Pros
Medtronic...i.e. Safmor Danek, is a relatively good place to work. Benefits, minus pay, seem to be on par with other engineering positions. Pension and profit sharing are still in place and the medical benefits seem to be as good if not better than similar companies – although the employee contribution seems a bit high. Morale is good and management, while being a bit inconsistent with policies and such, seems to be sensitive to the employees. People are friendly and relatively good to work with. People are generally helpful and while do not go out of their way to share and disseminate key historic information, they will if asked.
Cons
Pay and promotions are ambiguous. Pay is below what I have seen for averages across other companies for similar engineering positions. Merit raises were not given last year and it appears they will not be given for this year – even though the company is in the black…..As management puts it, it is up to the market conditions –again the Company is in the black….Promotions are very much the whim of upper management. I have seen some high performers wait over two years to get a promotion from an associate position while other get promotions for supposedly launching a new project. Additionally, new hires (some re-treads from the past as well) seem to be treated like saviors with pay and titles. Some managers treat personal time off very inconsistently. Some managers allow employees to work from home and take personal time off while other managers make you beg for time off. Weekend work, while not consistent, is not compensated in either pay or personal time off, from my experience and it is almost frowned upon to ask, as well, for some sort of compensation – even casual time off.