Terrible manager ruined experience - Senior Software Engineer eBay Employee Review

2.0
24 May 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Some friendly and collaborative co-workers

Cons

- Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon - Poor, depressing culture - Long hours - Terrible middle managers - Heavy butt covering, me me me, command and control attitude of managers - Managers watch your time like you are an hourly worker - No arrival/departure time flexibility - Pay 10-15% below market at the time (2008-2010) - Co-workers not that smart. Couldn't learn anything from them. - Very outdated software stack - No room for innovation - Product Managers ruled, and they weren't very good I suffocated in this work environment (I was a new grad), dealt with jealousy of co-workers and managers, was constantly micro-managed and boxed-in, and was never given any real room to try new things, learn new things, do new things, or implement things differently. Every attempt to do something new was met with talk that I didn't know what I was doing, or was squashed for some other reason. The managers constantly insisted that I didn't know how to do A and that I didn't know how to do B even though I clearly new, and they went to great lengths to ensure that I would never get an opportunity to do them to "prove myself." The managers were obsessed with knowing and commenting on the time I got into work and the time I left and would harass me about this (and any random thing they could find), rather than leave me to do my work.

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5.0
17 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good culture friendly people and good benefits

Cons

leadership direction politics tenured individuals who do not change their ways of working

3.0
20 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Relaxing culture. family first. Stock performance is generally good for the recent two years and huge benefit if you're eligible for ESPP. Stable product with large customer base means you get opportunity to work on project with real impact.

Cons

1. Blind push for AI and leadership expect unrealistic efficiency improvement 2. Layoff every year in Feb (2024, 2025, 2026) and sometimes can feel the tension in team 3. Legacy tech stack with isolated and fragile infrastructure. Developer friction is a real pain. You get random infra down every once a while and internal support becomes even worse since they started offshoring to LCOL area in 2025. 4. Hiring freeze in San Jose... just expect more layoff coming up + frequent meetings at night / early morning across regions

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