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Thatcher Technology Group, LLC

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Thatcher Technology Group, LLC Reviews

2.3

23% would recommend to a friend

(95 total reviews)

Dave Siembieda

25% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

Thatcher Technology Group, LLC has an employee rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars, based on 95 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Thatcher Technology Group, LLC employee rating is 40% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

95 reviews
2.0
12 July 2016

Woefully Inadequate

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Thatcher Technology Group has the word "Technology" in its name.

Cons

There is hardly a single abstract or literal object existing in the space leased by Thatcher that could be considered "technology" beyond the year 2000. The main product's interface, its installer and associated web architecture are laughable by today's standards. The UI takes advantage of the Windows 95 motif and behaves inconsistently due to abysmal documentation between versions. Everything was developed in an early edition of C# that shirks all modern advantages of .NET in favor of maintaining its original architecture from the Stone Age. Any suggestions to Development to improve performance of the product were met with quizzical looks, as they were not aware of the anything outside their codebase. The few Development team members that showed initiative and creativity were immediately removed. The IT "department" consists of a singular individual that the CEO has known since the 90's. This should explain all you will ever need to know about accountability in other departments. No SQL knowledge was ever provided by IT, moreover, they were not a trustworthy source for the majority of IT-related tasks. Rarely were they available for even the most basic administrative duties - which suddenly took days to accomplish (password reset, granting permissions, software, etc.); and most departments were not around on the average late-night struggle to assist a demanding Client. Project Management would have been sufficient if enough positions were staffed, but high turnover was the result of upper-management living in delusions about how to treat human beings. When the Client called upset, someone lost their job or was berated for not living up to an imaginable standard. No daily schedule was ever defined to address real issues inherent within the product. Instead, sweeping adjustments were made against the defined processes to update a Client's codebase, and then never documented, which caused the same issues for other Clients because they had somehow gotten baked into the update software. There are no solid processes delivered to any new hires; the promise of training was never delivered - as the official position for training new hires had just left the company. Even informal training could not be accomplished because none of the legacy employees had time for it; as they were already inundated with picking up the slack for other associates that were rotated through within a matter of months. Because of this, work consists of being reminded that you will not enjoy the majority of your day. This extends to weekends when the on-call rotation forces employees to receive calls with barely any support or documentation on how to resolve anything. The point of escalation is to another phone, typically another individual unaware of a solution that just allows issues to lapse into the work week. The opportunity for sometimes free lunch or a beer after 4pm is nice, but nowhere near adequate to show anyone that their time is appreciated. Room for advancement appears non-existent after a role has been assigned to the employee and the pay within each department is questionable at best for the amount of effort required to keep the customer satisfied. They recently had to liquidate multiple positions throughout the company in order to maintain pay for employees that have been around for more than five years; either because they are paid too much for the same amount of work accomplished by their associates, or the company is just shy of bankrupting itself due to poor management and incomplete policies and cannot retain its customers whom have instead opted to run their own entrepreneurship, without Thatcher's product, after many years of loyalty.

1.0
5 July 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The physical office was easily the nicest I've ever worked in. Pretty good layout, bright, inviting, modern. Free snacks are provided, as are occasional lunches. Due to the high turnover, there are opportunities to act in a more senior role earlier than you might be able to at another company, though probably not in any official capacity.

Cons

The owner, Dave Siembieda, is easily the biggest problem with this company. Regardless of who you officially report to, every single person has an invisible line on the org chart that goes straight to him. He prefers to give out only what information he considers to be necessary, but he is also quick to berate people when their choices are reflective of the lack of context the need-to-know approach provides them. On the topic of berating people, I have seen him literally yell at employees in front of their coworkers. Although he will sometimes apologize later in private, I only saw him apologize in front of the coworkers who saw the incident once. Even on that occasion, the apology was not "I'm sorry that I treated Employee X poorly," but rather "I'm sorry that I claimed Employee X did not clear this with management when they actually did." So even then, the focus is entirely on the employee and whether or not they somehow deserved the poor treatment. In meetings, Dave would regularly be rude to employees. If he didn't agree with what was being said (frequently because of details that the employee had no way of knowing), he would often sigh and look up at the ceiling or bury his head in his hands dramatically, with a little "do I really have to deal with this?" kind of chuckle. Extremely demeaning, and not the least bit helpful. Here's the kicker: after Dave had a chance to calm down, he would frequently corner people and explain that he is just trying to help, because he doesn't want people to have to work late (he's fond of saying that he wants employees to be able to go home at 6 - 6!? - when he's talking about getting work/life balance in order, and his go-to solution when a problem comes up is "no one leaves until this is fixed," so this claim is highly suspect), or because he's looking out for us. To verbally abuse people and later try to twist things so that the abuser is the victim and the abused is the one in the wrong is gaslighting, plain and simple. It is manipulative, abusive, and harmful. After I left Thatcher, it took me months before I was able to go into a meeting with my manager and not wonder what I was going to be in trouble for. It's been just over 2 years since I was there, but I still feel my pulse pick up and fight-or-flight start sometimes when someone has nearby has a voice similar to his. The place is a nightmare, and it wasn't until I was gone that I could actually realize how bad it was. Avoid this place at all costs.

1.0
10 Dec 2015

Thatcher vs. Reality Part II

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Let me start this review by saying the majority of people who are employees in this organization are good people. They really do care (about each other, the company, the clients) and work hard. Unfortunately for them they are in a situation where they are continuously setup to fail. There is no commitment to process or procedure (or reality for that matter) which makes it near impossible to be successful. The only PRO I would say is that it’s a job/paycheck. In addition they do provide catered lunches a couple times a month, have lunches to welcome new employees and have a Thanksgiving feast and Holiday party every year.

Cons

Workday: as other reviews have stated work/life balance is fairly nonexistent here. There is this mentality,”everyone stays until fixed”. In my opinion, “just make it happen” isn’t an effective business strategy. Your day will consist of putting out fires as they arise. At first this can seem exciting. After a bit it is wearing. Then shortly after that it becomes very disheartening as you can never make any forward progress or feel a sense of accomplishment. This is a direct result of decisions made by upper management. Culture: the culture here is one of fear and stress. The CEO is verbally abusive and hostile to his employees but has this idea that lunches and happy hours and holiday parties make his utter lack of respect for the people that work with him acceptable. This is not a culture of learning or personal or professional growth. There is no ongoing training. There is no unifying mission. It is every person for themselves which results in a lot of infighting and a woeful lack of communication (effective or not) between departments. Leadership: the CEO is 100% the root issue at this organization. He is verbally abusive to people that show up to work everyday, work nights, work weekends, give up their personal time out of loyalty to him (well to be fair, for a paycheck too of course). There is no idea of a partnership between company and employee here. You are expected to be effective in an environment that ensures failure and then are held accountable when you do fail. Leadership sets unrealistic expectations with the customer which they then expect the employee to deliver on. Leadership does not care about the professional growth of their people. It’s not even on the radar.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 95 Reviews

Glassdoor has 95 Thatcher Technology Group, LLC reviews submitted anonymously by Thatcher Technology Group, LLC employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Thatcher Technology Group, LLC is right for you.