Pros
Despite the CEO, there are some wonderful hires at Fonté coffee. The production staff of the roastery work hard to bring quality coffee to the Fonté cafes and to fulfill production. The coffee is great, and the product could be fabulous if everything worked a little smoother. Even when overworked and under-paid all of the production staff are kind and courteous. The cafe, service and customer service staff are hard-working and good at what they do. The marketing team tackles daily "emergencies" and is expected to deliver on a reactionary CEO, and with what resources they're given, they do well. All of this despite upper management.
Cons
Overall, it's a toxic environment. The C-Suite, who has been running the business for 25 years, micromanages everyone, pulling projects instead of giving feedback about what teams can change or do better. The C-Suite is mood-driven, ruining office culture, and generally being irrationally attached to any new project, be it a small printed sign or a larger custom order, breathing down the marketing team or service's necks instead of letting his clients know that new materials, or custom tea boxes might take a little time to develop. Even worse? The c-suite management exaggerate each and every small project that comes across their desk, and make it seem like an emergency. Because of this, they call all regular work to a halt in order to deal with small things that, if marketing or service or sales had more autonomy, could have been taken care of in 20 minutes. Instead, the management makes everyone (accounting, production, service, marketing, customer service and other operations staff) aware of the issue and interrupts workflow until it's solved, instead of letting everyone do their job. On multiple occasions, you can hear the owners pull rank and state irrational ownership over departments, treating their C-suite like children instead of the directors of teams that they've been hired to lead. The management gets in the way of leadership, vision and execution. The whole culture is steeped in sexism and ageism - women are rarely listened to and replaced if they dare implement new policies or suggest improvements. If you're found to be under 45, you're called things like "sport" and "kid" and immediately de-valued, even though the CEO started the company in his 20s. Despite what management may say, people leave to save their own sanity: forced out by stonewalling and unrealistic work expectations (what mature physical product consistently achieves "100% growth" every quarter, when 27% is admirable with a new marketing director?) and those who try to do something new are the CEO's lap-dog until they can't achieve his insane expectations, when he replaces them without a word. Turnover is astronomical, company culture is toxic, there are people who will try to bully and manipulate you, and who will insult you behind your back, and the C-suite is immature, reactionary and profit-driven with no clear vision for where their focus should be. Vastly unequal pay for men and women in the same role. Around $20k difference for corporate and GM status. If you're a woman, you will be manipulated to take a "commission structure" - don't do it. The C-Suite and accounting will fight you tooth and nail and tell you they never signed or wrote the contract that way. Keep copies. The short? Don't work here. Awful corporate business.
