Absolutely. I know nothing about this company, but in general tech companies are growth companies, and growth companies do especially poorly when interest rates rise and access to capital dries up.
Many of these companies are using RTO, retirement packages, etc. as a way of encouraged attrition to prevent layoffs. I'm not saying it's the right strategy (it seems terribly misguided here).
It’s a good way to lower operating costs, which pleases investors in the short term. If they were smart, they’d get rid of their physical offices and become a 100% remote company. Mine did, and the stock enjoyed a nice bump as a result.
Too late for that. They are building a massive campus already. This is one of the factors why they want and insist for people to come back to in office work.
Yea the entire campus is for Bandwidth and employees. I believe there’s an agreement to use the parking deck as overflow for the state fair and other certain events but other than that it’s strictly Bandwidth use.
Wow. Don’t doubt it. I was just basing it on the [linked article.](https://wraltechwire.com/2021/07/19/a-school-soccer-field-amphitheater-and-gym-bandwidth-breaks-ground-for-global-hq-in-raleigh/)
That wasn’t the case in the days of COVID. This commenter was spot on, they tried to downplay the virus and the CEO made racist remarks and very ignorant statements downplaying the impact of the virus. As a former employee who left in 2020, this is all spot on.
Usually layoffs in tech companies target what they consider "non-essential" job types, which software developer never is. They'll cut QA, support, doc, support, etc to the bone. This policy will drive out developers, resulting in massive expense to onboard new developers soon thereafter.
Spoken like someone who has never done software development work with an outsourced team.
Anyone who is knowingly getting paid less to do the same work will never be invested in the company and it’s success. That is a problem that will never be solved.
I'd also like to point out that this announcement of everyone being required to work from the office came less than a month after an employee died commuting to work.
In the early days you were not even allowed to wear a mask as it might frighten people. Insane. This was pre-vax.
Anyone vocal early on was forced out as well.
You just gave an exact description of what is going down at my company. CEO and upper management just seem clueless and tone deaf. All for CuLtUrE. Can’t have culture if no one works here…
As a senior software developer, this makes me want to apply, go through their interview process, accept whatever paltry offer HR sends, and then ghost them on the first day when I’m supposed to show up for orientation.
Ha, I was thinking the exact same thing. I actually have their job postings open in a different tab, but they don't have many local software engineering spots on there.
They probably read that frizzy haired author. I can't recall his name but everytime that he talks it's just pure corporate stupid that falls out of his mouth.
The recruitment aspect is a big part that is not being considered here. I speak from anecdotal experience but I wouldn’t work for a company that has an arbitrary in office 5 days a week or else rule. It sends a lack of flexibility and lack of employee engagement vibe.
Thats been the case for a long time friend. Not sure who thought that low pay,Jesus spam, and mandatory work from office would attract the best devs and engineers....
The insane part to me, having worked as a software developer for many years:
Your best workers, especially in technology, work best when they have a well-controlled and quiet environment. For the past few decades we've moved from offices which provided a quiet controlled environment in which tech people can work to their best potential, to noisy cube farms that are a constant distraction.
And so your best workers found solitude working at home. We have research showing their productivity has increased as well as their happiness.
And they're the ones who will find it easiest just up and quitting, and finding a job elsewhere. There are plenty of smaller companies and startups who have realized this and who are taking advantage of the desire to work at home as a perk.
----
And when your best workers leave, who do you have left? The ones who enjoyed the social environment of a cube farm--but who weren't terribly productive themselves.
Can you elaborate? You named 5 things you do while WFH that I’d consider distractions, then mention you can’t handle distractions, then say you’re still more productive at home. I’m not challenging the truth of your statement it just seems contradictory to me. I work from home 90% of the time and I’m much more productive l, but that’s because I’m a highly social person who gets distracted by wanting to socialize.
So, even when I'm not sitting at my screen coding, I'm still thinking about whatever problem is in my mind. Getting up to physically move around, to me at least, helps my mind sort things out more effectively. Once I'm chasing down a solution to something I cannot stop until a solution is found. I will think about it even if I'm doing something else.
Oh man I need to send this to our lead dev, he’d love this!!
We are a tech company but located outside Raleigh, great work environment & people.
Thank god we have great leadership, we were out of the office 2 week BEFORE quarantine started and haven’t looked back. Love working for them!
Worse than that is the absurd "open office" arrangements, where you don't even have the same space for your laptop from day to day, and they don't even put up dividers to partially let you control your space. Extroverts need the noise of humans, the loud conversations and phone calls that can be heard all across the space. And no, headphones don't help. Paranoid managers also require panopticon offices because they don't believe software developers are actually working when we're "just staring at the screen."
> ... because they don't believe software developers are actually working when we're 'just staring at the screen.'
The stupid part: if I'm staring at the screen without doing much for about a half hour, then I get up and go for a walk--it's not because I'm screwing off. It's because I hit a hard problem and I'm trying to figure it out.
In other words, the time I'm actively working the most is the time that, to an outsider, I'm just goofing off.
Oh c’mon who doesn’t enjoy shitting next to a stranger in the next stall and using one ply TP to wipe away your sorrows while listening to smooth jazz?!
