Intel

Great vacation compared to most other companies -- for salaried employees:

• 3 weeks off + 10 paid holidays per year to start
• 4 weeks vacation per year after 10 years of service

Sabbatical is great and is in addition to regular vacation time:

• A 4-week vacation every 4 years of service or an 8-week vacation every 7 years. (Must be taken all at once)

Good healthcare benefits.

Continuous improvement efforts are generally very encouraged; I've never heard "no, we've always done it that way" or "don't rock the boat" in terms of changing business processes.

Managers are generally understanding when it comes to family/personal/medical situations that require a skewed schedule or telecommuting if it's for a brief amount of time.

Some recent changes to the office environment have been good - updated interior design & color palette.

Management can be kind of a top-down dictatorship, at least in the manufacturing division.

Telecommuting for the sake of telecommuting (general work/life balance) is not permitted in TMG. You can only telecommute in cases like a sick child, a plumber coming out to the house, a brief personal medical situation, or illness, etc. Some TMG groups that are more distant from the manufacturing line still allow the old policy of one telecommute day per week (in violation of the policy), so you may have it better if you're in one of those. The current policy is probably better than some other companies, but Intel TMG's ban on telecommuting is recent (within the past few years) and it is a step backward compared to other forward-thinking companies that are embracing employee flexibility.

Along with the new office design, there has come a top-down mandate in many orgs where people no longer have their own desks. Depending on which division you are in, you may not have any space to keep personal belongings at work -- no locker, let alone a desk.

High expectations and high stress for employees who are tied to the manufacturing line (fabs, assembly/test), and groups are always understaffed. There is more work to be done than a group could do even if it doubled its headcount. On-call is common, and for some people, it can be 24/7, 365.

Intel has a large manufacturing presence in the U.S. compared to many other companies that have entirely moved manufacturing overseas. This fact is held over Intel employees' heads, e.g., "you better meet these impossible expectations no matter what cost to your personal health, or else... remember, we are competing with Asian wages."

Intel completely missed the boat in getting into mobile devices/iPhones. The company outlook will always be questionable because of that.

There isn't really an "internal transfer" process if you want to move to the same job role in a different state. Any time you change departments, it is an interview process.

Many managers have just gone up the ladder from engineer to group leader. Some managers are good, but for many, technical aptitude does not predict that someone will have aptitude at managing and developing people.

Stop regressing into the past. Employees of today want greater flexibility, including the ability to telecommute.

Focus on making sure all people managers are GOOD MANAGERS. Just because someone is a bright, gifted engineer doesn't mean they'll do well as a manager of other engineers. Having a good manager who is a good person can be a critical factor in whether good employees are retained or jump ship to another company.