Company steadily declined as founder prepared for and then retired - Principal Software Engineer National Instruments Employee Review

Company was a great place to work until about 10 years ago, when founder began path to retirement. It began to steadily decline in numerous aspects; below average pay, declining benefits, steady decrease in morale. They had a large layoff in December 2019, which is when I was laid off (ouch), with the explanation given at a company meeting that they knew low pay was a significant problem and they needed the laid off salaries to give other employees higher pay raises.