Leadership is Ruining Garmin Through RTO and Benefit Loss
Pros
As frustrated as I am at Garmin's outdated views on workplace culture, diversity, sustainability, work life balance etc. we do make wonderful products and even after I leave I will continue to buy and recommend our products.
Cons
After 5 years of hybrid work, the c suite made a baffling decision to enforce a RTO policy. There was no warning, leadership was not consulted. An email was sent out on a Thursday afternoon and that was that. The COO of our company, when asked about this in a town hall, had the audacity to state that other benefits would not be adjusted to compensate for this because Garmin didn't ask us to pay back money we saved on gas during the days we WFH. We are a company that makes products in Asia. My direct coworkers work 14 hours ahead of me. We have tons of remote sites I deal with over teams. Outside of lab work (which I have no issue with coming in to do) there is no reason for me to be at a desk talking to people over teams. This is clearly a decision that was made because the company overspent on renovations and property. Garmin has a reputation for poor salary, I knew this coming in but decided the other benefits made up for it. This was a mistake on my part, I will admit. Garmin leaders frequently joke about how you have to deal with a poor salary to work here, it is a huge red flag that everyone is aware of and does nothing about. Garmin sends out annual employee surveys and when we rank the benefits as low we are told that we are greedy and just want more money. This is Garmin culture on display. Garmin is clearly at a crossroads, it is no longer a startup but continues to promote itself as one both internally and externally, preaching flexibility and work life balance while at the same time stripping those things away from the people who actually make the products we sell. This is all topped off by 5 years of record profits, stock growth and brand market share, none of which have resulted in material benefits for the individual contributors, it just enriches the executives who continue to demand more from us while claiming we don't have the money for raises or to hire more people. I strongly believe these poor decisions by leadership are going to destroy this company. Let's talk about other problems at this company: There is no commitment to diversity, the executive leadership and most leadership in general is made up entirely of white people (mostly white men) and the staff reflects this. The maternity leave is horrendous, and this results in few working mothers, or women in general, being represented. Garmin loves to flaunt "other" benefits, like no dress code or discounted products, while every year they add more restrictions on this (dress code applies when a vendor visits, we now get 50% fewer discounted products). I will end with this. It is a new era of work, companies can either get with the times and flourish or chose not to and fail when their employees inevitable leave for greener pastures. I now know what Garmin plans to do and it is very disappointing.
