Pros
Had good staff. Unfortunately, owner has chased off or terminated all who do not kiss up to him.
Cons
I wrote this as a warning to any would be employee trying to get into the graphic industry. Run. This isn't the place to be.
AP lacks any real direction, and not one person within the organization seems to have a full understanding of what they are actually doing.
They cycle through staff at such an alarmingly high rate,that they cannot keep consistency within their own company.
They hire inexperienced staff at low pay rates with the intention to "train them to be good installers" Pay is minimal, raises are rare. You need to fight tooth and nail just to get 1 to 1 meetings with management team members as they will not allocate that time for you.
There is no advancement in the company, where you start is almost invariably where you will stay. Little to no standardization across the board. Training you may receive is laughable at best. There is likely no written processes for any tasks you will need to complete. If no written procedure exists, you're likely to be tasked with creating it.
Leadership seems more interested in thoughtless obedience from staff over problem solving or consideration for one's self. If you find that a task is too challenging or may put your safety at risk, you are pushed to " figure it out".
Management team members go home at 4:30-5:00 every day with few exceptions. Generally staff is expected to stay late with little to no advance notice in regards to their schedule. Installers rarely see consistency in their schedules.
Responsibilities are piled on any staff member they are planning to drop. If they can overwork, or overwhelm staff they either leave of their own volition, or are terminated for "not meeting their expectations".
When support is requested, it may take months to fulfill said request. However, immediate results will be demanded.
Experienced installers, production team, and design dept, regularly undermined by management, sales, and cordination departments attempting to cover up mistakes in their departments.
No organization for their inventory, a flawed and borderline unworkable inventory spreadsheet.
Several redundant systems exist for making notes and adding details to invoices, infrequently use them, rarely attribute useful or accurate information to said invoices.
Coordination team has absolutely no idea what they are doing, schedule conflicts and inconsistent orders. Frequent rush jobs with no discernable reason suddenly being put on hold. Unreasonable expectations set for staff members and or departments. Usually in relation to completeing projects with outrageous deadlines.
No union
Finally, a work culture that describes itself as a family. But lacks a single family value.
As someone with a decade of graphic experience under my belt. I put in about 3 years at AP and received nothing but stress, anger, and bitterness towards other people from my time there. I've personally watched dozens of incredible staff members either quit over mistreatment by management and or ownership. Or get fired with little justification. If you value your mental health, run. If you expect change, look elsewhere. The only things that have changed in the time since AP opened, to now. Is it's location, and how many good people have walked out the door. -
