Pros
- Paid every two weeks - Benefits not great (expensive, high co-pays; only 5 paid holidays per year), but at least they exist for full-time employment - 401K recently added - Location of HQ - The work could actually be interesting; never a boring day and was always busy (but see below; "overworked" is the operative word) - Some amazing, smart, talented coworkers (NOT in upper management) - Casual work environment (no dress code, can be fairly flexible about your hours depending on department)
Cons
- Absolutely no regard for a work-life balance, UNLESS you're a director or above. Then you can fake sick once a week and get annoyed when your staff can't make all deadlines even while working 60+ hours a week - Completely unrealistic expectations. Grow the company 30% every year with no additional headcount? Hire more VPs but no one who actually does the work? Yeah, that works well for everyone - Zero disregard for employees' time. Oh, you have to do that in the the middle of the night? We don't care cause we don't have to do it. Oh, you have to do that over the weekend? We don't care cause we don't have to do it. Read all the current job openings for HQ: they all state you have to work holidays, evenings, and weekends, in addition to a typical 5-day work week. You think that's an exaggeration? Think again. Working 7 days a week was the norm - No growth opportunity at all for hard-working, dedicated employees. No promotions and only small increases - CEO values chaos. The louder and more obnoxious you are, the more successful you will be. If you're quiet, hard-working, and like a professional office environment, you will FAIL. In fact, HR will tell you people are happier when you're not there. Office has music blasting at all hours, so if you just want a quiet environment to do your work, you can't have it. Cause not only is the music loud, but the open seating floor plan means everyone is screaming all the time. You have to scream over the music, and then other people have to scream over the other people screaming. From the time you arrive until the time you leave it's one giant headache of constant noise. But if you ask to work from home so you can actually concentrate on your work, you'll likely be denied or guilted out of it - No one in upper management is able to think logically. They want everyone to plan the marketing promos months ahead of time, which is actually what a company should be doing, HOWEVER, those plans are never followed. They would change the week-of all the time, with the explanation of "we have to adjust to the needs to the business." "Okay, so why plan?" "Oh, cause we were told we have to." "But it's all subject to change." "Yes, but you still have to plan even though none of this will stick and we'll decide everything the week of anyway." "But why do you need it months ahead of time? Who's looking at it? The creative team knows not to cause they know it will change." "You still have to plan and deliver it on the due date even though we all know it will change and this is a giant waste of your time." It was a maddening circle of writing plans and then re-writing them up to 15 times before the promo even started - You get lied to all the time. You sit in one meeting and hear about money being tight, not being able to pay vendors, etc., but then in the all company meeting they say everything is great - Plain ole nastiness from upper management. Directors and VPs legit talking down to their employees. Sometimes just criticism... not even constructive. Abusive work environment. Sitting in meetings with people yelling at each other and blaming one another. And for what? A tiny little furniture store that barely anyone has ever heard of? Do you really think you're changing the world? Get your expectations in order. Good employees are going to leave when the leader of their team shoots down every single thought and idea they have and is constantly sarcastic - The amount of sarcasm! Some of the department heads speak it as a first language. There is nothing professional about the leadership of this company