This company is OK - Test Analyst Progressive Leasing Employee Review

If you look through most of the negative reviews about this company, a lot of them are coming from the Operations departments. This is for good reason, and why I'm only giving this company a 3 out of 5. I started out in Operations and have since moved to IT, but it was not easy. This company likes to tout that because they are growing it automatically equals personal growth and opportunities for you. This is just not true. I was in my previous role for over 2 years, not by choice. The team I was on was great, the people I worked with on a daily basis were fantastic, and to be honest, they were the only reason why I didn't up and quit in 2015. I recently was promoted to an IT role, but this was not the first time I had applied for one. When I first applied, I wasn't even given the chance to interview despite meeting with the manager of the specific department I was applying into. Officially I was denied an interview because the business owner didn't feel like my knowledge and skills were on par with where they needed to be. Unofficially, told from the team I was applying for, the reason why I was denied was because the business owner questioned my work ethic and capabilities and had informed the talent recruiter that he had every intention of relieving me of several of my duties (ie firing me). The "business owner" in question was an executive level individual who my, at the time, boss rolled directly up to as there was no director between him and my boss. This was also the same individual who hired me into Operations to begin with, as well as the individual who had me working on several projects for him when I first applied for the IT position in question. After I was denied an interview, rather than being relieved of my duties, the workload kept going and actually increased slightly. Luckily. this individual left the company early in 2016, but the only reason I stayed was because I have a mortgage to pay. Mine is not the only example where this has happened. There are a handful of individuals who are also in IT that have had similar, albeit not to the same level, experiences that I have had. One individual, who is now a developer, when informing their manager in operations that they were going to apply into IT, was informed that they shouldn't even bother because they were never going to get the job. Another individual, also now a developer, had a poor relationship with his manager (also in Operations) because they would vocally disagree with some of the policies in place. When the job was offered to them, and they accepted, the manager of that department would not give an official release date and started to threaten termination to the employee when they pressured them to be released into their new role. This mentality is toxic, and unfortunately it permeates throughout Operations. It has nothing to do with a "buddy buddy" system that many people claim is going on, it comes down to a staffing problem and a fear that losing heads = irreconcilable productivity loss. The management throughout all of ops are constantly fearful of losing any kind of employee, even if it means a better opportunity for said employee. There is no sense of "improving" yourself, because improving yourself risks the chance you'll want more. They want complacency, which is ironic because that is the exact mindset that is pushing other reviewers away from the company. My advice: Apply to the company because the people are truly great, just be wary of where your role falls. Anything outside of Operations is like a completely different Progressive Leasing, and I give that 5 out of 5. Anything that falls within Operations, be prepared to sit in your role for a VERY LONG TIME. You'll meet good people in that realm, but keep in mind that these people also have metrics that they need to meet before they will let you experience any personal progress with the company.