Pros
• Being a small company, there are opportunities to work in various positions and pick up new skills. It can be useful as a resume-builder.
• As with most places, some good people work here and try their hardest to create a professional and supportive work environment.
• Pay did increase somewhat, and there were benefits, such as a 401K or end-of-year bonuses.
Kontras
Most of the problems with this company stem from the owner and CEO, who create a demoralizing and unprofessional environment. Some of it may be cultural differences because they are originally from Russia, but the result is a job that sets people up to fail and treats everyone as disposable.
• The CEO has very poor communication skills. He demands things without giving clear direction and gets angry when you don't do what he expects. He gets in shouting matches with employees and does nothing to de-escalate the situation.
• The poor communication extends to many of the hires, who speak limited or no English. While fluent English speakers are accommodating to others, the CEO does not appreciate the challenges this creates in training others or communicating business needs.
• Instead of trusting the leaders in place, the CEO controls everything and undermines their decisions. This is problematic because he has unrealistic ideas of how things should work. You can explain why his ideas won't work, but he doesn't believe you and insults your intelligence.
• Many business and operations decisions are short-sighted, prioritizing immediate savings over long-term costs. Lower management deals with the consequences of these poor decisions and either makes it work or gets blamed for the outcome.
• Upper management does not care about a toxic environment or protecting employees from bullying or harassment. Formal complaints to human resources are given minimal lip service or ignored. They want you to ignore the problem until it goes away.
• To give an idea of how poorly this company is run, there were more than 10 human resources specialists in 4 years.