Pros
- Coworkers are pretty cool most of the time. They're on average mid twenties to early thirties - almost feels like college. - Clients on the phone aren't too terrible, since it's business to business. Because believe me, you do not want to know the horrors of the consumer support department - I've honestly seen multiple employees cry over there.
Cons
- Direct management is a joke. They spend about 90% of their time in meetings - for what, I have absolutely no clue, as they do nothing of value the other 10% of the time they're actually at their desks. To make matters worse, they're rude and gossipy. The group of managers/supervisors feels more like a high school clique than a group of leaders. They pick favorites, and if you're not one of those few, your life sucks here - which translates to being under constant scrutiny, loaded with extra tasks that you must complete without appreciation, and robbed of yearly raises without any legitimate justification. - Zero attention is given to your personal career growth. One-on-ones with my manager consisted of talking about video games and her life problems - while this was fun, it did nothing for me professionally. They actually seem to frown upon applying to other positions internally, so I had to do so primarily in secret. (Boy am I glad I found another job before they could finish my interview process). - Grossly understaffed teams. If more than 1-2 team members needed to be out on the same day, the remaining team is met by a living Hell of constant calls. In fact, the only time I saw the managers actually do work was when they had to frantically jump onto phones or complete the responsibilities of a tier 1 support rep because of this understaffing issue. But anytime you bring it up, managers just shrug it off. - Practically everybody that works here becomes unhappy quickly after they're hired. I walk through the doors in the morning and am just blasted with the negativity. The environment is toxic because of direct management. - If you are in any department (other than sales), you will be unappreciated. - This place is a madhouse. It feels like it's run by a bunch of turkeys with their heads cut off a vast majority of the time. Expect to manage your team by yourselves - like working out a schedule on your manager's behalf to compensate for a day's team meetings/attrition, which I've had to do more than once (as they were too "busy" to notice or do anything). - My team was forced to work after hour phones, so virtually we were given a cell phone and paid $125 extra for that week, which comes out to roughly $80 after taxes. This was not discussed in my contract, and we were told to "avoid going out or making social plans during this time". Work/life balance is not valued, nor given at this company. - The communication is virtually nonexistent between direct management and the team. Feedback and suggestions we give to supervisors amount to nothing. - Just be aware of the terrible reputation this place has. You will hear it over the phones, too. Expect to offer to submit a "feature request" to the IT/development team on the client's behalf a ton, as the software Active provides is outdated garbage.