1mo
Thanks for sharing -- there is a lot here -- and while there are parts that require some context to the nature of our business, there are still some actionable steps we can review and take back to leadership for training as it relates to communication about hours and stability. We'd love to connect as a current employee, but we've provided some notes below in the meantime to help.
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REGARDING BONUSES:
We tend to prefer a higher base pay and fully covering insurance premiums for employees and their families and matching 401K contributions over individual bonuses. We do* offer bonuses based on company profit each quarter. During quarters where there aren't bonuses, the profit margin wasn't high enough to deliver them. However, even in those years we generally have smaller holiday bonuses, including last December and the December before. In 2023 and some of 2024, quarterly bonuses were distributed across team members based on billable hours they contributed and additional funds for the MVPs of those quarters.
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REGARDING MICROMANAGEMENT:
It was surprising to read that there is heavy micromanagement because most of the employee satisfaction results highlight autonomy, flexibility, and ability to try new things as things that are positive. We were even nominated as a Chicago SunTimes Best Places to work 2025 which was based entirely on employee surveys handled by a 3rd party service. Executives did not participate in those survey responses or any part of that process.
If the micromanagement piece really is the tracking hours to the minute -- It is true that we require that time be tracked to the nearest 5-10 minutes in Harvest. Most folks use the built-in timers, but some record their hours toward the end of the week with proper descriptions to justify the time. Product Managers are required to justify that time and will question parts they can't justify before clients challenge it. It's rare that people are asked about their hours unless there are continual discrepancies in what their hours say they do and what they deliver. This person brings up a really interesting point and something to consider if you're looking at getting into consulting. I fully get that among the annoying parts of the job is recording hours -- that's the downside. The issue is that it's how we get paid. If you've ever received a bill for something and wondered to yourself - "I'm paying for what??" - then you know what it's like for a client to get a bill with time entries that aren't clear, aren't what they asked for etc, or maybe the bill is late because it took us so long to put it together. It's a pain, I get it.
That said, this is good feedback for us and we'll review how that message is getting delivered because I'm sure there are opportunities for improving how we provide information about the why behind the ask.
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REGARDING RUSHING TEAMS VS. QUALITY:
We aren't able to verify the notes about pressure to rush work and allowing teams to focus on quality. While we do make a big deal out of production issues and misses, we have pretty hefty processes for releases, sanity checks, and pre-/post- release testing processes. We are a consultancy and some of our clients are regulatory which means dates are hard to move. That said, we have processes built in for team members to speak up and contribute to estimates, share risks and issues, and request changes to due dates. Almost every project we have at Caxy has an escape rate to production of less than 5% which means production is stable and quality is pretty good. It is something we've focused a lot of attention on in the last 3 years as we went from nearly 0% test coverage to up to 80% test coverage on several projects and test cases written for manual testing on many more.
We're always open to feedback here -- and would encourage leveraging the tools available to do it if you aren't comfortable reaching out directly -- our employee surveys, written personal/self reviews, peer reviews, mentor checkins, 1:1s, retros, and informal connections with team leads, directors, or executives. One of our values at Caxy is to speak/listen fearlessly. We hate thinking that there is someone here stewing about something to discuss.
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REGARDING WORRY ABOUT TEAM EXITS:
I understand that people leaving the company brings up uneasiness. We mention that almost exactly in every announcement we make about team exits or team changes; we request specifically for you to reach out if you have concerns. The truth is that we try our best to make sure that people that are terminated are not surprised -- and very few people are, which we're pretty proud of. We offer severance in most cases and in other cases where positions are being eliminated, we offer a notice and ramp down of 4-6 weeks on average. While the final announcement may surprise the larger team, there is often runway. We aren't perfect with that and can be better. We will take the feedback here that there is worry about job security and make sure to address that as we talk about new work in the pipeline.
As coders and product folks in a consulting firm, we have a lot of control over the success. The better the work we do for the right dollars (time), the more likely we are for our team to grow, increasing stability. The most stressful part is that those same folks play a big role in projects and relationships ending. We are thrilled to have a good reputation with our clients and do work hard to keep it that way.
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REGARDING TEAM TENURE:
Even with team exits and changes -- the tenure of the team currently employed at Caxy is an average of 5 years. Less than 10% have been employed a year a less, 24% 2 years, and 66% have been employed 3 years or more.
Turnover requires context. We are very transparent in the details around the exits of employees and communicate each employees positive contributions, the general reason for departure (with privacy preserved), discussions about the impacts, and information about the coverage. Most of the time, terminations happen in isolation, more rarely as a result of projects ending.
Most people who are terminated are terminated after weeks or months of attempting to improve performance. More rarely, projects end or incidents occur that are particularly damaging to teams that require immediate termination.
As of May 2026, we've lost 0 employees to turnover and have hired 2 in the year. We are also currently hiring 1 more QA to continue supporting the bandwidth of team members.
In 2025, we hired 1 person and did see 8 people leave Caxy -- 3 of them to start their own business ventures, 2 because the positions were eliminated, and the remaining 3 for performance results, projects ending, or company direction changes. The start dates of those employees ranged from 2020-2023, which means those folks were employed for 2 years or more, on average.
In 2024, we hired 9 people total and saw a departure of 11 people -- 3 to pursue new opportunities and the remaining 8 due to projects ending, performance, positions eliminated, or company direction. We also saw 2 former employees return to Caxy for the 2nd year in a row.
In 2023, we hired 17 people and 5 people departed -- 3 for new opportunities. We also saw 2 employees return to Caxy.
**note that these numbers don't include the numbers of the few interns or short-term contractors over the last 3-4 years who have planned exit dates from the start of their employment**
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We would love to connect and understand how we can bridge the gap here of what this feeling is and what we can do -- and where we're limited in just the nature of our business. There is never negative consequence for reaching out about concerns. We also understand there is discomfort doing that.
