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I'm working at a company that I find a gap between how it is perceived in the market and the day-to-day feeling that I have while working there.

The perceptions:

  • Reviews in Glassdoor are fairly good. Including some "amazing place to work at"
  • Company winning "best place" awards

The issues I see:

  • Outstanding technological debt. Lagging behind the market for about 5 years.
  • Bureaucracy all over the place
  • It is very hard to change procedures/ways of doing things.

How normal is that gap between the perception of the company and what you encounter when actually working there?

Is that normal thing that the "grass" of another company seems greener till you steps in?

Addressing some of the comments:

  • Tech dept - it is not about cutting edge technologies that were just introduced, but about technologies that are industry standard by now.
  • Company type - a SaaS software company.
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    I see few to no contradiction between the perceptions and the issues. A Company can be a "great place to work", and have good reviews and have a good work environment, and yet also have Bureaucracy, "technological debt", etc... I also feel that the questions you ask will change depending on each company, and each location... if you can, consider addressing those things in your post.
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    May 20, 2021 at 7:29
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    I'm not sure it can be "the grass is greener" because Glassdoor reviews are left by others who have worked there. Is it more likely just that different people have different perceptions and different things they value?
    – matt freake
    May 20, 2021 at 7:30
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    I had a bit of a laugh at "5 years". Is that all?
    – Gregory Currie
    May 20, 2021 at 13:24
  • it's almost as if different people value different things out of a job and organization, what about that.
    – mxyzplk
    May 20, 2021 at 21:57
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    This is a zillion times duplicate. "I joined a sw company and am shocked, shocked at engineering / management / broken keyboards etc." 100.00% of sw companies are exctly like you describe in your three negative points. Nothing to see here, carry on cashing your pay check.
    – Fattie
    May 21, 2021 at 16:26

4 Answers 4

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Like someone already pointed out in a comment there is not necessarily a contradiction between your company being a great place to work and the "problems" you mention.

My personal take on it.

Outstanding technological debt. Lagging behind the market for about 5 years

I rather work with established languages/frameworks which have proven themselves than the latest fads which might be still unstable and for which it's hard to find on-line documentation.

Bureaucracy all over the place

I just love bureaucracy. Clear and documented instructions for what is expected of you. A formal chain of command so you know whose orders you have to follow. Those things really make work enjoyable for me.

It is very hard to change procedures/ways of doing things.

I think the benefits of change are often overrated. Personally I often think "why could things not just stay the way they were?". So resistance to change would also be a positive thing for me.

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  • A great answer. From now on we should just paste this in every time the question is asked.
    – Fattie
    May 21, 2021 at 16:40
  • What does count as stable? Is deprecated enough, or do you wait until end of support from vendor?
    – ojs
    May 21, 2021 at 17:46
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    Technical debt doesn't mean not using the latest frameworks/languages. It means deferred maintenance work that makes it more difficult to maintain the product. You can be using a 20 year old framework and have no technical debt, or be on a 1 year old product and have a mountain.
    – Gabe Sechan
    May 22, 2021 at 5:28
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    Also, bureacracy rarely means clearly documented instructions. In fact it almost never does. Or do you find the IRS's GAAP accounting rules clearly documented?
    – Gabe Sechan
    May 22, 2021 at 5:36
  • @Gabe The phrase the OP uses is "technological debt". Another answerer also interpreted this as using old/outdated technologies.
    – thieupepijn
    May 22, 2021 at 14:58
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I can identify a couple of important issue in your question.

Outstanding technological debt. Lagging behind the market for about 5 years

No knowing what kind of company we are talking here, how can this "lagging" be calculated? The thing is, not always having the latest tech is advisable, we must consider how well the company is performing using the current tech. Its a lot of effort to make updates all the time and this involve a great deal of hidden costs.

Bureaucracy all over the place

I'm also not a big fan of Bureaucracy but often people mistake Bureaucracy with Regulations. Its way better to work in a company with regulations than a company without.

Considering that the company won awards regarding the workplace environment I would advise you to structure your complains or Improvements Ideas and direct them to the right departments. I'm sure they will be well received for future improvements

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Well, let's look at what you saw outside the company.

Awards- who awarded them? For what? What was the process? Frequently, these awards are bought and paid for. Even when not, they're frequently gamed- some companies will make a push to get people to vote for them if its a web survey. Some won't. Some may even outright buy votes. Awards are worth nothing.

Glassdoor results- well, first off what type of company is it? You're a dev- is it a non tech company? Let's say its a media company- it may be a great place to work for creatives. So they'll score high, because the dev pool is small as a percentage of the company.

Then Glassdoor has the same set of problems as the awards- companies lean on their employees to put in good reviews. Those who leave may not want to write a bad review for fear or retaliation. And frankly, are you sure Glassdoor doesn't take money to improve scores? While I have no proof they do, I wouldn't be surprised. We all know Yelp does.

You want real info about the company? Talk to current employees in a similar role. It's the only way to make sure.

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  • The worst companies I've worked for cared for their reputation the most and participated in programs like "Excellent place to work". And yes, normally such programs needed to be paid for (I don't know about this one).
    – BigMadAndy
    May 24, 2021 at 22:14
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“How normal is that gap between the perception of the company and what you encounter when actually working there?”

Very normal.

“Is that normal thing that the "grass" of another company seems greener till you steps in?”

Only if you go in with that perception. Recruiting processes are designed to make you feel like their workplace is somehow better than other workplaces. The reality is that most of them feel pretty much the same once your eyes have a chance to adjust. I don’t know who writes Glassdoor reviews but they always seem to have an unrealistically positive skew and I rarely see anything on there that looks truly honest.

Outstanding technological debt. Lagging behind the market for about 5 years.

Yes, every company says they’re on the cutting edge. Very few of them are. Good luck convincing management to prioritize refactoring the code base over churning out new features that generate revenue.

Bureaucracy all over the place

There is bureaucracy everywhere. Your level of success comes down to your ability to navigate it.

It is very hard to change procedures/ways of doing things.

Yes, people get used to doing things a certain way and are resistant to change. When changes do happen, they almost always come from the top down.

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