Terrible Work-Life Balance, Bad Work Environment, Unnecessarily Long Hours
Pros
While working for AEG, I made some really close friends. The amount of time you spend with your colleagues is insane so you really get to know people. Seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff for concerts, sporting events, and shows was awesome. Seeing rock stars and hockey players hanging out back stage was pretty cool.
Cons
The work-life balance is terrible. On event days, I was expected to work 14-16 hour days for a salary that was based off of a 40 hour work week. When I accepted the job, I specifically voiced my concern about the overly-demanding schedule and I was told to not worry about it and that I wouldn't be over-worked. The work environment was really hostile. There was an unnecessary "all hands on deck" attitude about every single show even though during shows, there is nothing for every single management employee to physically be doing. Minimizing manpower to a skeleton crew would have helped so much but it was never even considered (and I don't know why). If you couldn't work a show or event because you had something else going on, you were labeled as lazy and antagonized for it. A colleague of mine was getting married on a weekend that a concert was scheduled for. Every time he left the room, someone commented about how bad it was that he scheduled his wedding on a concert weekend. Give me a break; it was his wedding! The facility I worked for employs a unionized work force. My boss expected me to micro-manage the employees that were under me and sometimes ordered me to do the physical labor that the unionized employees were responsible for. This created an awkward relationship between management and the unionized employees. No advancement opportunities.
