Epic Software Developer reviews

Epic has systematically quashed all internal avenues for giving meaningful feedback regarding policies that affect the conditions of employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Epic has then gone on to make decisions about work-from-home that are seemingly to the benefit of nobody, with the possible exception of a small cabal in uppermost management who are apparently allergic to the idea of people not physically being on campus. At the most recent all-hands (staff) meeting, Epic then stood up a stooge to talk about how the pandemic isn't really that bad and working from the office is totally going to be hunky-dory. This will inevitably prove injurious to the health of Epic's employees and the larger community in which we all live. The marginal benefit of forcing everybody to return to the office (currently planned for September, with no signs that this is going to change) cannot possibly be worth the marginal health risks incurred (to say nothing of the discontent being fomented among unhappy employees). I could levy various complaints about our tech stack (long story short, it is a nightmare, albeit less so now than when I started), but these frankly pale compared to the utter horror show that has been the company's mismanagement in the face of the pandemic.

Epic's coronavirus policy has been pretty terrible. Upper management has at every turn been trying to reopen as early as they can, despite the rapidly surging cases in Madison. Up until now, they've always relented...but only at the very last second, giving people next to no warning or ability to plan. As of this writing, we are slated to come back within the next month. Folks who have compromised immune systems or other health conditions that put them at risk are able to get an "exemption". However, this "exemption" just means: -You get to come back in the last phase (a couple weeks later than the first phase) -You need to prove to the company that you have such a condition by emailing a group and having them audit you. This stance is virtually guaranteed to kill people. There has been a strong employee backlash, but instead of even having a dialogue about it, management has actively shut down any conversation. Internal forums which were being used to discuss this were shut down. Management's response is that we're supposed to email an internal list of folks to give feedback/questions/concerns. However, this group has been steadfastly unwilling to discuss or even offer answers to questions. The people I talk to who have sent emails to this group describe it as a black hole. So, as of right now, Epic is planning to adopt a policy that is very likely to kill people, and they are steadfastly refusing to even discuss it or do anything other than tell people to not talk about. Non-COVID cons: The culture tends to push people to work too much, even if individual managers do not specifically push people to do so (though those exist, too). Managers are often not deeply involved with the functional area that they oversee, which makes them often unqualified to do their jobs. Because developer managers often will not work in the area of code that you work in, they have no way of actually knowing how effective you are at development. Because of that, the process of rankings (which determine raises and internal opportunities) is deeply flawed. Transparency is pretty bad. The rankings process mentioned above is deeply shadowy and the rank-and-file get little insight into it. Decisions are often made by upper management without explanation.