ESOP's Foibles - 100% Employee Owned does not mean 100% Employee Satisfaction - Systems Engineer Torch Technologies Employee Review

2.0
16 Jun 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Torch takes cybersecurity very seriously, something even the big names in government contracting struggle with. It's cumbersome at times (what good security isn't?) but they've taken great strides to make things easy with the employee SSO portal and self-hosting most of their applications.

Cons

Torch likes to advertise their ESOP benefit front and center in all their recruiting pitches, but that's of limited value to employees they bring on for 2-5 year government contracts. If they don't win the re-competes, those employees will never see the full benefit of the program. Coming over from another company on a contract that Torch won was a... rocky experience. The small HR department seemed overwhelmed with the volume of new hires, with responses sometimes taking weeks, if they came at all. Torch made it very clear that there would be no salary negotiations with new hires on the contract. My options were to either send a paystub to be offered my current salary, or accept a substantial pay cut without the paystub. You will get 15 days of leave whether you've been with Torch for 20 days or 20 years. 15 days isn't a awful amount, and indeed is a fairly standard benefit from many similar companies. However, Torch HR made it very clear that the number will not change, stating that negotiating more leave for new hires "would not be fair" to incumbent employees. Coming from a company that offered 20 days of leave, combined with their refusal to budge on salary offers, made this especially painful. At the time that I was hired, I was given only a single, high deductible health insurance option that... really didn't cover much, and required the deductible to be met before anything was covered. That included medications, requiring some members of my family to move off of medications that became too expensive to cover out of pocket. This is the first company I've ever worked for that only offered a single plan option. With the addition of Juneteenth in 2021, there are 11 federal holidays in which Government facilities close. As of this writing, Torch only recognizes 10 of them, requiring employees on government contracts to choose a holiday to use PTO to cover, rather than paying out the holiday like many of the subcontractors on their contracts seem to manage.

Explore other reviews about Torch Technologies

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Employee centric culture, ESOP, community outreach

Cons

ESOP tough to sell to next generation but still important

1.0
9 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

• I was employed and able to gain my first year of experience. • Coworkers are generally supportive and easy to work with. • Mission work supporting the military can feel meaningful.

Cons

• Salary is not competitive. Compared to what people from my graduating class are earning in similar roles, the compensation here is noticeably lower. The ESOP is often presented as a balancing factor, but for early-career employees it doesn’t meaningfully close the gap in the short term. • Technology stack is behind current industry practices. Many of the tools and development approaches feel dated compared to what is commonly used in modern software environments. That makes it harder to build skills that translate to the broader tech market. • Limited technical leadership. Some managers have not worked as developers or engineers themselves, which makes it difficult to get practical guidance on architecture, tooling, or modern development methodologies. • Professional growth can feel self-directed. Much of the learning happens independently rather than through structured mentorship or technical leadership. • Shutdown policy created frustration. During the government shutdown, employees were not allowed to take unpaid leave and were expected to use PTO or go without pay. For junior employees especially, that policy was difficult to understand. • Contract uncertainty affects morale. With contracts approaching expiration, there can be a lot of uncertainty about future work and career continuity.

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