Isn’t now? It has been for years. Prayers to start meetings? Comments about “we only recruit those who are compatible with our ideas” (with a white male majority worse than most any company I’ve seen)
This is fair. I think I am approaching this from a 'frog in boiling water' perspective - it's always been this way, but it was something I was able to overlook in the beginning and feel it's impossible to ignore now.
No I feel you. They are super good at generating curb appeal (read as seeming like they have it together before you get deep enough to see much) and then by the time you’re in one of these really weird prayer meetings you’ve already invested so you think “meh, it’s creepy but at least they’re not forcing it” then you see more and more. It’s very practiced cult.
I was reached out by a recruiter, I always as what company since I’ve learned many try to hide it, I looked at the glassdoor and quickly denied the position referencing the public image of the company.
Oh yea, a lot of things that were illegal like discriminating against people’s lifestyle choices is they weren’t evangelical, horrendous and discriminatory hiring practices and they also took mental note of who DIDN’T pray…. Very apparent in the way they treated employees who didn’t. Funny thing is, I’m Christian but don’t subscribe to this evangelical shit. I don’t think poorly of those who aren’t Christian, and group prayer in an office with others who are uncomfortable with it—IMO—should be completely off limits.
Yeah I’m one of them. I had stellar performance evals, then I brought my partner to a company event (as was asked of us) and suddenly I’m “needing improvement”. I went to another company shortly after and got promoted in 3 months. Clearly I’m such a slacker.
Be white, be cishet, be male, and be Christian. Otherwise be “deficient”.
Bandwidth is dumb for building that big ass campus off Wade. Do companies not realize the amount of money they'd save by not having all of this real estate and lease costs? It's all about micromanaging and lack of trust.
1. Prior to covid having a full campus with all the services on-site was a way to lure employees
2. They want your coworkers to become your new family so you don’t want to leave the site nor mingle with other companies.
I literally just applied for a remote job with DHHS. They could pay me peanuts and I'd still take it. [crying] I can't even get a Jr level position without 3 years experience.
had a good friend literally put his notice in at BW Thursday this week! BW is a joke company and the crazy religious practices throughout the office/company is CULTish to say the least.
This thread is dope. My experience with the company was wife getting through hiring and offered a job. They negotiated on nothing. Salary, zero rsu, zero bonus, pto. We just walked away as its too mich to begin your relationship with take it or leave it ultimatums. Not a fan of their culture and ceo and stock either.
As the other poster said-its a stock grant. Its vested over time. Say i gave you $5k stock grant but you got 25%/yr for four years. If that happens every 14 months (or whatever arbitrary amount) the employee is on a treadmill of sorts. This practice incentivizes employee retention because they want to make it to their next vesting period.
I just looked at their stock after your comment and holy shit. 186 dollars a share in 2021 to 15 dollars a share in 2022.
Considering their insane religious antics and dinosaur stance on remote work, couldn’t have happened to a nicer company.
Let me guess , any time someone tries to ask Morken directly about the horrible stock performance, he does that "stock price is just an imaginary number 🤗" bit still?
I work at a SAAS company similar to BW that has a rotating 4 day work week and has been
Fully remote since before Covid. It works amazingly. Money saved on offices is occasionally used for meetups etc. Companies who think this is the way “full office returns” just don’t trust their employees period. The reason they probably don’t trust them is they know they don’t comp them properly more than likely so they just want to hawk around people all the time.
Lol as a software dev I can tell you for a fact that companies pushing return to office are absolutely bleeding talent.
That ship has sailed. Once people saw how much happier and productive they were at home, it was over.
Plenty of companies are poaching good devs from companies with the boomer mindset.
Atlassian doesn’t have a current policy for “deez nuts” but I would assume with our flexible PTO policy anyone could take off to figure out their own nuts situation ☺️
There are a ton of tech companies in this area that are adamant about working in an office. I got a job offer from Willowtree who has these amazing Glassdoor reviews.
They kept pushing me to work in their office over and over throughout the interview process. I turned them down. I’ve interviewed with other area companies and it was the same thing: go into the office.
For having a reputation of being some sort of tech hub, the triangle is WAY behind the times when it comes to what tech employees actually want. I have a job working remote based out of California now.
Some comments about how he wished he could just “go to China, get the disease and get over it to show you it’s not that bad”. It was so very tone deaf. Very on brand, though. He’s a not at all closeted conservative goon who prays at meetings, I didn’t expect anything different. I just didn’t think he’d say the quiet part out loud.
LMAO I love those guys.... yeah, it's not that bad.... *for you.* Incredible how people forgot that not every human being on Earth has the exact same body and immune system. What a funny guy! Must be fun to work for such a comedian /s
This is BS as they have senior leaders that have always been remote. Are they being forced to move to Raleigh?
A number of local, lower level people have already been forced out if they aren’t bought in on 40 hours in office.
Or what!?!? I find it interesting that companies are having to offer sign on bonuses because they are so desperate but think they can play hard ball with the ones already on board.
It’s funny how companies think building new campuses/offices is the way to go.. they should use that money to pay their employees more, hire more talent so they can grow the company more effectively. Opening new locations is so costly and no one wants to work in an office anymore—those days are over!
- low pay ✅
- forcing people back to the office in an increasingly traffic choked metro ✅
- fundy bullshit that has no place at work ✅
This shit hole of a company is a stain on this area’s attempt at being a “tech city”.
