General Motors

Great work-life balance in general if it's what you cherish the most. More days off in Canada, better policy for maternal/parental leave pays. Because of what I described below, you don't really worry about achieving your work goals, as it's not really a place where you get recognized for extra effort nor a place where you get penalized for not even trying.

So if you are in a certain phase of your life where you value stability and the Toronto life more than anything else, it's a good place to be.

Average pay in the software/tech industry. (Note that nowadays, many of you will literally work on the same team with US employees while getting paid way less and having to deal with a way higher cost of living in Toronto, Canada.)

Average benefits all-around.

Average workload. (Yes, it gets worse with the recent layoffs and reorgs, but trust me, most other companies are no better.)

Average work facility offerings.

Average amount of interest in projects we get.

I don't need to continue, as it's the definition of an average employer in the software/tech industry. They even acknowledged it formally, stating they benchmarked their offerings with the industry average, not anything higher.

Well, as a result, it's a place where average or below-average employees tend to flock and stay. So, if you value actual growth of your career and honing transferable software skillsets at all, this is not the right place.

Best software talents simply don't stay here anymore, at least not in Canada. With the recent trend of moving software work to California or overseas, there is a shadow over the overall future existence of many existing tech centers, including the one in Canada.

We know a lot of you can't manage software engineers, and you don't even want to. You just have to because this is your "life time achievement award" or the only viable way to get promoted. I get it.

Let's at least grow a pair and speak your mind. Support your team instead of being a yes man to your boss, and things will improve a bit in the current mess of our software org.