When I first started at Sarnova, I loved the atmosphere. It was very family-like, with social activities and charities, and a great leader. People would smile and say "Hi" as they passed you in the hall. Everyone knew everyone else by name.
By the time I left, there had been so many changes in leadership and a big influx of people from one particular company, the culture changed quite a bit, and not for the better. Those people were rude, impatient, inconsiderate, and I was personally treated like an administrative assistant by people that weren't even in my department. Many of them weren't even qualified to take the roles, but like it's been mentioned in other reviews, favoritism is rampant in this company.
Instead of the local charities like the care boxes for the troops and Mid-Ohio Food Bank, we stripped down to two national organizations. They both do good things, don't get me wrong, but I felt good about giving to people in my local area, and I'm sure many of the other offices across the country did, too.
Instead of just having a day when employees could relax for little bit and have fun and bond with their coworkers, every social event was turned into a benefit for the two charities. Also, because of the workload, many people felt that they could not attend social events, because it took away from production time or didn't want to go, because why would you want to hang out with people you don't like and treat you like crap?
There was no work-life balance. In my department, overtime was endless; it wasn't the standard 45-50 hours, per week, either; it was consistently 55, 60, sometimes 65 hours, just to be somewhat on track.
Every day, we struggled with our customers (internal) against complaints about the quality and/or time taken to complete a request, while our system did not support the things they needed, and more and more responsibility was poured on top of us as our business need grew but our personnel did not. I know of some people who even had to go on medication specifically to control the stress and anxiety this place produced.
Upper management didn't seem to care, either, as they seemed only to be interested in the bottom line and not the safety and well-being of their employees. Even when we proved by hours worked the justification to add an additional person, our request was denied outright.
It didn't help that we seemed to have a new CEO or president every few months, either. Hank Struik has not been the CEO since 2012, by the way, and the most recent one "retired" a couple of months ago. Every time the company changed leaders, the environment got worse and worse, including the current president, who, at one point, literally yelled at one of his staff to keep the talking and laughter down in his department, because he felt it meant his staff working hard enough, meanwhile having speaker phone meetings with the door open and the F-bomb constantly being dropped by him. He talked about putting our nose to the grindstone in town hall meetings, while our faces had already been ground off, and didn't even have the courtesy to close his door and speak and act like someone who makes at least high six-figures. Part of leadership is leading by example.
As far as career opportunities, unless you had a Bachelor's degree, you could forget any advancement. By the time I left, you even needed a degree to get a senior A/P or A/R position, which is absolutely crazy.
In 2011, the company was named as one of the best places to work in Columbus. Don't believe it. It was good back then, but it is hell now--the biggest mistake you will ever make.