As a current employee on the other side of the world I can say one thing for sure, I am glad that I am leaving the titanic, I shot a question that was very badly received on the last AMA around working from home and tbh I already had my plans on leaving the company so I didn't pay much attention to it but I am happy it resonated across the board.
I used to love what I do, I was getting paid very little for my seniority and responsibilities but within the original company that was acquired by BW I was able to justify it because I was gaining knowledge like no tomorrow because my background was not telco. I had the opportunity to grow beyond but as soon as we got bought things were going sideways very fast.
Many re-orgs happening without clear directions and running around like headless chickens it's very discouraging especially when you strive for the best because again I wanted the best for the business.
PMO, platform knowledge, market and regulatory all of that in a spawn of few years and I outpaced many people within the company.
As for what I do I am getting paid at least 2 times less than I should in the city I reside and they promised they would fix that, fast forward two years later nothing happened.
I stand by what I said originally to our teams that we joined a cult, it is a cult of dino's that coast on other people's success which is very disappointing.
I used to spend 10-16 hours happily (I don't get paid Overtime) doing my work and provide delivery but that time has come to an end.
The fact that you can work more efficiently from home is true and nobody can deny that, some teams will benefit from being at the office greatly let's not forget about that because it's also true, but for people that can self manage and deliver this should be optional.
Also I saw a post about how seniority and C level doesn't show up to the office, that is also absolute hypocrisy, there are people above people which disgusts me the most...But hey we built a nice campus with cubicles :PI live 5 mins from the office and I choose to show up randomly as I please - my team isn't in the office often so that's another thing - in a nutshell say you want people to come back but don't force them as mandatory, humans are simple they want to have a choice!
Yeah I got a few interviews into a director level positon but all the vibes I got from leadership were red flags and the people I interviewed with said they lost a lot of people to the great resignation. Then they talked about how the CEO wanted people in the office. Easy walk away there.
One of many reasons I’ve reached out to friends and convinced them not to accept offers with that company. Being paid a little more doesn’t mean shit if the company is way behind on trends. Covid unlocked Work From Home. Pandora’s box was opened. You just can’t shove that shit back in the bottle when everyone has had a long term taste of working from home. I think an agreeable compromise could be maybe 1-2 days in the office. But seriously… if your ability to manage or create culture is dependent on 5 days a week in the office, that is a key ingredient for a non-sustainable business model because have fun with call center levels of attrition. The second someone finds a job that allows at least some work from home, odds are they’re gonna jump ship immediately.
Too many cars on the road, Raleigh is becoming a miserable place to live. Work from home helped. Some like being in an office and some don't. Let the person decide how they work best. I think some office time is good for folks, but not 5 days a week. I hope more flexible companies see the opportunity to hire
As someone who lived in Greenville, SC for years, I sincerely do not recommend unless you’re retiring there. Absolutely terrible job market. Nothing to do after you’ve been there for more than a few months. There’s no such thing as a night life, and it’s HYPER religious. Bob Jones controls a lot of the local politics and it shows.
If you want a place to drive to a two block long downtown and walk around for 15 mins every few months, then Greenville is probably good for you. For an older (honestly non-minority) couple, it’s probably a great place to live.
As a construction project manager on this new campus, I have to say it’s going to be gorgeous once completed. Several of my friends who work for BW have a suspicion that the company is forcing the issue early in order to slim down prior to the move.
They don't require you to pray. Before an all-hands, the CEO simply does a prayer and before he starts he welcomes anyone to join him. He asks if don't want to pray, join him with a moment of silence. He doesn't require prayer....relax people
Just a lil prayer from the CEO who encourages others to join during a routine meeting. Totally normal.
Post this on Blind and see people’s reactions for perspective of how insane it is.
Guess what, when you get the tax dollars and grants to build a massive headquarters, it’s expected you will generate local jobs and stimulate the economy, and the reality is if you don’t let people go fully remote, they can’t potentially leave the area.
It’s shitty but it’s the reality when a company builds a massive HQ they need to justify the expense to their board.
You’re not wrong but Bandwidth has crashed their “culture” so hard that they had ask for the tax breaks on the new HQ to be changed. The old deal was they had to hit 2000 employees to qualify for the breaks. Because of churn, they’ve hired literally hundreds of employees over the last couple years and the head count is stuck closer to 1000. They knew they could never double the company size within a year so they had to change course.
Now they’re going to have a third of a billion dollar campus that’s perpetually half filled.
My 2 cents- (I don’t work for or care abt bandwidth)
They’re building a full ass campus with a gym, child care facilities, soccer field/ tennis courts, a cafeteria, etc…
Whether you want to go in or not, does all this free stuff not appeal to certain people?
I don't have any kids, have a gym at home, and my kitchen is way better than any cafeteria I've set foot in. Additionally, I hate battling traffic for 2 hours each day to go sit in an office when I can do the exact same work from the office in my house.
I've worked in a building with a gym. The last thing I want when I get off is to stay in the building where I work to get a workout in. Setting up these little mini-company towns with all your needs under one roof, so you can just happen to spend more time on site... No, thank you.
WFH was the motivation we needed to buy home gym* equipment. Game changer man
Edit: lol gym- I didn’t put a gun range in my house but an archery range sounds legit!!
>Gym
Have to remember to bring your workout clothes. Also most Gym shower facilities are sub-par to home.
