The following is my opinion based on observations during my time at the company, but taken with the other REAL reviews, the reader can get an idea what it is like to work at Avatar Partners. To re-coin a phrase, stay away!
Where to start? When you work for this company, you are supporting the owners’ lifestyle. They only care about investing AS LITTLE into the company as possible, and it shows in everything around that place. Avatar Partners is not so much a business as a cash machine for the family that founded it. They put in AS LITTLE effort and money as possible, just enough to keep the company going.
Upper management is ruled by people with the heirs of spoiled high school brats and clearly have not earned their position. Zero management skills. Zero People skills. Zero organizational skills. Takes any criticism personally and has been known to fire people on the spot for saying something they don’t want to hear. Have no ability to take constructive criticism for what it is. No ability to look for improvements, implement new processes or see anyone else s' point of view. Every complaint is seen as an insult.
Middle management is of no help at all. They are only alert for their own safety and have been known to throw their workers under the bus because upper management told them to do it. Middle management lives in fear of upper management and will not stick up for their workers with few exceptions. Expect no help from them.
Further adding to the situation is the complete lack of job security. Workers are let go (usually ‘due to cost’) and at any time. Even employees that worked hard and accomplished a great many things get dismissed. Turnover rate is incredibly high, something on the lines of 85%. I alone witnessed 32 dismissals in the course of a 6 month period. This does not include the people who have just ‘thrown in the towel’ and walked away. And their were many of those.
And the real sad thing is, the management does not get the devastating effect this has on morale. Or if they do know, they don’t care. Management will tell the workers they are the biggest asset one day, then lay them off the next. In short, expect words from management and words only. As an employee, do not expect bonuses, do not expect to actually take any of the vacation time they reluctantly offer because the law makes them, and do not expect their employee records to be anything close to updated or clear. API relies upon and promotes ignorance to its employees.
Though they will compliment employees. They will never back it up with anything even remotely considered action. Earlier postings were right about the pizza. Pizza is always brought in and seen as some kind of ‘cure all’ by management. What it means to the workers is that someone has been let go from the company.
Morale isn’t just bad, it’s nonexistent. This is a sweat shop, pure and simple. Employees are worked to death, never given the proper tools to do the jobs in the first place (usually just Freeware), and written up for saying anything the least bit constructive under impossible work schedules.
Everyone is very apathetic and work takes a lot longer to get done as a result. There is no motivation. Workers get tired and frustrated to the point of getting up and leaving and going home in the middle of the day without saying a word. Everyone is on edge and only a degree or two from erupting. It is an atmosphere of barely-contained frustration ruled over by fear and uncertainty. Upper management, barely there two days out of the week, revels in this.
Most new employees will be confused at 2 months, doubtful at 3 months, apathetic at 6 months, and completely burnt out in a year.
Further adding insult to injury is the disconnect between workers and upper management. Managers who have no idea what you are doing will be placed in charge of you. The only appreciation from upper management is the occasional ‘thank you’ email that just as often thanks workers who weren’t even on the project they were being thanked for. The upper management especially don’t have a clue who does what at the company.
Management dismisses people on a regular basis, blocks most Internet access, requires not only a time sheet, but a time clock to double check on employee attendance, gives only a half hour lunch, and fines employees using some convoluted Health and Welfare Summary that no one understands. Some employees have been presented with bills for thousands of dollars.
It was not uncommon for upper management to snoop, spy and stand behind you for ages watching you do your work. Complete control freaks, the owners think all employees are the enemy. They just assume you’re goofing off and downloading games and apps off the Internet whenever they aren’t around. Despite the place being ringed with security cameras, upper management will patrol the hallways. If someone is found outside of their workstation (say, getting coffee or using the restroom, or God forbid talking to someone) that worker will catch flak for it.
Certain employees are required to check employee equipment again and again and again, to be sure workers haven’t stolen anything. In short, expect to be treated like a misbehaving criminal child they feel needs constant supervision rather than a genuine employee. They trust no one.
While the Partners get antique oak desks large enough to land a Harrier jump jet on, regular employees are crammed behind IKEA reject fiberboard workstations more at home in college dorm rooms. Some of the rooms have a lingering stench, which is the cause of bitter confrontations. The owners live in denial, saying there is no smell and that workers are “babies” for bringing it up.
The carpet is mismatched, stained, and coming up (it was not replaced before Avatar moved in) walls have chips and stains, and are still decorated with the artwork from the previous tenant. The pipes under the building are old and leak into the tired carpet, making the stench all the worse. And periodically, we must endure insect infestations which upper management will only reluctantly fumigate for. The location is literally feet from the train tracks, so workers must deal with incessant air horn blasts and clanking of the train as it shakes the building going by.
Everything about this place screams ‘shoestring budget.’ What I've skipped could fill a warehouse.
