eBay was great to work for until around 2004 when everything started to crack and and fall to pieces.
Pros
Good medical benefits package (in 2006). On site gym. Unlimited free drinks from vending machines. Dual LCD monitors at every workstation, telecommuting available with company provided laptop. Very good Herman Miller chairs for every employee in the office. Close proximity to freeway interchange in Draper. My coworkers were great to work with (not any supervisors or team leads though). Until my position was outsourced (in 2004), they were a company I was proud to say I worked for. I would even wear company attire. They provided use of Macro Express which was very helpful in providing "personal" canned responses. The Supervisors and Team Leads had frequent off site lunch "meetings" which is great if you're a Supervisor or Team Lead. Quarterly profit sharing bonuses based on performance if Wall Street goals are met or exceeded. Dedicated phone rooms for local calls. Decent sized break rooms with big screen TVs. Several dedicated meeting rooms. No cubicles (instead "lasagna" type seating). You get a 1 month sabbatical after 5 years of employment - if you can last there that long (I came up about a year short).
Cons
Very high stress level. High degree of micromanagement. Insanely high productivity metrics. The only way to meet their productivity metrics is to do at least 3 chats at the same time (but never tell a customer you have another chat going or you'll be written up as "unprofessional"). Only 3 out of about 20 people on my team were even getting the "meets expectations" rating for productivity, yet eBay kept increasing the metrics anyway. Promotions go to the wrong people (i.e. A handicapped female with no experience instead of a qualified, knowledgable employee). They participate in outsourcing to India. eBay became a company I was ashamed to admit I worked for. They have developed a bad reputation due to all the fraud on the site, high fees, and their poor customer service. They prefer quantity over quality for customer service. Management frequently held off site lunch "meetings" leaving no one to help if an issue came up with a customer that required escalation. Supervisors and Team Leads would avoid escalations as much as possible and were never helpful. Supervisors and Team Leads were hypocritical, would not listen to the concerns of their team, and always put business first. Salary is only average. Several long time employees either quit or were fired due to eBay's ridiculous productivity metrics. Several supervisors gave me empty promises and false hopes of providing training to help get promoted during my years of employment. Couldn't clock in more than 5 minutes early or 5 minutes late without receiving a hit on attendance. Some employees had to share desks. No roaming profiles on PCs. If you moved to a different location, your PC would not come with you so you'd have to setup all over from scratch, like a new employee (and moving to new desks was quite frequent). Very limited user account on PCs. Very poor annual raises. Only get one floating holiday. eBay upper management is out of touch with customers and front line employees. No opportunity to gain skills you could use at other jobs - you use internal tools which are useless when changing jobs. The help line was rarely helpful. When eBay missed Wall Street goals for the first time, regular employees did not get a bonus, but the CEO (Meg Whitman at the time) received a one million dollar bonus.
