Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Get High Marks From Employees: Glassdoor

by Nathan Eddy

Employees at the micro-blogging site praise the company’s “extremely smart” co-workers, urban setting, and strong leadership and company values. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo holds a 97 percent approval rating on Glassdoor, and one employee noted “great food” was also a perk. One employee said the ability to work collaboratively with team members and individually on smaller projects is a plus.

The firm, which operates an online professional network to help members find jobs, connect with others and locate business opportunities, keeps its own employees happy. Workers feel a strong sense of community, while free, catered lunches and company outings were singled out as great fringe benefits. A whopping 92 percent of Glassdoor reviewers would recommend the company to a friend.

The social networking behemoth fosters community with its engineers through Hackathons, while perks like paid parental leave, help with daycare and adoption fees and a state-of-the-art fitness center at the headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., were among the highly rated perks. A strong medical, dental and vision insurance policy also attracts employees.

The insurance software company’s CEO, Marcus Ryu, is almost universally praised (98 percent) by employees who reviewed him. An excellent work-life balance, meaningful and useful intern projects, and a strong atmosphere fostering collaboration contributed to the company’s high ranking.

The company, which develops solutions for contact center automation and unified communications, won praise for its relaxed work environment, great benefits such as on-site cafe and free health clinic, paid education and training, but some feel the work-life balance could be better adjusted. Several reviewers noted work could be stressful and demanding at times.

While employees praise Google’s generous compensation and benefits packages, as well as the numerous perks like on-site laundry, a fitness center and great food, management can be seen by some as inflexible, and one software engineer said he’s seen the workload ruin marriages and have a severe effect on employees’ well-being and mental health.

The travel company’s exhaustive list of benefits, such as a casual dress code, travel discounts, on-site yoga classes, and strong life, disability and legal plans, drew praise from many employees. The company also promotes an eco-friendly environment.

A director of product management at the San Diego office called the wireless communications chip company the best high-tech place to work in the city. Respondents also cited strong health insurance policies, cash bonuses and a friendly, intelligent group of co-workers. However, many reviewers noted that the office atmosphere could become highly political at times, and some questioned the company’s prospects for future growth.

Chairman, president and CEO Jerry Kennelly of the application performance infrastructure specialist had a 97 percent approval rating on Glassdoor, and 91 percent of employees would recommend the firm to a friend. Though some employees pointed out the company’s quality products and services, others said the challenge of being a multi-product company are having a toll on product management focus and senior lead strategy direction.

A senior applications operations engineer at the Woodland Hills, Calif., office lauded the open work environment where learning is encouraged with internal training. Some employees praised the company’s work-life balance, but others said the financial and tax prep software company operates in silos, which can slow productivity.