Apple

Working for Apple can be something you take pride in. I write software that my whole family (and millions of other people) get to see and use every day. My work is usually interesting, and I'm mostly surrounded by very smart people.

My manager is not typical. He is respectful of my life outside of work. My work schedule is very flexible thanks to that. I'm always able to take vacations, and I'm able to telecommute once a week, sometimes twice if I need to. I haven't come into the office on the weekend at all during the last 4-5 years.

Since 2007-2008, our cafeteria is awesome. It really sucked before that. The burrito bar kicks ass now. Cafeteria food costs $$. It's not free.

Many departments, and their VPs, directors, and managers, have unrealistic expectations of their employees. Particularly on the hardware engineering side of Infinite Loop (buildings 5 and 6), people are driven very hard and regularly expected to work weekends.

I've witnessed age discrimination. On multiple occasions, co-workers over 50 were laid off without warning. I assume this is routine pruning to let go of people with the highest salaries, but it always feels kind of wrong to me. My department does regular layoffs; maybe 8-10 people are dropped every 2 years. At the same time, we're always hiring. Our use of layoffs seems like a disingenuous way to drop poor performers, especially since we're hiring simultaneously.

Pull the throttle back. Nobody likes to come to work on the weekend.