Thread regarding TASER International Inc. layoffs

Axon reviews on Glassdoor are comical to say the least

"Like a Fast Food-Cheap & Enticing but Afterwards your left w/ Indigestion and Empty"
Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Scottsdale, AZ
Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
Disapproves of CEO
I have been working at Axon full-time for more than a year

Pros

Parental Leave PTO policy Some cool people

Cons

Before I started working at Axon, I told one of my friends where I was going to work. Her response was a freakishly a foreshadowing "that's a scummy company, are you sure you want to work for them?". Little did I know....Here's some candid facts about Axon: -Culture of Fear & Paranoia: It all starts with the culture of fear and paranoia. Without a drastic change in culture, this place will always be the same.

Ongoing jokes about who is going to be fired next. Is it really worth coming to a place to work wondering if you will be next? This actually causes anxiety in employees. But HR and management are to blame. They created this culture of fear and paranoia, and they feed it. -Toxic environment Just watch K–ling them Safely. They nailed how toxic this place is. Why do you think they 'changed' their name to Axon? They may have changed the name, but they can't change the reputation nor the culture. It is still the same toxic place it always was.Can't trust anyone. Constant back stabbing, constant firings, never know who said what to who to give them a bad rap. Bullying: rampant, almost encouraged -Mid Management: Extremely unprofessional and unqualified for positions. I've seen numerous people be let go due to mid managers not able to manage and unqualified to make decisions -Diversity? HA! Good luck finding at least a woman in a higher position. Everyone looks the same, thinks the same, acts the same. LGBT? Don't even think about it.

Total bro-culture here. - Employee Value Employees are not valued. Unless you are an LDP and went to Harvard or Stanford. Only exceptions. Other than that, you could have a Phd in your profession but someone with a bachelor in psychology will be running your department with absolutely no work experience. They don't value education. -Seattle Office Seriously guys, with so many awesome options in Seattle, don't waste your time with Axon. First, the office there is extremely boring and dull. Don't fall for Axon's recruiting gimmicks to fill the gap of engineers. If you are an engineer, there are so many options in Seattle for you to waste your time here. Plus, everyone at HQ hates the people in the Seattle office. Most are pompous, pretentious and treat HQ people like c-ap. -

ENGINEERS You have so many options out there! Go to a reputable, respectable company. This is a horrible work environment for engineers! Products constantly breaking, pressure to fix without proper tools and backstabbing environment. Recruiters make it seem like its a dream job and company.

Trust me: it is NOT -Sales Non-STOP firings! This is the most volatile department. If you even make it past 1 year, the sales cycle is so slow that it can take you well over a year to even start seeing any commission. You build pipeline, you build relationships months and months and nothing, or you get fired before you can claim your commission. You can't even count how many sales people get fired. Not worth the stress, the time wasted, nor the pay. - Career Opportunities If you are buddy buddy with an upper manager, maybe. If you actually have qualifications and can prove it, forget it. That's not how it works here. -Finance This is the most fiscally irresponsible company out there. Horrible management of its finances.

Last year, board members got on upper managements case about this. So what did they do? Lay off a ton of people over a two day period. In all areas, all departments. Oh but you sure as hell didn't see any of the execs give up part of their 700k + salaries. And they don't care who they get rid of. You could be there 6 months or 16 years. -Legal: Scummy legal team that fights tooth and nail every time the company gets rightfully sued. These are the people that would defend an intruder who sues a home owner for cutting himself on the glass he smashed to break in...that kind of scummy Sad to see a local company being managed so corruptly. It is a shame for Arizona that such a corrupt organization has its HQ here.

Advice to Management

Do what you do best: get rid of every mid level manager and start fresh. While you are at it, get rid of yourselves as well. If this company is going to survive it needs to be under "new management". Oh and HR, don't bother giving your pre-written response about how to feel free to contact you and give my opinion and reach out to someone with their "open door" policy. You are the last department I would ever trust. We all know going to HR is to be put on the chopping block list.

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| 13041 views | | 4 replies (last July 18, 2020) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1018N1sc

4 replies (most recent on top)

"where do you find this much time?"

CTRL+C / CTRL+V. Let me guess, you're a manager?

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Post ID: @5Zluc+1018N1sc

where do you find this much time?

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Post ID: @5hcgv+1018N1sc

"K–ling Your Career Softly"
Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
Disapproves of CEO
I worked at Axon full-time for more than 3 years

Pros

You most likely will always be the smartest person in the room

Cons

This is a place where your career can slowly deteriorate and wither away. There is no career advancement no matter your previous experience. If there is someone less qualified for the role with no experience, they will get ahead. If they need someone from a certain region, they will choose someone who has never even been to that region.

The culture here is yuck. Just yuck. If you speak up when you see something or have a different opinion, you will get fired. If someone says something about you, even if untrue and you don't bother to join the pettiness, you will be fired. They're solution for everything is to fire you. Probably have the most unprofessional HR department ever. They don't go through any protocol when getting rid of people, or vet that there is an actual reason to fire someone and not just a manager's word. Managers have no experience and no reason to be managing anything. They underpay the hardest working employees and overpay employees with no experience.

Work-life balance totally off. Everyone uses this ridiculous walkie-talkie app, Voxer, and constantly reach you 24 hours on call, weekends, weeknights, doesn't matter. Not to mention everyone looking like a doofus with a walkie-talkie noise at their ear. No respect for holidays or after hours. Dirty culture, need to play their games to stay alive. Otherwise, if you actually want to advance in your career and not waste energy on games, go somewhere else. Don't make the mistake I made in joining! Whether in Scottsdale or Seattle, culture is the same! Managers are so immature.

Never talk face to face with employees, just go by hearsay from other employees. All these 'great mission' comments are so blatantly from either HR or new employees who are asked by their managers to post positive reviews. I've seen people bullied here, make racist comments, talk and do the most inappropriate things at work, yet those aren't the ones that get fired. Do yourself a favor, and if you are considering working here...think again. It is such a farse and fake sense of 'we're a cool techy start-up with such a great mission!". It will eat away at your soul slowly. Anyplace else would be better!

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Post ID: @lks+1018N1sc

"Director"
Current Employee - Director in Scottsdale, AZ
I have been working at Axon full-time for more than a year

Pros

Strong growth company, pay is incredible, unlimited PTO, stock options for executive level positions, great corporate mission

Cons

This is the epitome of a "good ol' boys company". They are growing so quickly that they're infrastructure and capabilities are not keeping up to speed. The existing executives are getting overwhelmed and have become obsolete, and are out of their league. They don't know what's needed in the organization to drive continued growth and understanding of their customers. They are so concerned about the bottom line that they are cutting, and "being sc-appy" on key functions that are essential to the expansion and continued health of this company. Be cautious of the Seattle team, they are DIFFICULT to say the least. New ideas are not well accepted, and the ego in that division is out of control. These guys think they walk on water, and refuse to accept new ideas that will transform their organization. Make sure you understand what you're getting into, your manager, and your job - I was mislead tremendously. Would have NEVER joined this company had I known the reality of what I was in for.

"Gut" reactions and knowledge are not enough to bring you into the next era. Investment is required in Marketing, Research, Customer Experience, Services and other areas. Your product can only bring you so far. Being "sc-appy" is one thing, but if you don't have the infrastructure and functions to bring you to the next level you will fail.

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Post ID: @lvj+1018N1sc

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