Pros
Getting to meet some of the finest people in Athens. Long lasting friendships, I see my crew every single week for dinner. The talent in the main building alone was mind-blowing. Between art shows, band performances and the artists who shared ideas and are very passionate about their craft, we bonded outside of work very easily which encouraged strong communication and a sense of team spirit at work. When everyone was happy with the job, you would easily find people staying late or volunteering to come in to help out when the call volume or emails got out of control which ONLY ever happened when the server went down. Free lunch on Fridays, Halloween costume parties and the Christmas party. We had the most fun putting together corny birthday cards and voting for 'Super Star' of the Month which everyone loved because it was our way of showing appreciation for one another. Of course the con to all of the above is having to be anywhere near middle management, and naturally most of the aforementioned being stripped away from us.
Cons
I was promoted during the first mass exodus when there was a sudden shift in middle management and those who had the common sense and better judgment to get the heck out of dodge, rolled out of there within a period of two months. I spent most of my time trying to figure out ways to streamline communication between the production facility and the customer service department, and ways to better the flow of orders in general. There was an us vs. them mentality between the two departments and I made many efforts to break down that barrier. I was the ONLY supervisor for 5 months, which meant I was training and re-training new staff, answering all questions, monitoring the flow of communication with customers, handling all of the bad customer calls, boosting office morale, and taking on tasks that belonged to the former Customer Service Manager who after two weeks of being doted on by middle management was suddenly the pariah of the office. Needless to say we all saw that coming, and the same was true for the second customer service manager who was hired and suddenly 'relieved of her duties' . I was being praised and encouraged for doing this, until yet another 'job responsibility' was 'offered' and I asked for another employee to assist me with handling that one thing, since I was already elbows deep in everything else trying to keep the place afloat. Suddenly, I was deemed incapable of handling the work load and when I submitted my name to be considered for the Customer Service Manager position (the duties of which I was already doing and then some) I was turned down because my 11 years of customer service and retail experience wasn't enough, not to mention 5 months of steering the ship successfully was somehow inadequate. It was fine to dump all of the responsibility on me until I asked to be compensated fairly for my sweat and long nights (I left that place at midnight sometimes after answering hundreds of emails in a day). I watched other employees who were promised raises including current supervisors, get overlooked and ignored. I watched people get abused and berated publicly by management who feels that screaming and shouting at people are effective modes of communication. I watched two people fail miserably at the customer service manager role and at that point I had enough. When I was told to my face that I too had a bad attitude because I saw that people were being treated unfairly, I knew that it was time to move on (before they made up a reason to fire me). If you are an under achiever, who is content with being treated like a robot and are comfortable with a mercurial management team; this is the job for you. If you are easily manipulated and If you are fine with suddenly becoming an outcast because you put your foot down because your Mother taught you that you are worth something...this is DEFINITELY the job for you.