Pros
In general the organization is very flat and in the area that I worked most employees have the opportunity make an impact on the performance of the company. Many but not all the managers in the corporate infrastructure area are knowledgeable and caring and interested in the professional development of their reports. Teamwork is encouraged and inter-team communications are good making it very easy for new employees to meld into the organization or more senior employees to move to new opportunities. For the most part people like working there and feel fully engaged by their duties. I found very little micro-managing and as long as an employee showed initiative and met their goals they could do well. The company also strives for a good life-work balance encouraging employees to use their generous vacation time.
Kontras
Over time the culture has changed from that of an Internet start-up to a more conservative, slower moving environment; much more fear of taking risks than a few years ago. The flat organizational structure also limits the opportunity for advancement unless you can be promoted in place (i.e., System Engineer to Sr. System Engineer). Most of the original management has left and the newer management--many from outside CNET--don't seem to have the creativity or drive that was once there. Over the past few years much of the organizational structure has been changed creating duplication of effort and mismatched technical groupings. Unfortunately, the stock option backdating issue caused a significant management change just when the company was recovering from the dot-com implosion and CNET never recovered. Hopefully the acquisition by CBS will allow them to get back to focusing on the product and moving forward.