Chewy

Chewy spent a lot of time in human-driven sessions (not just online training) around its operating principles, its culture, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

About 4-6 hours for a cohort of 30ish new employees in the first week, and there are future sessions planned. To me, that shows that the company understands the importance of these things for hiring and retaining staff.

The work-life balance seems good so far, as does the support I receive from my team and the company.

Every company has its own pathology driven by its history. I've been in the industry since 1995, and I've seen a lot. Chewy staff keep on apologizing for the mess, but it's really not that bad. Yes, there's some unnecessary chaos. Yes, folks are trying to pay down that tech debt or org debt as best they can. Are there jerks here? I guess there must be, but I haven't seen it yet.

I'm a release engineer, so my focus is on the road and infrastructure to facilitate continuous delivery. Acceleration does seem a very important goal, and spending cycles on improving the road for that acceleration seems important too.

Better guardrails, better management of the "traffic" or work cutting across teams seems important.