Pros
At an upper management level, the company makes efforts to create a team or family feel for all employees. This "trickles down" to the lower level employees in the form of various company-funded social events throughout the year, and these do help make you feel more appreciated. Applied also has various small but meaningful initiatives to help morale, such as a volunteer program (a paid day to volunteer for a local community cause rather than working at your usual job) and an intranet-hosted art/photography exhibition with contests, where the winner can select a charity to receive a donation from Applied. Many of Applied's locations began as other companies which have been acquired over decades of Applied being a dominating force in its industry. The exact "feel" at each location is therefore going to vary a little, but based on my experience, the people are nice, management is fair and balanced, workload is reasonable, and facilities are well kept. There are many opportunities to move in the company, either laterally or vertically. The process to apply for other internal jobs is straightforward and Applied does not usually try to lock you into a role if your heart is elsewhere...you are allowed to move around within reason. Vacation accrual is to the standards of (not better than) the Ontario ESA. Sick time is better than currently required by law in Ontario. Allowance to use both is fair; it is not difficult to take vacation time, and while some carryover is allowed, the company encourages you to use it as time off. This is a refreshing difference in 2018 when many employers want you to take it as pay and forego the time off. Everyone deserves a break, and Applied recognizes this.
Cons
Rate of pay: some of the jobs that exist at Applied do not have direct comparables at other organizations due to some unique structuring that exists at Applied. However, in many cases you will find that the market value for your work is more than Applied will pay you. Applied does pay an acceptable living wage, but the money does not beg you to give Applied your life-long career. Until this changes, Applied will be seen as a stepping stone by many rather than a career destination. The CEO puts together presentations to the employees to provide updates on the progress of the company as a whole. This in itself is a good thing, but when coupled with the above issue, it is somewhat of a double-edged sword: I am happy to know that the company is doing great with record profits, but I am paid merely satisfactorily, and I can clearly see that profits support a raise for employees whose performance merits it. Upper management is either unaware of or chooses to ignore major communication and role issues that exist between certain teams. Applied has multiple products originating from multiple original development companies, since acquired, and getting proper cooperation to happen between these teams can be somewhat challenging. It is not uncommon to get caught in the middle of a finger-pointing scenario, where an issue genuinely belongs to one team but that team has declined to own it, and another directly affected team has to fight to get the issue recognized and corrected. Lower level management that engages directly with the employees tries to resolve the above issue, but it evidently does not get far enough up the ladder because long term resolution just doesn't seem to come.