Pros
Despite the laundry list coming up in the Cons section, there are some Pros to this company as well. The People - Maybe it's just the blind squirrel finding a nut every once in a while, but Active has managed to hire some really amazing people. They've also managed to run off some really amazing people but more on that later. There are many at Active who are intelligent, driven business people who make working at Active bearable. ActiveX - The employee wellness program is award winning and pretty much the last bastion of what Active used to stand for. There are weekly running groups, office yoga classes, cycling groups, etc. You get two extra days off per year, one for volunteering and one to do something you are passionate about. Every year the employees raise money for a charity while training to participate in a triathlon together. Unfortunately, the outlook for this program is uncertain under the new Global Payments ownership but the person in charge of the program is an absolute rock star :-) Opportunity to work in an industry you are passionate about - There are a lot of people who work at Active because they live and breathe running, triathlons, cycling, the Y, summer camps, etc. If working with those organizations is your passion, you can do that at Active. The Coffee Maker - There's a pretty decent coffee maker in the break area on the 26th floor. Somebody left it after they got fired a long time ago or something.
Cons
Buckle up people..... Company "Culture" - Active is the type of company that thinks positive company culture is a ping pong table and stale bagels on Fridays. Micromanagement - The micromanagement starts at the very top. Some of the top Execs can't seem to let go of their previous lower and middle management responsibilities long enough to let the people they hired do what they hired them for. It feels at times like leadership doesn't actually trust their employees to do their jobs. This micromanagement trickles down to middle management and then individual team managers. The result is the average employee feeling like they are under a microscope at all times. Management Thinks They Are Infallible - Ideas don't flow upward at Active, marching orders flow down. What management says, goes. And when they are wrong, somebody else is made into the scapegoat. Cross-Functional Communication - There is no cross-functional communication. Each team just seems to do what they do and not let anyone else know. More than once, I was reprimanded by upper management of other departments for not following a process that had been put in place months before but that no one had bothered to actually send out to the teams who needed to follow said process. Cash Grab Programs - There are certain...ahem..commerce programs attached to the software solutions that are nothing more than a cash grab by Active. Plain and simple. Customers hate these programs and it undermines their trust in Active. Active has been taken to court and lost over these programs but continues to offer them. Compensation - At least in sales, your On Target Earnings will be 15-25% less than industry average. Your commission plan will be full of unattainable quotas and catch 22's to further lower your actual take home pay. After all the unfair clauses and catch 22's, you probably take home 60-70% of the industry average. I plugged my salary into the Know Your Worth tool here on Glassdoor and that's where I ended up. Benefits - They suck. The only medical insurance option is a high deductible plan. Vision and dental are at least offered but are only ok. Career Growth - Active likes to claim that it's a great place to grow your career but only a very small few actually achieve any real career growth. Every time a manager quits or gets fired, which is very frequently, they ALWAYS hire someone from outside the company who inevitably gets fired or quits in a few months and around and around we go. What Active calls career growth is actually just constant employee shuffling. I know employees who held 5+ different positions in less than 24 months, all lateral moves. They once actually gave an award for "Best Performance In An Ambiguous Role" AS IF THAT WAS A GOOD THING. Turnover - It's honestly laughable. In my tenure I estimate I saw at least 300 sales people come and go. Active hires sales people in batches of around 20 people and I saw multiple batches get hired, go through training and all quit or get fired in less than 6 months. FNB