Pros
HR Run Programs - the initial 3 pages of reviews clearly shows there was a current employee push to write positive reviews, because if you keep scrolling you get to more honest reviews. I will agree, CCA was a dynamic place to work. You develop close relationships with co-workers, there are a lot of company outings and perks within the office. It's definitely unlike any company I ever worked for before. It's almost like a drug when you start there because they really do strive to make you believe its the best place to work. Lots of "rah rah" around everything they do and the CEO in Manchester alone is such an inspirational man, he walks around and says good morning when he's there and tried to get to know his people. That's rare.
Cons
Unfortunately you will not advance at CCA unless you've been handpicked by a very small group of executives- it almost feels like a club you'll never get into. Promotions are few and far between for anyone, but all of a sudden you'll see 1 or 2 people move up 3 titles in the course of 2 years. This isn't jealousy talking, it's pretty obvious to see. They say they run "lean" and are looking for hard working people - but sometimes its just they are cheap and for lack of a better term, abusive when it comes to the expectations they set. Often departments and divisions never work together so everyone is doing their own thing without collaborating. Executives in marketing, merchandising, visual merchandising always think their idea is the best and fight to death over it, create conflict around it and then let their employees pick up the pieces, take the blame and re-do months of work. For a company with a 4-5 month cycle between giant shows presenting new products and campaigns this makes for an extremely stressful work environment, that could be totally avoided. People in my dept cried on the regular due to stress. Pay - I sat in a focus group once when we were nominated as one of the best companies to work for in NH. Everyone raved about the company perks and people and when the question of fair pay compared to other professionals we know came up, people were silent. The pay is terrible and when you do get a raise they make you feel like you're lucky. I was actually given a decent raise one year and was told not to expect one next year because of it. Imagine what that did to my moral as an employee. It's almost like they want you to believe that working there is such an honor that the low pay is worth it, but unfortunately Christmas Party's and BBQ's don't really pay my mortgage. I moved on after CCA and my pay increased by almost 50% and I didn't move to a much higher position and I'm only doing the job of 1 person, so there's some perspective. Perks - the perks are great and generous. However, you will never be able to opt out of them without getting read the riot act. You are accounted for when you don't show up to a company sponsored event - I almost feel like they keep a log. I went to every event, because I was made to feel so guilty, but I know others who didn't and the crap talking never ended about them and how ungrateful they are - its weird when you're in the company you think its normal to persecute someone for not going on a boat ride over an hour away after work hours. My last complaint is not company wide, but I think something that has been ignored by too many people. I worked for someone who constantly pitted their employees against each other - it was a weird experience. It almost felt like you were going into the hunger games everyday, not going to work - we finally all got together and realized everyone was getting a different story and direction which was designed to create conflict. Still to this day I never understood what the purpose was for it other than cowardice and a lack of leadership. It was later shared with me that it was widely known to never cross this person because it was a sure way to get on the crap list or fired....definitely the opposite of the culture message the company is trying to emulate.