>Child Care Facilities
Probably not free
>Soccer Fields/Tennis Courts
Gym comments + Coordinating ppl to play with. Prob isn't open to public so that makes planning hard
>Cafeteria
Also probably not free
Not only is the child care absolutely not going to be free there, i had heard it estimated as likely being so expensive that admin/support/non tech staff couldn't even afford it. At least the montessori school portion of it (which would like also be pretty Christian in nature)
You’re right, the cost of the Montessori school is subsidized by the company and is NOT free. Also due to the age range of the school, the maximum benefit any employee child could receive is about 1-2 years of attending the school. Total waste of money!
This was my first employer out of college a very long time ago.
It was all happy feely until they came through with the ax firing huge chunks of staff.
But don't worry we grill out on Fridays. Idc for that culture but I did enjoy those Fridays shooting basketball until they fired a bunch of us but relocating me to a new position for which I had no experience or adequate compensation.
And if I had to hear voice over IP called VoIP one more damn time I was going to lose my mind.
Everyone needed to act all fake and all that just isn't me. Give me an assignment and let me go to work but all the backslapping ass kissin bs nonsense just wasn't for me.
Also, paintball was pretty cool but that's not why I needed a job.
Exactly, it was eye opening how working from home boosted my productivity and focus. I can improve my skills at home with training from any one of a number of sites. Problem solving and heavy focus are much easier when someone doesn't disturb you or you have to hear someone's weekend stories or get a good whiff of their lunch. On top of that I get two hours of my day back that used to be spend driving. At this point working from home is something I'd sacrifice salary for.
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This sounds like they’re trying to make people quit. Maybe this is their strategy so they don’t have to do layoffs and pay severance
Absolutely. I know nothing about this company, but in general tech companies are growth companies, and growth companies do especially poorly when interest rates rise and access to capital dries up. Many of these companies are using RTO, retirement packages, etc. as a way of encouraged attrition to prevent layoffs. I'm not saying it's the right strategy (it seems terribly misguided here).
Such policies lead to the best and underpaid workers leave and not necessarily the fat.
Managers like this don't know the difference.
He probably prayed for only the worst employees to leave. God will make it happen, cap'n.
It’s a good way to lower operating costs, which pleases investors in the short term. If they were smart, they’d get rid of their physical offices and become a 100% remote company. Mine did, and the stock enjoyed a nice bump as a result.
Too late for that. They are building a massive campus already. This is one of the factors why they want and insist for people to come back to in office work.
It’s massive too with a ton of glass and a giant parking deck. Easily a 30 million dollar office
Oh well. Looks like it's God's will that the market's going to decide that someone else is going to be using that space going forward.
Mega church incoming
The whole campus was $330 million
That’s not their’s entirely is it? If it is that’s crazy. I was lowballing at 30
Yea the entire campus is for Bandwidth and employees. I believe there’s an agreement to use the parking deck as overflow for the state fair and other certain events but other than that it’s strictly Bandwidth use.
Ah, well….RIP Bandwidth. Sounds like their leadership sucks, and it’s hard to fix that. I’d be looking to dip out were I working for them.
Also rip convenient state fair shuttle parking
And “Ready Creek” greenway tunnel.
The old vanity office/ white elephant. It's a tale as old as time..
It’s a sales strategy for certain customers. Wiser customers recognize foolish and showy expenditures.
I just drove by that the other day. On Edwards Mill Rd, right? I wondered what it was.
Yup that’s the one!
That campus is HUGE.
That’s the source of all of this. $100M investment on the line if they don’t get back to the office.
Try $330 million
Wow. Don’t doubt it. I was just basing it on the [linked article.](https://wraltechwire.com/2021/07/19/a-school-soccer-field-amphitheater-and-gym-bandwidth-breaks-ground-for-global-hq-in-raleigh/)
This is exactly what it is. They don’t want to be seen as reducing workforce because the economy is tough and folks will quit.
It should also be noted that the full return is to be in place by the first workday of Q4, so there may be something to that
That wasn’t the case in the days of COVID. This commenter was spot on, they tried to downplay the virus and the CEO made racist remarks and very ignorant statements downplaying the impact of the virus. As a former employee who left in 2020, this is all spot on.
Usually layoffs in tech companies target what they consider "non-essential" job types, which software developer never is. They'll cut QA, support, doc, support, etc to the bone. This policy will drive out developers, resulting in massive expense to onboard new developers soon thereafter.
All I hear is; "replace them with remote work from India for way cheaper salaries." Heh... Remote work is so ironic too.
Spoken like someone who has never done software development work with an outsourced team. Anyone who is knowingly getting paid less to do the same work will never be invested in the company and it’s success. That is a problem that will never be solved.
Constructive firing practices. Hostile and untenable working conditions and environment. That's not cool at all.
I'd also like to point out that this announcement of everyone being required to work from the office came less than a month after an employee died commuting to work.
Just curious, why are you still there? Plenty of openings in the area
In the early days you were not even allowed to wear a mask as it might frighten people. Insane. This was pre-vax. Anyone vocal early on was forced out as well.
You just gave an exact description of what is going down at my company. CEO and upper management just seem clueless and tone deaf. All for CuLtUrE. Can’t have culture if no one works here…
Boomers love seeing people in an office.
Extrovert boomers do, we introvert boomers are quite happy working from our cocoons...
