Pros
In the early years, it was entrepreneurial, we could take calculated risks to improve the business, there was a sense of family, and a sense that our judgement and efforts had value. It was relaxed, but there were high standards set and many of us imposed those standards on ourselves. The people I worked with were extremely dedicated and enjoyed their jobs.
Cons
in the latter years, the bureaucracy became so overburdening that it stifled that entrepreneurial spirit and sent morale spiraling downward. We went from being able to gain almost immediate approval to undertake a project or task to a multi-level approval process that sometimes took a month or more. Management was constantly second guessing and implementing "flavor of the day" initiatives that distracted us from the basic things we needed to do to run the business. When morale went down, we had to fix it with programs and more distractions when the real solution would have been just to get out of the way and let us work.
