Pros
Fast paced, lots of opportunities to move around. Management (where I work, anyways) listens to "the trenches" when it comes to process improvement, allowing ambitious associates to cultivate a portfolio of effective "cost-savings" decisions. Pay is OK if you're younger or have minimal debt/responsibility. I also really like the approachability of middle and upper management where I work. They come to us regularly for insight into an issue, we can go to them for advice/resources and it allows us as a unit to effectively service our customer (and that makes everyone's lives easier). Resources to do my job are at most times more-than-adequate. It is not difficult to report an IT/software issue and have the situation rectified or at least made visible to the owning parties. Profit sharing is cool (I'd rather have OT). Benefits exist.... I've had better and had far worse so I can't bash too hard.
Cons
Extremely clique-y. You could have the reasoning capacity of a fern, but if your manager likes you; you don't have to worry and they'll even stick up for you when you fail miserably at your job and are being called out on it regularly by coworkers and customers. If you're the 'ambitious associate' I mentioned in Pros, guess what? You get to roll out pilot programs, you're the one tasked to fit in extra 'projects' into an already ridiculously busy day. Corporate policy (like no OT) means you get to figure out how 10 hours of work turns into an 8 hour day and make all parties involved happy. Often, I feel as though I made a huge mistake in being good at my job. If I did the bare minimum and just met my metrics and didn't apply any critical thinking skills; I could be making just as much money but with half the stress involved. No formalized training for office associates, you get to learn on the fly and all through "Tribal knowledge" and if that doesn't line up with "the process" you will hear about it (Even though it's what everyone else does). Basically, you learn when you mess up, which can be a traumatic/uncomfortable experience for some. This is even worse on the temps, who get maybe a few hours' of instruction on a mind-numbing task, and are set up to do that indefinitely until they quit, the manager asks for them to be reassigned, they're hired FT (which seems to be that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for most temps even though the staffer, Kelly Services boasts something like 90% FT placement of temps) or they are just outright terminated through the staffer. I've befriended several temps who, based on experience (upwards of a year for many) and feedback in interviews were confident of a job offer and told they fit the bill, BUT oh! Turns out they offered that job to a preexisting Full-timer who was just tired of their current position! Doesn't matter what they do or do not know about the role; if they have any credibility with the group making the hiring decision, they're in and the temp is soon thereafter notified that their contract with Schneider is slated to end soon thereafter. I see it as a bit of a slap in the face, since many temps bust their butts to stand out and get hired on.