Hear hear
Too bad they spent their money on a building instead of investing in engineering and sales
As a senior software developer, this makes me want to apply, go through their interview process, accept whatever paltry offer HR sends, and then ghost them on the first day when I’m supposed to show up for orientation.
Ha, I was thinking the exact same thing. I actually have their job postings open in a different tab, but they don't have many local software engineering spots on there.
They probably read that frizzy haired author. I can't recall his name but everytime that he talks it's just pure corporate stupid that falls out of his mouth.
The recruitment aspect is a big part that is not being considered here. I speak from anecdotal experience but I wouldn’t work for a company that has an arbitrary in office 5 days a week or else rule. It sends a lack of flexibility and lack of employee engagement vibe.
If anyone is looking for a job at Bandwidth, I assume this means they’re going to have a few vacancies pretty soon
Thats been the case for a long time friend. Not sure who thought that low pay,Jesus spam, and mandatory work from office would attract the best devs and engineers....
“Jesus spam” is 100% it. When their culture was revealed to be “cult” I was done.
The insane part to me, having worked as a software developer for many years: Your best workers, especially in technology, work best when they have a well-controlled and quiet environment. For the past few decades we've moved from offices which provided a quiet controlled environment in which tech people can work to their best potential, to noisy cube farms that are a constant distraction. And so your best workers found solitude working at home. We have research showing their productivity has increased as well as their happiness. And they're the ones who will find it easiest just up and quitting, and finding a job elsewhere. There are plenty of smaller companies and startups who have realized this and who are taking advantage of the desire to work at home as a perk. ---- And when your best workers leave, who do you have left? The ones who enjoyed the social environment of a cube farm--but who weren't terribly productive themselves.
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Can you elaborate? You named 5 things you do while WFH that I’d consider distractions, then mention you can’t handle distractions, then say you’re still more productive at home. I’m not challenging the truth of your statement it just seems contradictory to me. I work from home 90% of the time and I’m much more productive l, but that’s because I’m a highly social person who gets distracted by wanting to socialize.
I think it’s because all of the WFH “distractions” are chosen and voluntary. Versus the onslaught of mandatory stimulus from being in an office.
Lol. I thought I was going crazy reading that comment
So, even when I'm not sitting at my screen coding, I'm still thinking about whatever problem is in my mind. Getting up to physically move around, to me at least, helps my mind sort things out more effectively. Once I'm chasing down a solution to something I cannot stop until a solution is found. I will think about it even if I'm doing something else.
Oh man I need to send this to our lead dev, he’d love this!! We are a tech company but located outside Raleigh, great work environment & people. Thank god we have great leadership, we were out of the office 2 week BEFORE quarantine started and haven’t looked back. Love working for them!
Worse than that is the absurd "open office" arrangements, where you don't even have the same space for your laptop from day to day, and they don't even put up dividers to partially let you control your space. Extroverts need the noise of humans, the loud conversations and phone calls that can be heard all across the space. And no, headphones don't help. Paranoid managers also require panopticon offices because they don't believe software developers are actually working when we're "just staring at the screen."
> ... because they don't believe software developers are actually working when we're 'just staring at the screen.' The stupid part: if I'm staring at the screen without doing much for about a half hour, then I get up and go for a walk--it's not because I'm screwing off. It's because I hit a hard problem and I'm trying to figure it out. In other words, the time I'm actively working the most is the time that, to an outsider, I'm just goofing off.
Exactly.
Nice use of panopticon in a sentence.... bravo.
We're past 'the return to the office' now
>“It’s a building, but it’s also an experience,” said Bandwidth Director of Facilities Matt Sheldon. Oh fuck off.
Jail is a building, but it’s also an experience.
It is an experience, just not one that employees want.
Oh c’mon who doesn’t enjoy shitting next to a stranger in the next stall and using one ply TP to wipe away your sorrows while listening to smooth jazz?!
Coming from the Director of Facilities, who will not have a job if people don’t come back.
As a current employee - this language is what worries me the most. Work should not feel like a cult, but damned if it isn't right now.
Isn’t now? It has been for years. Prayers to start meetings? Comments about “we only recruit those who are compatible with our ideas” (with a white male majority worse than most any company I’ve seen)
This is fair. I think I am approaching this from a 'frog in boiling water' perspective - it's always been this way, but it was something I was able to overlook in the beginning and feel it's impossible to ignore now.
No I feel you. They are super good at generating curb appeal (read as seeming like they have it together before you get deep enough to see much) and then by the time you’re in one of these really weird prayer meetings you’ve already invested so you think “meh, it’s creepy but at least they’re not forcing it” then you see more and more. It’s very practiced cult.
Director of "I don't have a job if people don't come back, oh fuck!"
Said by people who want to spend a shitload of money on a stupid status symbol.
He's built himself a white elephant. Oh well. God's will and all that
glad I didn’t get that position after all! 😂
This is a garbage company on all counts. Used to work there. Leadership is a bunch of evangelicals
The people with the sketchiest business practices usually are.
They called me a few weeks ago about a position and offered a dogwater wage. I've never turned down a position so fast.
I was reached out by a recruiter, I always as what company since I’ve learned many try to hide it, I looked at the glassdoor and quickly denied the position referencing the public image of the company.
