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Nepotism and cult-ish behavior

Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Databricks for 2 years
July 21, 2017
Fairburn, Georgia
1.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Great coworkers, and Apache Spark is a technology that's growing a lot. The Spark Summits are great. The sales organization is doing a great job.

Cons

Management in engineering is highly dysfunctional. There is a core crew of people who are close with the founders and are highly valued; the rest of the engineers are not. Additionally, when concerns about management are brought up, they are quickly swept under the rug, or you are told to shut up.

Upper management has stated that it is actually a good thing that some female and older engineers left because it is normal. Some of the non-favored engineers are publicly humiliated in front of the entire organization by being told that they are "not the best people". One particular manager has a habit of telling people they are "childish" or "unprofessional" when people disagree with him, and he is protected and highly favored by all the executives. At the same time, the younger engineers put up a facade that it is a great organization to work for because they go eat pizza together.

Advice to Management

At least try to fix the issues in management. Talented people are being wasted. It is not a good strategy to call senior engineers "childish" if you are trying to convince them to stay. It is not childish to make a rational decision to leave a hostile workplace. The HR department is no help.

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