Pros
I've been employed by Petplan since 2010. I responded to an ad online for a copywriter and fell in love with the brand immediately. I've always felt like a true part of a family here and leaned on my coworkers, managers and even the co-founders at times for support, and have always been welcomed with open arms. At any time, I could walk into the CEO or CFO's office and offer a suggestion if I thought it would help the company. I recently had my parents visit from out of town and the co-founders sat down with them to chat and even helped give them a tour of the company. I feel very valued here.
I find the schedule very flexible. I'm normally here 8-5 but can make accommodations if need be for our son's school or doctor appointments. Even sales and service have the ability to work from home at times. There's rarely a conflict with getting the time you need to deal with a personal issue as long as you're accountable for your work.
There are a lot of opportunities here for people in all avenues of business - from marketing to customer service and IT - and there have been a number of employees that have switched positions in the company to pursue a different career path. The turnover rate is exceptionally low. Most of the people that were here when I joined in 2010 are still here, and that's saying a lot for a company that has grown by over 100 employees in that time. I wear a number of hats at work and have been exposed to all facets of the business from marketing to web design, IT, customer service and more.
Benefits: We have a pet friendly office which makes it difficult to have a bad day. There are few things more comforting than scratching a puppy's belly or a cat purring on your lap. There's even been snakes, guinea pigs and lizards that have come to visit.
If you're a candy fan, there's about two dozen different jars of candy that are always filled for the snacking. Free coffee, tea and hot cocoa. We are frequently provided free lunch or breakfast and have even had chefs come and make crepes to order for everyone on staff. If we hit a really big milestone (like when we made Forbes list of America's Most Promising Companies) we had an expensive champagne toast. For Halloween, we had a pet and staff costume party (there's some videos of the fun on the company Facebook page) and just recently had a company wide potluck which left us all in a food coma haha. The campus where our office is nice as well - they're adding a Whole Foods which will make shopping or grabbing a healthy lunch easy. But the cafeteria on campus is nice too (wood fired pizza, homemade desserts, etc).
I've never had a problem getting time off even around holidays. Having been here four years now, I get about 19 days off as well as a day off for community service if I want to take it and extra days off if you volunteer at local pet events (which are fun and I often do).
This company is growing FAST, and there's so much opportunity in this industry, where only 1-2% of the population has pet insurance. It seems like we're signing big deals everyday to increase awareness (we recently signed with AARP) and that has me - and my career - very excited for the future. I've been pleased with my compensation and have received a raise and bonus every year.
Cons
Like any company with a rapid growth rate, it can be hard to keep track of the new people, but we do have social events which help with that (we all run a mud run this summer, but I'm bad with names).
Our building (not the company) also has a restriction on very large dogs except for certain holidays like Take Your Dog To Work Day which I wish they'd drop.
Other than that, I hope one day the company can offer a matching contribution and profit sharing to the 401K, which I think they will.
