1) As I mentioned in #1 in the 'Pros' section, working at BlueToad is similar to working with your family. In some ways it's great, but it's also dysfunctional. Personal issues would sometimes trump professionalism. Not only with low-level employees but also management. You always knew it if one manager was feuding with another.
2) Weird upper management/employee boundaries and relationships - there were some weird boundary/relationship issues that they had with the previous CEO years ago, but the boundaries I'm referring to are different - upper management will treat some employees as friends and invite them to gatherings, etc. outside of the office. The upper management/employee lines get blurred. It was weird coming to work and hearing your coworkers talking about how they partied with upper management over the weekend, and some of the things I learned about management as a result of those conversations are things that made me view them in a negative light. Management never hid that they were friends with some employees outside of work. Interestingly, those were the employees that seemed to get better raises and perks compared to the rest of us.
3) Because they value a family-like feel, they tend to hire a lot of friends and significant others of existing employees, which is great until there's a blowout with the friend/significant other. The company isn't very big, so the tension is felt and it affects everyone.
4) Upper management is a boy's club - if you're female, you won't make it to those ranks.
