‘The work really never ends’: Former Epic Systems employees discuss company culture, work-life balance

By Jasper Bernstein STAFF WRITER

With its headquarters in Verona and its founding in Madison, Epic Systems has become one of the most prominent technological employers in the region. While some former employees have praised the company’s culture and structure, others have raised concerns about issues such as work-life balance and the company’s strict hybrid work policy.

Founded in 1979 by Judy Faulkner, Epic started as a small software company providing billing services to healthcare providers. Over the years, the company grew and evolved, becoming one of the largest healthcare software companies in the world.

Epic has deep ties to the University of WisconsinMadison, employing over 1,200 university graduates. The company has also endowed three computer-science faculty positions, supporting various departments across the university.

“Epic is consistently a top employer of UW-Madison graduates,” said Sara Lazenby, an institutional policy analyst at UW-Madison. “[The company hires] for roles like software developers, project managers, technical solutions engineers, quality managers, software engineers and other related roles.”

A youthful environment

Fifty-five percent of Epic employees are between 20 and 30 years old, according to Zippia. Combined with a majority of employees staying at the company for under four years, Epic has a young workforce.

“I joined Epic as my first career job,” said Rishi Satpathy, former technical solutions engineer at Epic. “It was very interesting. A lot of people are very gung-ho about work [and] they’re kind of still [figuring out] what to expect.”

Satpathy said the company’s youthful environment should not be viewed as a negative characteristic.

“Epic puts you in a lot of [different] situations — some of the people I’ve worked with, who were there for five years, are in their late 20s and early 30s,” Satpathy explained. “They have a ton of insight and a ton of knowledge of both the product [and] working with our customers.”

However, this perspective is not universally accepted. A former Epic employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said the company’s youthfulness creates a highly social and closed-o work environment.

“When I started, I [realized that Epic] is a very ‘fresh out of college’ sort of environment. People are pretty young,” the former employ- ee said. “There’s a lot of emphasis on people socializing together and going out together and joining clubs together. [The culture] creates a very insulated social bubble for you to live within.”

The insular culture does lend itself to productivity, Satpathy said.

“We’re working with people who are very driven [and] who want to get things done — there’s nothing that falls to the wayside,” said Satpathy. “You can knock on people’s doors. It’s very easy to find people who are able to help you. There’s a lot of structure around [collaboration] as you’re working through these complex situations.”