Pros
- The company were not hard-nosed about working hours or time off. I appreciated this a lot. Most people could be trusted not to abuse this. The only times where this got bad was when management wasn't paying enough attention to their workers to know when it was being abused. - Work atmosphere is usually pretty relaxed. Artificial deadlines were rare, which again plays into trust. People gave their best effort and things got done when they could. This company thankfully grew out of the startup thing of requiring long hours. - Location is great if you don't live in Seattle. I'm convinced this kept people around for much longer. - In the non-managerial roles, there are lots of talented, hard working people. Support, design, dev all had quality people working in them when I was there. - The company still does nice things like keep a stocked kitchen, celebrate birthdays/anniversaries, etc. These are nice, but know that they will not contribute to satisfaction in the long run. The work and people have to be good for true satisfaction.
Cons
- I didn't experience this but I've heard some first hand accounts of management being cruel and manipulative to other coworkers. I hate to think that management would pick and choose who gets poor treatment. - Pay is not competitive. Everyone I talked to echoed this. Bonuses and raises are below average and will usually only happen under perceived threat of leaving. This is a company that does not think it has to be competitive, on *any* measure. - When I was there I saw severe management mistakes. Some departments had managers outnumbering employees. No manager ever stood up to the CEO on something and lasted at the company. Huge amounts of time were wasted in protracted meetings, people were constantly pulled off of projects and put on others. Major decisions were made without consulting with any experts within the company, with disastrous results. Management pays lip service but does not respect the expertise of its employees. - Really questionable business plans. I've long felt this company would be successful if it could find a way to do fewer things with much fewer people. I often thought it wanted to do way too much and the industry it was in cannot sustain the size of business it needed to be for that. Near the end I was really unhappy with my job and if I'm being honest, I avoided recommending it to colleagues when job opportunities came up. I got so sick of fighting with everyone at the company and doing things to appease people. If I wanted to play those BS games and lose all passion for what I did, I'd go join one of the many mega corps in the area.
