F5

Formerly an excellent company to work for, attributed to its human-centric policies:

• Retreats focused on well-being.
• Comprehensive health coverage for the entire family.
• Complimentary fruits, snacks, and meals.
• Exceptional learning opportunities in network security domains.

Recently, some middle-level managers' involvement in office politics and favoritism has notably dampened engineers' morale, particularly regarding recognition.

A few middle-level managers have formed alliances, recognizing each other to get into the limelight, misusing the recognition policy, and not acknowledging the actual contributions of engineers who accomplished the job. A discernible recognition pattern makes this evident upon examination.

They also play a "Divide and Conquer" strategy, giving recognition or preference to their inner circle while neglecting those who challenge them. Conversely, they tend to hold those they personally dislike accountable for any failures.

For engineers' motivation, senior leadership must take employee engagement surveys seriously and get input from the engineers who collaborate with them daily. The survey results should not be categorized based on participants' current roles to prevent easy identification. If results are unsatisfactory, then those managers can be asked to get into developer roles, so at least they will be engaged in the real work rather than daily politics at the workspace. This way, the company can save money instead of hiring new engineers from outside.