Pros
* Produces and supports superior products and services in the industry * Provides opportunities to work closely with incredible speakers and authors * Encourages employees to give back to the community with a paid day off to do volunteer work * Located in an area close to Bloomington's B-Line trail (so convenient for those who commute by bike or foot)
Cons
* Growth of the company comes at the expense of employees. In the years I worked there, my salary was stagnant (no merit-based raises and meager profit-sharing payouts) but the hours I worked nearly doubled from 40 to an average of 73 hours per week. * Poor management leaves employees feeling overworked, underappreciated, and unheard. Managers have openly talked poorly about current and former employees, and many of them play favorites. Because there's an open floor plan, employees hear just about everything. Some of the managers lack a basic awareness of their department's procedures and processes, and almost none of them have a deep understanding of what other departments actually do. The company touts collaboration and openness, but in practice, that rarely happens. The culture feels, at times, hostile and unprofessional. * Odd things are rewarded, supported, and praised. As another reviewer mentioned, timeliness seems to be the only thing that matters. If you show up at 8:01, you can expect to hear about it (even if you were waiting for your babysitter to show up), but if you're there until 8:00 PM, absolutely nobody cares. (Along with the unsustainable increase in the workload, this is one example of how employees are told that "family is important" and that Solution Tree "supports a work-life balance," but practice doesn't actually reflect that.) Along these lines, if you make a fast decision about a problem or challenge in your work, those sorts of quick answers are rewarded rather than those that are more carefully thought out but perhaps take more than a couple of minutes to raise. This kind of culture punishes the most dedicated workers and creative thinkers. If you don't conform exactly to privileging and prioritizing these values, you will feel pretty miserable, no matter how much you love your actual job, how much effort you put into doing high-quality work, and how much of an impact your work has in your department's and the company's goals. * The culture is very uncomfortable if you're not a right-wing Republican Christian. There are Bible studies at lunch time that monopolize a conference room, reminders in emails sent from the owner about the religious reasons for holidays, and suggestions of Republican candidates to vote for if you are "undecided." Not sure if any of these are legal, but because HR is friends with the owner, there's no real opportunity to voice concerns about these (and other) uncomfortable practices.
