TCOM Has A Long History, But Its Longevity Has Come At A Price
Pros
Their product, Aerostats, is interesting and fairly unique, and engineering and manufacturing aerostats encompasses a wide range of disciplines. There are a lot of experienced engineers and programmers here, although more young and inexperienced employees are being hired as time passes. Fellow employees are friendly and congenial; except for job security, management does not treat contract employees very much differently than permanent ones. In the last five years, the company has upgraded its infrastructure (document storage system, xerox machines, and so on) as it has experienced a surge in new business. It is not uncommon for the company to rehire employees with previous experience at the company. The company has a work schedule that consists of eight nine hour days and one eight hour day every two weeks, with alternate Fridays off.
Cons
Human resources is ruthless: they have no empathy for employees. Fringe benefits for permanent employees have historically been substandard; for contract employees they can be almost nonexistent. This company is run using charge numbers and budgets: sometimes nothing else seems to matter. Because of this, product quality can suffer. TCOM has had to radically downsize its workforce several times during its 35 year existence because of changes in demand for its products. Because of this, over half of the workforce are contractors. Employees feel insecure about their jobs, which makes them reluctant to share information.