Pros
Amazing coworkers- The team was so kind and helpful and really had each other's back. Benefits- great PTO policy, free basic healthcare plan (high-deductible), the mid-level plan was still affordable by American standards.
Cons
This job was fairly fun until about the end of 2019. At that point we started losing employees, which meant the same workload had to be done by less and less people. Once the pandemic hit, after a brief slowdown, we actually got busier than before. Since this is a booking software for the tourism industry, the constant changes in Covid restrictions meant our clients had to contact us and make complex changes to their configurations often. Unfortunately, the software is designed in such a way that 95% of the clients aren’t able to make even the most simple changes themselves, and instead have to contact support to have them done. Instead of seeing that trend and adjusting accordingly, we were placed on a hiring freeze. That meant that every single day we had way more work than we could possibly handle. We started to steadily lose more and more employees, to the point that by the end of 2020 the team was about half the size compared to a year prior. We were constantly told to tackle a million things at once while also not being given any support, encouragement or direction. Clients started getting frustrated because they weren’t receiving the level of support they were used to and sold on, which made interactions significantly more difficult and stressful. The work environment became one of extreme burn out that really affected my mental health negatively. When questioned, we were told things like “Work smarter, not harder” by the GM or “If you don’t like it, you’re free to look for another job” by the department’s director because there was nothing he could do to make it better. When I started the job, they kept mentioning all of the advancement opportunities available. As a support agent, you don’t have time to participate in any of the company wide events and meetings, so you miss out on the networking opportunities. I thought that by being one of the top performers on the team, I would easily be able to move up in the company, but not only that wasn’t the case, they actually started posting for jobs externally once the hiring freeze was lifted, which is why I decided to leave the company. On my exit interview, I was even told that they don’t like to move support agents to other teams since it takes so long to train us. In sum, while I can’t speak to the company as a whole, this department had serious sinking ship vibes.