Pros
Most of my experience is in the serving side of hospitality so that may be dragging my average experience down, but it's nice to be treated like a real person with a life & not just an employee. Management is not authoritarian like every other job, if you turn up a few minutes late no one complains so long as you take the work seriously. When I've offered suggestions or questioned a task I've been given it's been met with consideration & a reasonable response, where in other jobs this was usually ignored or taken personally. Frequent opportunities to upskill that result in pay rises (with added responsibility) & they have a big focus on internal hiring & lateral movement within the company. Basically all the tech we support is proprietary, but if you ask questions they will be answered as best as they can. Plenty holidays & easy enough to swap shifts when needed. All of this contributes to an atmosphere that feels genuine, helpful & constructive.
Cons
Recently laid off a significant chunk of some of the other departments, although there was a huge fire in the main warehouse where tills & other tech is repaired & recycled, so this was a large financial blow, not to mention the current state of the economy. Independent pubs & smaller chains don't always get the same reliability from their equipment because they don't have large IT & epos departments to help them set things up & their account managers (their main point of contact within zonal for anything that isn't broken or not working) aren't always on the ball like they are with larger chains, which can result in complex & preventable issues - but this is more of a problem for customers & is only a mild stress for employees. The internal hiring & lateral movement seems to be less of the case in upper management; but at the top, the company is still family run & is not publicly traded, which is very important when it comes to balancing priorities instead of just making everything about the next financial quarter.
