Epic Systems

Beautiful campus (thanks to the horticulture team!)

The company is essentially a big college campus. You will barely see anyone in their late 20s or 30s, let alone anyone older than that. Judy Faulkner is the exception, but you only see her once a month at staff meetings.

The racial breakdown is approximately as follows:

• White (92%)
• South Asian (3.99%)
• East Asian (3.99%)
• Black (0.01%)
• Hispanic (0.01% - culinary, cleaning)

This strife for racial and age homogeneity obviously leads to certain consequences: an absolute lack of professionalism, collegiality, or cultural sensitivity among the very young and very white (for the most part) employees, which is implicitly endorsed from "above."

Computer gaming and other "virtual" pleasures are the universe in which the majority of Epic's employees exist (hard to call it living) outside of the 60+ hours they put into working there.

Quality Assurance is one of the least stressful (so 45+ instead of 60+ hours a week, with no overtime pay) but the most mind-numbing job you can ever have. You are asked to do the work that is typically done by software developers or system administrators at other places, but you get paid half as much if you're lucky.

The bottom line is, unless you are willing to drink Epic's Kool-Aid (a common expression at Epic), look elsewhere, where you will actually be treated as a human being and a colleague.

The wisest decision I made at that company was to resign.

Less fluff, more honesty with yourselves and your employees.