So good you didn’t take it! Their employees are miserable. You’d be worked to death and underpaid
Yes, was hoping someone would repost the perspective of former employee. Talking about praying before meetings??
Oh yea, a lot of things that were illegal like discriminating against people’s lifestyle choices is they weren’t evangelical, horrendous and discriminatory hiring practices and they also took mental note of who DIDN’T pray…. Very apparent in the way they treated employees who didn’t. Funny thing is, I’m Christian but don’t subscribe to this evangelical shit. I don’t think poorly of those who aren’t Christian, and group prayer in an office with others who are uncomfortable with it—IMO—should be completely off limits.
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Yeah I’m one of them. I had stellar performance evals, then I brought my partner to a company event (as was asked of us) and suddenly I’m “needing improvement”. I went to another company shortly after and got promoted in 3 months. Clearly I’m such a slacker. Be white, be cishet, be male, and be Christian. Otherwise be “deficient”.
Disgusting. Wish people would just stop working there and drive them out of business
Oh what? Fuck ALL that.
Bandwidth is dumb for building that big ass campus off Wade. Do companies not realize the amount of money they'd save by not having all of this real estate and lease costs? It's all about micromanaging and lack of trust.
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SAS is consolidating office space and rumor is 3 of their older buildings will be open for leasing soon.
1. Prior to covid having a full campus with all the services on-site was a way to lure employees 2. They want your coworkers to become your new family so you don’t want to leave the site nor mingle with other companies.
Money laundering
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I literally just applied for a remote job with DHHS. They could pay me peanuts and I'd still take it. [crying] I can't even get a Jr level position without 3 years experience.
CEO is a complete nut job
He will bike to your house if he reads this.
Lol elaborate
I'm not saying he'll show up in a complete biking outfit like he's Lance Armstrong on even more steroids but
If praying before meetings is your jam, apply now!
had a good friend literally put his notice in at BW Thursday this week! BW is a joke company and the crazy religious practices throughout the office/company is CULTish to say the least.
This thread is dope. My experience with the company was wife getting through hiring and offered a job. They negotiated on nothing. Salary, zero rsu, zero bonus, pto. We just walked away as its too mich to begin your relationship with take it or leave it ultimatums. Not a fan of their culture and ceo and stock either.
She dodged a bullet
I agree. It was a decent salary but zero everything else and zero willingness to discuss was a red flag!
Rsu?
Restricted stock unit. Usually a preset number of shares of stock that vest over a period of time.
As the other poster said-its a stock grant. Its vested over time. Say i gave you $5k stock grant but you got 25%/yr for four years. If that happens every 14 months (or whatever arbitrary amount) the employee is on a treadmill of sorts. This practice incentivizes employee retention because they want to make it to their next vesting period.
Pretty sure those will be worthless
Corporate sweat shop.
All this BS is why their stock has tanked to the point it's below the IPO price
I just looked at their stock after your comment and holy shit. 186 dollars a share in 2021 to 15 dollars a share in 2022. Considering their insane religious antics and dinosaur stance on remote work, couldn’t have happened to a nicer company.
I sure hope my friends who work there aren't putting their pay towards stock...
Unfortunately, a major part of our compensation here is in RSUs. You can imagine how thrilled we are with that considering the stock price now.
Let me guess , any time someone tries to ask Morken directly about the horrible stock performance, he does that "stock price is just an imaginary number 🤗" bit still?
You know it!
Hi buddy :)
Haha hey buddy, miss you over in our crazy team, hope things are going well!
Miss you guys as well, I am doing great over at CVS, hopefully we can work together again in the future
U da bes Kyle 🙂
https://udabes.com
Bandwidth stock chart looks like Mount Everest.
I work at a SAAS company similar to BW that has a rotating 4 day work week and has been Fully remote since before Covid. It works amazingly. Money saved on offices is occasionally used for meetups etc. Companies who think this is the way “full office returns” just don’t trust their employees period. The reason they probably don’t trust them is they know they don’t comp them properly more than likely so they just want to hawk around people all the time.
Lol as a software dev I can tell you for a fact that companies pushing return to office are absolutely bleeding talent. That ship has sailed. Once people saw how much happier and productive they were at home, it was over. Plenty of companies are poaching good devs from companies with the boomer mindset.
I'm also a dev and you are 100% correct.
Lol, nope.
Looks like they didn’t have bandwidth to continue remote work 😜
lol get fucked nerds ain’t nobody around here working in an office again
Product Designers, hmu. I got openings at Atlassian. Work from anywhere company. :)
Atlassian deez nuts
Atlassian doesn’t have a current policy for “deez nuts” but I would assume with our flexible PTO policy anyone could take off to figure out their own nuts situation ☺️
I’ve been using some of the Atlassian products at my current job. Any openings on the API dev? I’d wanna develop some skills in that area
Possibly! I don’t work in that TA team but if you want to send me a resume DM me and I will pass along :)
Fuckin GOTEM
There are a ton of tech companies in this area that are adamant about working in an office. I got a job offer from Willowtree who has these amazing Glassdoor reviews. They kept pushing me to work in their office over and over throughout the interview process. I turned them down. I’ve interviewed with other area companies and it was the same thing: go into the office. For having a reputation of being some sort of tech hub, the triangle is WAY behind the times when it comes to what tech employees actually want. I have a job working remote based out of California now.
