Rivian

• This company could become big, very big.
• The CEO seems more likeable.

The company culture is a myth. The line managers in the software side are extremely demanding and think that employees working from home should work day and night. There is absolutely no regard for employees' family life. Meetings are regularly held starting at 8 am and going all the way up to 6 pm. There are actually full days of meetings, for more than 7 to 8 hours. Many times, skipping lunch to be part of a meeting is not only encouraged but bragged about. The expectation is for engineers to finish their work in the evening and at night. Line managers and directors hold town halls scolding employees for not working hard enough, but then, on the same day, they organize one-on-one meetings with each employee, pressuring them to work and deliver more. My direct manager works at 4 am regularly, does an all-nighter, and encourages others to do so. Bad examples are set by the managers themselves, and employees are forced to copy. The director forces managers not to put more time estimations in the JIRA project tracking system so that his bosses do not see higher man-hour requirements to deliver a feature. However, he forces employees under him to deliver at super-human speed. Basically, the director wants his bosses to see that his team can deliver a feature that should take 2 months in under 2 weeks, all the while the employees did not work more than 8 hours a day. Utter disregard for employees' families. There are kids in families too, who need to go to school and be picked up. But meetings are held exactly at the time of pickup and drop-off. The behavior is such that there is no such thing as COVID in the world. 200 employees are asked to fly and meet for a week in office, with meetings from 8 am to 9 pm. With current infections spreading to vaccinated people too, this is going to be a super-spreader event. The neck-breaking work and the pace will break the backs of all employees. While directors and VPs ask employees to take a break, they privately pressure them to deliver more. Too bad. This is another Tesla, or even worse.

While you ask employees not to work so hard, you ask our immediate managers to deliver with superhuman speed. Be transparent, at least now. Tell employees in town halls (oh, by the way, there are never any town halls held) that you are required to work like machines.