Pros
-- Very quick growth (* at the cost of industry/market standard pay) -- Great coworkers (* whose names and faces will largely change by the end of each year) -- Open-door policies held by even higher-tier leadership (* who may promptly dismiss any concerns) -- Countless internal opportunities (* that you won’t necessarily be allowed to pursue)
Cons
PowerSchool’s culture looks great on paper, but that’s where it ends. The greatest issues seem endemic to the company itself, and internally, you’ll hear of the same problems your team faces day to day being encountered in each and every department, with no resolution being found anywhere. But hey, at least it’s not just you! Many of the problems encountered by teams center around the sheer amount of work to be done, and leadership’s seeming unwillingness or inability to mitigate. Many employees, hourly and salaried alike, feel the need to regularly work outside of normal hours to keep up. They’re presented with an ever-increasing workload, far more than could be handled by even the most senior of employees, and may be subject to criticism when they’re not consistently able to complete 10 hours of work in an 8 hour day. This has, in turn, had the unfortunate effect of a poor work-life balance being treated as a badge of honor amongst teams, and it’s not uncommon for employees to openly “brag” about how many hours they had to put in the evening before. New employees are led to see this as the norm and feel pressured to do the same in order to grow. I cannot stress enough how incredibly unhealthy this is, both for the culture of the company itself and for each person whose life is being slowly drained away as a result. And sure, you can take time off to help account for the extra hours put in, as DTO is not technically hard-capped, but you will be guilted and scrutinized for each and every request you submit for time-off after meeting an undisclosed threshold. Your total days off will also be compared to every member on your team, so you’d better hope your manager’s favorites take long vacations again this year, or taking off for your aunt’s funeral is really going to be a hard squeeze. Your individual productivity will have no bearing on this. The most unfortunate and by far the most damaging thing about PowerSchool, though, is that you’ll always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even though you’ll tell yourself it can’t get any worse than this, you’ll know that it can, and you’ll spend every day waiting for the next big thing to happen, as taxing as that is.
