The number one complaint would have to be politics. It was really surprising how much politics could spring forth from a company with less than 50 employees. You really had to make sure that you had a positive attitude and agree with the direction that the c-class wanted to take. In other words, you had to be a "yes" man. Those who dissented were ostracized and their reviews reflected it. Opportunities presented to c-class as chances for improvement were looked upon as having a "negative attitude". It became steadily worse when they decided to acquire a mediocre company and use that as growth. It was a difficult time for those who had been there before and worked themselves to the bone only to see that most of the benefits leaned to the employees that they folded into the company. Case in point: legacy employees requested computers and entertainment equipment and were summarily rejected many times over but the next big upgrade to the office was a gym and a shower that really saw the majority of the use by new people. That's just one example of many, and I don't know about you, but if you work your rear off to make profit to the company and said company uses those profits to benefit a whole slew of people who just came in, I'm sure you'd feel a little resentment too. All this led to a heavily unhealthy environment. Also, as soon as you're out the door, they talk garbage about you behind your back (believe me, I know because I checked in with some friends after I've left (in my department and outside), and the things I've heard said about me destroyed any resolution of me ever wanting to come back.
Core Values - They were good on paper, but left something to be desired in real life. A few of the c-class exemplified many of the concepts well. But I was shocked by the behavior of a few. It prods you to ask, "Why am I working so hard to line this guy's pockets?" I came to the correct conclusion shortly thereafter
Events - After a while, the events seemed forced. It was really difficult to attend many of these things because most of my team would work 10+ hours to resolve problems (the stuff that pays the bills) and the company would wonder why we weren't energized to go perform an event that little interested us.
Free lunches - again on paper was a good idea, but you would get looked down upon if you didn't immediately take that food and go back to work. I don't think this was true in any other department but ours. Also, it was looked down upon when you decided to go out instead of partake in the lunch. You can only eat "fresh" so many times or so much $5 dollar "pizza pizza" until it becomes repetitive.
Employment growth - unless you went to a different department, you would eventually hit a ceiling and the c-class couldn't justify to themselves why they would pay an RCE so much money when the reasons were quite obvious: the people you had above us were incompetent and would take credit for our work. There's a reason why many of your client would avoid your TAMs and Sys Admins (when that position was there) and ask help from an RCE. There's a reason why we'd have to save those same groups' collective behinds when they'd implement an inferior product incorrectly due to poor planning.
Employee benefits - I get it, it's a small company and it's difficult to negotiate a better rate. But still, I only used the insurance when I absolutely had to (I dropped over 3 grand in a single hospital stay). On top of paying over $250 in monthly premiums, the math just didn't add up.
Work life balance - Again, when you have to pick up the slack for the departments around you, you have to work a lot. There were no methods to compensate for that (mind you were were exempt, salaried employees). If we were on hourly, it'd be a different story because then we'd maybe have a decent life. Jusk ask the engineers and how they have to perform sub par work b/c of fears of going over their estimated hours.