee working too much wants to make changes for more of a balance, they are completely ignored. To add a final nail to this coffin, they pay below market rates.

Explore other reviews about 84.51°

5.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Challenging, exciting problems and assignments. Brilliant colleagues.

Cons

Recent churn and reorganizations have damaged morale. Challenging pricing pressures and economic conditions for consumer.

3.0
25 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of PTO comparatively to other US based companies Good benefits Onsite cafe and marketplace Onsite fitness center Various employee led resource groups Many Helping Hands charity groups and opportunities to get involved with volunteering

Cons

Pay lower than industry standards during most of my time there. Now under Kroger's death grip. They are a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroger and was promised a level of autonomy but at this point they just do whatever Kroger tells them to do. Instead of promoting internally with tenured and qualified folks they chose to fill middle and upper management with folks from other typical poorly managed US corporations with poor corporate culture. Who then proceeded to take those same poor management skills and lack of culture and bring the company down. Many rounds of layoffs. The remaining people and future employees need to keep their heads on a swivel looking for the grim reaper as they may be next to get laid off as Kroger continues to completely eliminate and offshore jobs. Feels like the proverbial stuff hit the fan when the Albertson's merger failed and they got sued (all public knowledge), then the CEO, Rodney Mullins got kicked out the door (with a golden parachute of course) for inappropriate activities (of which we will never find out), also all public news.

7
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