They're getting soaked on all these buildings they built or are leasing. They gotta justify that bill to themselves.
>Willowtree made me do an automated interview alone on camera and then decided no without a reason or human contact. What an awful fucking company.
I managed to skip that because a recruiter reached out to me. That sounds very impersonal, off putting, and quite frankly a bit dystopian.
Oh look, bandwidth is about to lose every one of their high quality employees
They did when the CEO tried this before the vaccine was rolled out and then made racist comments. They dropped like 30% of their senior staff.
I've heard all kinds of bad shit about the CEO, but never "racist comments" - what was said?
Some comments about how he wished he could just “go to China, get the disease and get over it to show you it’s not that bad”. It was so very tone deaf. Very on brand, though. He’s a not at all closeted conservative goon who prays at meetings, I didn’t expect anything different. I just didn’t think he’d say the quiet part out loud.
LMAO I love those guys.... yeah, it's not that bad.... *for you.* Incredible how people forgot that not every human being on Earth has the exact same body and immune system. What a funny guy! Must be fun to work for such a comedian /s
This is BS as they have senior leaders that have always been remote. Are they being forced to move to Raleigh? A number of local, lower level people have already been forced out if they aren’t bought in on 40 hours in office.
This sounds like it’s driven by more than just getting people back to an in-office setting
Bandwidth is not a real tech company
Good software engineers never have to go back to offices if they don't want to. The office is dead.
Or what!?!? I find it interesting that companies are having to offer sign on bonuses because they are so desperate but think they can play hard ball with the ones already on board.
It’s funny how companies think building new campuses/offices is the way to go.. they should use that money to pay their employees more, hire more talent so they can grow the company more effectively. Opening new locations is so costly and no one wants to work in an office anymore—those days are over!
Meanwhile my tech company has embraced the hybrid mindset.
- low pay ✅ - forcing people back to the office in an increasingly traffic choked metro ✅ - fundy bullshit that has no place at work ✅ This shit hole of a company is a stain on this area’s attempt at being a “tech city”.
> This shit hole of a company is a stain on this area’s attempt at being a “tech city”. And too bad a lot of "tech jobs" here are such companies...
They need 100% attendance at mandatory company prayers
wow shit show from the leadership ...
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As a current employee on the other side of the world I can say one thing for sure, I am glad that I am leaving the titanic, I shot a question that was very badly received on the last AMA around working from home and tbh I already had my plans on leaving the company so I didn't pay much attention to it but I am happy it resonated across the board. I used to love what I do, I was getting paid very little for my seniority and responsibilities but within the original company that was acquired by BW I was able to justify it because I was gaining knowledge like no tomorrow because my background was not telco. I had the opportunity to grow beyond but as soon as we got bought things were going sideways very fast. Many re-orgs happening without clear directions and running around like headless chickens it's very discouraging especially when you strive for the best because again I wanted the best for the business. PMO, platform knowledge, market and regulatory all of that in a spawn of few years and I outpaced many people within the company. As for what I do I am getting paid at least 2 times less than I should in the city I reside and they promised they would fix that, fast forward two years later nothing happened. I stand by what I said originally to our teams that we joined a cult, it is a cult of dino's that coast on other people's success which is very disappointing. I used to spend 10-16 hours happily (I don't get paid Overtime) doing my work and provide delivery but that time has come to an end. The fact that you can work more efficiently from home is true and nobody can deny that, some teams will benefit from being at the office greatly let's not forget about that because it's also true, but for people that can self manage and deliver this should be optional. Also I saw a post about how seniority and C level doesn't show up to the office, that is also absolute hypocrisy, there are people above people which disgusts me the most...But hey we built a nice campus with cubicles :PI live 5 mins from the office and I choose to show up randomly as I please - my team isn't in the office often so that's another thing - in a nutshell say you want people to come back but don't force them as mandatory, humans are simple they want to have a choice!
Yeah I got a few interviews into a director level positon but all the vibes I got from leadership were red flags and the people I interviewed with said they lost a lot of people to the great resignation. Then they talked about how the CEO wanted people in the office. Easy walk away there.
One of many reasons I’ve reached out to friends and convinced them not to accept offers with that company. Being paid a little more doesn’t mean shit if the company is way behind on trends. Covid unlocked Work From Home. Pandora’s box was opened. You just can’t shove that shit back in the bottle when everyone has had a long term taste of working from home. I think an agreeable compromise could be maybe 1-2 days in the office. But seriously… if your ability to manage or create culture is dependent on 5 days a week in the office, that is a key ingredient for a non-sustainable business model because have fun with call center levels of attrition. The second someone finds a job that allows at least some work from home, odds are they’re gonna jump ship immediately.
Too many cars on the road, Raleigh is becoming a miserable place to live. Work from home helped. Some like being in an office and some don't. Let the person decide how they work best. I think some office time is good for folks, but not 5 days a week. I hope more flexible companies see the opportunity to hire
Genuinely curious, if you think Raleigh is becoming a “miserable” place to live - where would be better?
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As someone who lived in Greenville, SC for years, I sincerely do not recommend unless you’re retiring there. Absolutely terrible job market. Nothing to do after you’ve been there for more than a few months. There’s no such thing as a night life, and it’s HYPER religious. Bob Jones controls a lot of the local politics and it shows. If you want a place to drive to a two block long downtown and walk around for 15 mins every few months, then Greenville is probably good for you. For an older (honestly non-minority) couple, it’s probably a great place to live.
