Pros
-The team I was on, had good people. Everyone had each other's back and I felt that our skill sets complemented each other nicely. -Some management really cared about the employees as an individual and took the time to really listen to the concerns of the team. -There was no micro-management. We were trusted to conquer the hill and come to management as needed with obstacles etc. -Work/life balance was good and my direct manager was great about if I put in night/weekend hours, making up for it somewhere else.
Cons
>> Human Resources is SHADY This was the reason for my 1-star review. I hope that current/future employees review their paychecks to see if they're being short-changed and are made aware of the unethical PTO policy. 1. PAYCHECK ISSUE After ~10 months of working for Deepwatch, I reviewed my paystub. The RATE was correct, and so were the HOURS, but when I did the math (RATE * HOURS) the gross paycheck was LESS than I was being paid, by about 10%. I let HR know, they advised they'd look into it. Without any further communication, I quietly received a lump sum in my next paycheck for all of the pay I was shorted on. No company-wide message, no real apology. Another team member had the same exact experience. Deepwatch did make it right, but it felt like they shoved it under the rug so-to-speak. 2. UNUSED PTO POLICY When I began at Deepwatch, the policy was that if you ever left the company, you would get paid out on unused PTO. Some states enforce this via law, some don't. When I received my last paycheck, I was surprised to see that my PTO which I had been counting on receiving, was missing. I emailed HR who was polite about it, but ultimately did nothing. Their response was 'Oh the policy changed in April, to NOT pay out unused PTO, in states where it isn't ILLEGAL. Sorry you didn't know.' So I guess Deepwatch prefers people to use their last bit of PTO and then quit without notice because that's exactly the type of behavior this kind of policy will foster. I have worked at a handful of places in my career and have ALWAYS received unpaid PTO upon departure. Extremely unethical to do otherwise, in my humble opinion. >> Everything Else Had it not been for the shady HR experiences, this would have been about a 3-4 star rating. You must know that it's a startup company. Pay was fair, but not great. Direction changed often, without full details. If often felt like we were a ship in the Ocean, with no clear destination, with the only real mission being; don't sink. It was usual to say 'yes' to customer requests for things we did not do for anyone else. Great for customer satisfaction, makes it difficult to scale and really grow a team/business.