Avoid the Human Resources function - Human Resources Professional McAfee Employee Review

pay is good and benefits is good. high intensity culture with a strong demand for accountability. clear transparency in goals from the top down, all aligned.

leadership changes and org changes makes it feel unstable at times

Great coworkers. There are genuinely talented, supportive people here—your day-to-day experience will often be made better by the team around you. Remote work. The flexibility and convenience of working remotely is a real plus and can improve work-life balance. Strong compensation if you’re in a LCOL market. Pay can be solid depending on where you live—especially in lower cost-of-living areas. Just be aware it can feel less competitive in HCOL regions, where leadership may view you as “too expensive” compared to lower-cost markets.

Leadership direction is unstable. Goals shift constantly and are often unclear, which makes it hard to prioritize and plan. Low-trust management culture. Leadership is rarely transparent about intentions or concerns. The “hands-off” style isn’t empowering—it leaves you second-guessing everything and questioning whether you’re getting the full story. Cost-cutting disguised as strategy. For urgent project kickoffs, they’ll staff roles from expensive markets—then immediately start searching for replacements in lower-cost regions. Frequent layoffs reframed as “restructuring.” Layoff rounds happen multiple times a year, often presented as reorganizations. Then you notice the same roles being hired again in other countries. Teams avoid discussing layoffs, brush them off as “no work,” and you end up onboarding someone who appears to be your replacement. Gaslighting when challenged. Even when you directly point out the contradictions, management deflects, minimizes, or flat-out denies what’s happening. False sense of security. Check-ins are surface-level: a quick status update and “all is well,” which can feel like reassurance right up until it isn’t. High churn / revolving door. Median tenure is roughly two years. Roles cycle repeatedly, often trending toward “replace with the cheapest option.” This has become the standard ever since private equity came in, Weak internal operations. Documentation, project tracking, training, and internal policy are underdeveloped, creating unnecessary confusion and rework. Poor planning at the top. If a department is repeatedly “restructuring” and outsourcing every year, it’s not agility—it’s a symptom of leadership that can’t plan, staff, or execute sustainably.