Pros
The Romania team is what makes this company work. Work life balance is great. It's a lifestyle company. You get to work from home a lot and workdays are short, which means things get done slowly because no one is around. The Fairfax office can be a ghost town and I rarely saw collaboration take place, except for maybe around the foosball table.
Cons
Leadership: Amateur executives are all new to the company, making rookie decisions and throwing each other under the (struggle) bus. They are soft. If you look hard enough you can read through their phony act. The leadership dynamic is unhealthy and they cannot be trusted. You should question why they’ve had 100% executive turnover in the last 18 months. Company Performance: The company is struggling, which has caused so much unrest - people are jumping ship or being asked to leave. The inexperienced CEO is thrashing out and has made reckless decisions in order to keep the company from sinking. He is prone to acting before he thinks through repercussions fully. The CULT(ure): Mediocrity is celebrated. They do average work and it's accepted as Minimum Viable Product. They encourage failure and freely own and apologize for their mistakes – calling it “smart failure”. The catholic cult(ure) undertones how business decisions get made based on ultra right wing, pro-life, conservative religious values, regardless of financial impact. The dysfunction abounds. They tout Agility, Innovation and Integrity as CULT(ure) values. Here is what that looks like: Agility: they like to experiment a lot. Trouble is they are constantly experimenting with new organizational structures. It’s as if they think people are disposable, regardless of impact on careers and livelihoods. They are addicted to agility so much that they don't allow enough time to see if the last change worked. Be prepared to work in a schizophrenic constant state of chaos. Innovation: Real innovation is not taking place. The product mindset and design thinking are not new concepts. They use post-it's for brainstorming. (Slow clap) Integrity: They claim integrity but most are just faking happiness and talking behind each other's backs. The CEO preaches sermons about integrity, but he is not loyal to his team, unless you are in his inner catholic circle. They don't have policies, which makes it easier for them to play favorites, politics and operate inconsistently. They will coax you into believing you can share thoughts transparently and say what you really believe, but be careful with your words because they hang on every one as if it was gospel. If they had a strong sense of integrity, they wouldn't have invested the equivalent of a person’s annual salary to have an executive offsite retreat at a 4 star resort during the same period of time as they were having layoffs.
