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FreeWave Technologies

Engaged employer

FreeWave Technologies Reviews

2.6

36% would recommend to a friend

(57 total reviews)

Steve Wulchin

Not enough data to show CEO approval

38% positive business outlook

FreeWave Technologies has an employee rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, based on 57 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The FreeWave Technologies employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

57 reviews
1.0
26 Aug 2012

Bad Experience

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A fairly small company in which you can get to know your coworkers.

Cons

Terribly unethical and highly incompetent upper management starting at the very top. As a consequence, there is an exceptionally high turnover of employees. The complete software/firmware team (five engineers) from two years ago (2010) left the company. Half of the hardware engineers (two out of four) also left the company in the same period. Virtually the complete marketing department (except for the VP of marketing) left in last two years. In last two, perhaps three years, the company hired and fired four or five project managers. Finally, in last two years, there were 3 CTOs.

1.0
16 Jun 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some team members who really care and keep trying to make a difference.

Cons

- Lack of information sharing, collaboration, trust, and general respect across some departments and leaders. - Road-blocking by managers - Tantrums (yes, really), outbursts, and hostile, sarcastic off-hand remarks by senior team members that are just plain unprofessional - Elimination of bonuses, decline of SEP shares due to poor decision making by senior team looking to point fingers at the everyone else. - The never ending drama related to the personal dispute between the original founders.

1.0
22 May 2014

This is really, really bad place to spend your week (and weekends)

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1) nice new-ish building. 2) free diet cokes

Cons

Are you considering a position In Bellevue Washington? Or in Boulder, CO? Think again! Learn from past Boulder employees: I write this mainly as a warning to others, as it is impossible for me to offset the badness here. This is, by far, the most messed up place I have ever worked. It is dysfunctional from the top on down. Our 3 year old "management" team and their doesn't-apply-to-us rules a.k.a. "Freewave 2.0" are just plain toxic. Engineers report that reasonable, but already-aggressive time estimates are further slashed by a factor of 2x-3x by management which purports to "know better". In a practical sense, this means that you will be given NO time to simulate, prototype or debug your designs. Instead, there is barely enough schedule for you to throw something on paper and ship it!. But you'll be sorry if it doesn't work the first time... This is called responsibility with no authority. And it permeates this company at all levels. (But excludes the management team, of course.) Without any schedule or technical authority whatsoever (oh, but bunches of responsibility), engineers are leaving in droves. In an environment where staff is so short-handed from all the people leaving, you then are forced to work Saturdays and even Sundays to meet the ego-driven, fabricated schedules which you had NO input on. (as YOU clearly are "behind", right?). But when you are forced in on weekends, you will not see any of the management team. As they never have to live by their own rules or decisions... In order to address the wide gulf between what is demanded and what you are actually enabled to do, management has introduced the "PIP" (Personal Improvement Plan). It is effectively a probation tool that is just one step away from firing. Sadly, once you are given a PIP, there is no mechanism for undoing it. It is permanent. I have seen really good, conscientious people quit for this policy alone. (Or likely it was just their last straw...) Read the other reviews on this site: Our bonus plan is GONE as of early 2013. And now our SEP (retirement) plan is largely reduced. Meanwhile again, on this same site, look at all of the new postings for engineering positions! This is NOT a sign of growth. Rather, it's a sign of panicked replacement of all of the engineering talent that left! Simply, Freewave has burned through the large engineering population in Denver-Boulder. Plus here the word about this workplace is out. This is why the Washington office has opened. Finally, in the company profile, you can see testimonials from those happy employees. I know several of them. They aren't so happy now. Please note that these testimonials are about 5 years old. So much destruction has happened and bad managers hired since then. And yes, H.R. knows of this site and all of these factual reviews. In response, they have padded Glassdoor reviews with now 3-4 fake good ones in an attempt to dilute what is really happening. Learn from the mistakes of many others and just don't go here. If you really want to work with radios, check out Xetawave.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 57 Reviews

Glassdoor has 63 FreeWave Technologies reviews submitted anonymously by FreeWave Technologies employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if FreeWave Technologies is right for you.