Pros
- Excellent benefits, and not limited just to the corporate bigwigs. Small out of pocket health/dental/vision premiums, FSA, subsidized transit pass, $100/year outdoor gear reimbursement, 15 days PTO + 1 per year worked, up to 20 days, 401k with 4% match (there are a lot of stipulations though) - Friendly, down-to-earth people who are passionate about the outdoors - Company cares about employees (except when it comes to base compensation). When 75% of the PPE production team was let go, everyone received 1 week severance pay, which is incredibly uncommon for that line of work. Company had very thorough COVID-19 precautions, so I always felt safe at work. Employees got a monetary stipend and time off work to get the vaccine. Production workers got Chinese New Year off, since most of the population was Asian.
Cons
- Pay is severely lacking. For my position, I was paid ~25% below market rate - Production workers tend to be treated as second class to the corporate employees on the top floor - Higher-up executives do not trust production workers until they witness the problems for themselves - No opportunity for growth. Even if you are the highest-performing worker, you will not receive a raise unless you transfer to a different position or get promoted to a new position. Everything must go through HR, and HR has no visibility who the high-performing employees are. It's also really unfortunate that starting wages are higher for positions that require less labor, skills and experience. There's no point in staying with OR when I'm getting paid minimum wage for skilled work and years of experience.