I have never experienced a toxic workplace like that at Aspen Systems. I was very poorly trained during a boring, demoralizing 1-2 months of 8 hour days in a classroom that was a very light touch on many aspects of Canopy, their ERP software. After that, I was rapidly thrown into a toxic mess of stress and anxiety with sky-high expectations and constant, niggling criticism of my every effort. Personal timekeeping for work tasks is reported in 6 minute increments, which is incredibly restrictive and frustrating. Also, if you need to step away for an hour to a doctor’s appointment or something similar you have to take time off in 4 hour increments, which is just laziness on the part of managers. Every staff member at Aspen that I encountered had at least one (or more) major negative personal issue(s) that were the proverbial "elephant(s) in the room" and contributed in big ways to the unhappy, poorly adjusted working environment. Not to mention the politics and backstabbing. Communication is sorely lacking, mind-reading and perfection are expected, down to the tiniest details. Canopy is a massive beast of inefficiency and needless complexity which is about 20 years out of date, and the staff is forever scrambling to patch it to keep it relevant to their customers increasingly complex, often ridiculous needs. Many Canopy customers were obviously promised the moon when they purchased a license, and it's left to staff take the brunt of abuse when those promises can't be delivered on. I honestly tried my best there but the unconstructive lack of guidance and unreasonable work demands that followed on the initial non-training on Canopy sank my chances. Also, if you're not a "chosen one" by one or more managers there, and part of the cliquey, arbitrary "in-crowd" your chances of success there are nil. A massive overhaul of staff and software product is in order at Aspen Systems, but nepotism is a major factor. A year I wish I could get back, and a total, unhappy waste of time. Also, the health insurance benefit is a joke, with a $5,000/$10,000 deductible that makes it useless - a doctor took one look at my card and laughed. Work/life balance? Don't even think about it.
