Pros
Decent workstations and nice kitchen area.
Cons
Company owner loves to micromanage, and push ideas, regardless of feasibility, and forces work to be done, even if it will just be thrown out later due to lack of feasibility. I was hired through a third party as a contractor with a given salary. On my first day of work, the company bought me out of that contract to hire me full-time, then forced me to sign a document stating that if I left the company within 18 months, for any reason (including being fired), I would have to pay them what they spent to buy out the contract. They then cut my salary by 1/3, making it very cost ineffective to commute the 80 miles round-trip. Any copies of the contracts I signed when I was hired disappeared, and I was not given copies of them for my own records. I was told my salary would be restored after a probationary period, but never was, despite working there for two years. After having been there approximately six months, the payroll department started reducing my paychecks if 40 hours per week were not worked, regardless of the hours per pay period. Overtime was not paid. So one could suddenly, while salaried, work 32 hours one week, and 60 the next, and be paid for only 72 hours. They would adjust the annual salary during a pay period to make this adjustment, since the salaries are handled on an annual basis, not an hourly one. They got tired of making adjustments to people's salaries, however, and forced everyone to be hourly employees. No new contracts were signed, there was no option to remain salary. The developers at Powercode are placed behind a firewall that actually makes it difficult to view sites that have development related material because they were classified as "blogs" or simply because the sites were deemed to be ones that people use to waste time and not work. Simultaneously, upper management, and his inner cadre would occasionally have bidding wars on auction sites for military paraphernalia. Service techs for the sister company had unlimited access to the Internet, but developers trying to troubleshoot issues, and looking up information online couldn't even follow links on Google because sites were blocked. Any attempts to circumvent the firewall, to make it more possible to do one's job were met with reprimands directly from the owner if found out. And they would try to trick employees into visiting a site that was known to be blocked to test whether they were circumventing the firewall; something resembling entrapment. We were forced to sign documents or be fired when we were forced to move from one room in the building to another. A document that specified when each employee would be allowed to use the restroom. One employee was actually fired for not agreeing to various aspects of the document. We were given an opportunity to have stipulations made to the agreement, but even clauses that were agreed would not be enforced were enforced anyway. I suffered an injury, not at the workplace, which resulted in my being on doctor's orders not to drive, not to do stairs if it could be avoided, and to work from home for two weeks. After one week, I was told I must return to work where I had to also climb stairs with some frequency, as well as the 80 miles of driving. In a write-up I received for I don't even know what, attendance problems I believe, I was told that I was missing work too much, as a result of time taken off for doctor visits (while having a condition that requires them), and a slip and fall incident where I'd injured my back. These things were cited in an attendance write-up that was being used against me, and would potentially result in my employment being terminated. And this was after I was told by the owner that I should do whatever I needed to do to manage my health better which is when I started feeling like it was acceptable for me to take time off work for visits to the doctor that I had been skipping because of the fear I had of missing work. There was also an issue with carbon monoxide, and detectors were installed. Every time one went off, it was removed to be tested, and after the third time never returned. The employees complained about the detector's removal, but were told that they were malfunctioning, and that the situation was being closely monitored, though there would be no way to do this if the tools for monitoring the situation have been removed. When I pointed out that the new health issues I seemed to have developed from having my desk right next to the HVAC unit (approximately 2-3 feet), and it not being sealed off well, might be from the carbon monoxide that was setting off the detector, also placed near my desk, my hours were reduced, and my health insurance terminated immediately. It did not persist through the end of the month, despite premiums having been paid. Between my hours being cut by 1/3 and my health insurance taken away, I submitted my resignation. After all, I would be losing money just to work there between the commute and paying for my health issues, and be in an environment that was literally making my health worse. When it was submitted to my manager, I was told that it would be brought to the owners, who were currently in a meeting, and then decided what they would want to do with the resignation. However, before I even left the building in the following 10 minutes, my key fob had been deactivated, my work email address deleted, and all access to Powercode materials revoked. Rather than let me continue to do my work for the two weeks of my resignation, I was told I would not be allowed to continue working in Powercode. I couldn't be trusted with the code, though everything was version controlled and monitored. However, it was insisted that I was being allowed to continue working for the duration of my resignation, just not in Powercode. However, given that was where I worked, it did not make sense that this was honoring my resignation if I'm being actively prevented from doing my job. As such, I simply chose to take the constructive dismissal, as it seemed the company wanted to be rid of me anyway, despite all the work I put in while being underpaid, having my salary illegally adjusted from pay period to pay period, but only negatively (it's okay to work 60 hour weeks every week, but work 37 and your pay would be docked), and forced out of my salaried position. During my two years there, no less than 4 employees quit or were forced to quit, and I believe a fifth was actually fired. Considering that when I started, there were 4 employees other than myself, and never more than 7 if I remember correctly. That's a not-insignificant turn over. Shortly after I left, three or so more employees also left.