Pros
Associates are, for the most part, friendly. Industry is growing but extremely competitive.
Cons
This company claims to have a people-oriented culture but this is simply not true. This is a revenue growth culture. All upper management wants is more clients and they preach their revenue goal every single company meeting. Building a new building and adding kiosks with snacks (which you have to pay for) does not make for a people oriented culture. It's simply distractions so the employees think they are cared about. Compensation is laughable. PTO and salary are two of the biggest problems with this company. The company preaches work/life balance but with the lack of PTO time available and the ability to use it makes it contradictory. When you start you get two PTO days a quarter (formally one) which makes it hard to take a vacation within your first year. This is a company that does not encourage PTO use and certain managers use that to their advantage and almost frown upon you when use your PTO. Salary is another issue. This company does not pay well to retain associates. After three years of service, there was little to no growth in my income. (I guess the snack kiosk where I have to buy the snacks was the other part of my raise?) Negotiating for a raise is useless. Overall career development is lacking. Certain departments have growth opportunities; however, you must have taken a job in the entry level position for that department for you to have a chance to grow. Other departments sit dead in the water. The department I worked in was poorly managed which created the inability to have positions (that were needed) created. This made work very frustrating because there was no future to the work being done. Staffing with the amount of growth they are having is horrible. Associates in some departments work long hours (they are salaried and are not given any compensation for it) and are burned out. This has created a high turnover. (Never addressed even when questioned about it in annual meetings.) Being in a small city without the right attractions makes bringing in the best and the brightest hard. Hickory is not a marquee place for the 22 - 30 year old age range. Don't expect the CEO or Founder to come by your desk often at all to say hello. Associates notice this and it's not too much to ask as the COO makes rounds when in town.