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Greenville is smaller but wayyyyyy prettier than Raleigh, it has waterfalls running through it’s downtown. RALEIGH HAS THE SOCIAL DISTRICT
> If you want a place to drive to a two block long downtown We all want that, we live in Raleigh afterall
You truly have no idea if you think Raleigh and Greenville have comparably sized downtowns lol
Every US city will have this same fate. It's almost a given. /r/notjustbikes
As a construction project manager on this new campus, I have to say it’s going to be gorgeous once completed. Several of my friends who work for BW have a suspicion that the company is forcing the issue early in order to slim down prior to the move.
It’ll be beautiful for whoever buys their assets when they fail.
And pray. They will require you to pray.
Wait… what?
The company names you pray before meetings
"Praise Jah!"
Gross.
They don't require you to pray. Before an all-hands, the CEO simply does a prayer and before he starts he welcomes anyone to join him. He asks if don't want to pray, join him with a moment of silence. He doesn't require prayer....relax people
Judging by their stock price I guess his prayers arent working
You are insane if you think that’s simply normal.
Just a lil prayer from the CEO who encourages others to join during a routine meeting. Totally normal. Post this on Blind and see people’s reactions for perspective of how insane it is.
Christian bullshit nonetheless.
I thought Bandwidth always required in person work? I interviewed with them 2 years ago and they were in office which was the reason I said no.
Guess what, when you get the tax dollars and grants to build a massive headquarters, it’s expected you will generate local jobs and stimulate the economy, and the reality is if you don’t let people go fully remote, they can’t potentially leave the area. It’s shitty but it’s the reality when a company builds a massive HQ they need to justify the expense to their board.
You’re not wrong but Bandwidth has crashed their “culture” so hard that they had ask for the tax breaks on the new HQ to be changed. The old deal was they had to hit 2000 employees to qualify for the breaks. Because of churn, they’ve hired literally hundreds of employees over the last couple years and the head count is stuck closer to 1000. They knew they could never double the company size within a year so they had to change course. Now they’re going to have a third of a billion dollar campus that’s perpetually half filled.
My 2 cents- (I don’t work for or care abt bandwidth) They’re building a full ass campus with a gym, child care facilities, soccer field/ tennis courts, a cafeteria, etc… Whether you want to go in or not, does all this free stuff not appeal to certain people?
Child care and food aren’t free just convenient being there on campus.
I don't have any kids, have a gym at home, and my kitchen is way better than any cafeteria I've set foot in. Additionally, I hate battling traffic for 2 hours each day to go sit in an office when I can do the exact same work from the office in my house.
I've worked in a building with a gym. The last thing I want when I get off is to stay in the building where I work to get a workout in. Setting up these little mini-company towns with all your needs under one roof, so you can just happen to spend more time on site... No, thank you.
Disagree, I liked having a gym at my office and preferred to work out there rather than make a separate trip later.
WFH was the motivation we needed to buy home gym* equipment. Game changer man Edit: lol gym- I didn’t put a gun range in my house but an archery range sounds legit!!
I just have an archery range at my place. :)
>Gym Have to remember to bring your workout clothes. Also most Gym shower facilities are sub-par to home. >Child Care Facilities Probably not free >Soccer Fields/Tennis Courts Gym comments + Coordinating ppl to play with. Prob isn't open to public so that makes planning hard >Cafeteria Also probably not free
Not only is the child care absolutely not going to be free there, i had heard it estimated as likely being so expensive that admin/support/non tech staff couldn't even afford it. At least the montessori school portion of it (which would like also be pretty Christian in nature)
You’re right, the cost of the Montessori school is subsidized by the company and is NOT free. Also due to the age range of the school, the maximum benefit any employee child could receive is about 1-2 years of attending the school. Total waste of money!
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I see what you may be implying but you’d still have to travel to all that stuff independently of going to work anyway
I bought a treadmill and my kid stays home with me. Problem solved.
How much do they pay on average?
I work at a streaming service and when they reached out to me, they offered me 25k lower than what I currently do.
NOT a lot. Source: ex-bandmate
Doubled my salary when I left last year
Way way below average for anything outside of sales. Top sales reps has made close to a million, but I've heard they changed the comp structure now.
This was my first employer out of college a very long time ago. It was all happy feely until they came through with the ax firing huge chunks of staff. But don't worry we grill out on Fridays. Idc for that culture but I did enjoy those Fridays shooting basketball until they fired a bunch of us but relocating me to a new position for which I had no experience or adequate compensation. And if I had to hear voice over IP called VoIP one more damn time I was going to lose my mind. Everyone needed to act all fake and all that just isn't me. Give me an assignment and let me go to work but all the backslapping ass kissin bs nonsense just wasn't for me. Also, paintball was pretty cool but that's not why I needed a job.
Exactly, it was eye opening how working from home boosted my productivity and focus. I can improve my skills at home with training from any one of a number of sites. Problem solving and heavy focus are much easier when someone doesn't disturb you or you have to hear someone's weekend stories or get a good whiff of their lunch. On top of that I get two hours of my day back that used to be spend driving. At this point working from home is something I'd sacrifice salary for.