Pros
* Work/life balance * Good people at the lower levels, doing the actual work
Cons
Our company got acquired by OpenText. * On day 1, Mark Barrenechea (CEO) announced the return to office policy of three days a week. - Mark and the execs have very little wiggle room in this policy. - It doesn’t matter how far away from the office you live, or your living situation. You’re expected to be coming in three times a week. (If you can’t do one day in a particular week, there is some leniency for that). - Thankfully, on the ground, managers and site staff understood the practical realities of such a policy. * Mark talked about his immense enthusiasm for what’s called the “OpenVerse” (essentially piggy backing off the Metaverse trend of Meta). - In Mark’s own words it is “about OpenText being reborn in the cloud.” - He’s even written a published book about it, called Versant (look for it on Amazon). Such quotes from the book include: - “Clouds can only reach as high as about 280,000 feet above the surface of the earth. We’re reaching beyond that, into outer space. Into the OpenVerse.” - “We seek gamers. With grit. Who are home in guilds, and embrace growth and goals. Who practice gratitude. The G-Force.” * Mark did an immediate U-turn during the AI hype in the middle of 2023. The OpenVerse was never again mentioned. The pivot was incredibly abrupt. - Suddenly, we were an AI company. Everything was about data, and stuffing AI into as many products as possible. - We even got some "lovely" AI mascots (yes, generated by AI). Google "OpenText ice mascot" and look at the images. * The feeling of many employees was that the company culture was the "Cult of Barrenechea". Everything revolved around Mark. * Approval is needed at literally the highest levels (Mark or C-Suite) for any decision that is even slightly outside of normal processes. * When it comes to UK employment law, OpenText seem to not care. - Those making the big decisions (C-Suite) will act as if US employment law is how things are everywhere. - If people cause trouble, they will default to firing them, unless they get persuaded out of it. * Any HR grievance raised which threatened the status quo was disregarded. - Many of the people in the UK HR teams seemed like good people, but were hamstrung by the rigid approval required from above them. * Despite being a Canadian company, the American corporate culture is overpowering. - There were toxic levels of positivity/enthusiasm shown by C-Suite which were completely detached from those on the ground. * No meaningful pay rises. OpenText gave us small pay rises when buying us out of benefits of our employment contracts. * OpenText want to make software as cheap as possible (ideally in India) and sell as much of it as possible. They really don't care about their employees. * Huge amount of lip service was given for things like environmental policy and diversity. No substance. * All the C-Suite seem like Mark Barrenechea super-fans who have been put in place because they adhere to his word.
