10y
Yes, we did have some issues with Principals working as "silos" within the office. I think we greatly improved that when we categorized our work into 6 groups and agreed amongst the Principal group to share employees within the groups and across groups when needed. We try to have all employees work on a variety of different things so that that nobody feels pigeon-holed. For years we did have a policy of engineers purchasing their own computer, either with a sign-on bonus or through an interest free loan from the company. This allowed the employee to customize their computer to their own personal preference, choosing the type of computer they wanted (desktop or laptop, PC or MAC, one monitor or two, etc). Many employees like this policy. Currently we provide office owned computers to engineers, but still offer the option of an interest free loan for those employees who want something above and beyond the standard computer provided by the company. Yes, Wallace has never had a 401k matching. The company prefers to reward employees for their contribution through a year-end profit sharing bonus. The bonus provides a mindful reward to those who make the greatest contributions to the firm, rather than to those who have contributed the most to their 401k. Any funds used to match 401k contributions would reduce the amount of money in the profit sharing pool, thereby penalizing those unable to participate in the 401k plan. It should be noted that under the current plan, an employee could put any portion of their bonus in their 401k account.