Pros
As silly, dated, and conservative as some of the corporate culture may be, the company itself is extremely diverse.
Cons
The main problems are leadership and communication. Staff Management | SMX is spread across North America with little but email to tie the company together. It's headquartered in Chicago, but is owned by TrueBlue, which is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington. Staff Management | SMX is one third of People Management, which is less a company than a name sitting over three staffing companies. TrueBlue policy is to foster a sense of belonging to a larger family, but that's nothing but lip service. For example, employees at the Chicago office call the company Staff Management, while in the field it is much more commonly referred to as SMX. Who knows what the contract workers the company provides to its clients call the company; it's not even clear whether they identify more strongly with SMX or with the client. Basically, it's a confused nightmare, lacking in leadership to point the way forward, set in an industry quickly being made obsolete by automation. In all honesty, it will be a good thing when this company and others like it are forced to close their doors. While the executives at the top soothe themselves with the notion they employ the otherwise unemployable, in reality it's companies like Staff Management | SMX that contribute to the loss of union strength in America, declining wages, job insecurity, and all the associated systemic economic problems that follow: poverty, crime, homelessness, etc. Ultimately, Staff Management | SMX's business model is built upon outsourcing labor for companies who pay it to bring in workers for less money. Staffing companies like Staff Management | SMX are incentivized to fill jobs and pay their workers the lowest possible amount of money. Thus wages either stagnate or decline and job security evaporates. This is bad for cities and people, but good for companies, their executives, and shareholders. Ultimately, you don't want to be a Staff Management | SMX contract worker. Work life at the local offices ranges from great to horrible, depending upon the location and the team you work with. If you are looking to work at the corporate office, you can look forward to semi-decent wages, little to no camaraderie, basic benefits, and a nice office in a decent neighborhood of Chicago. Long story short, it's very likely you'd be able to do better almost anywhere else. This is a pretty awful company to work for and it's only going to get worse as their margins grow ever thinner, their space in the market shrinks, their core businesses dry up, and the company moves toward its inevitable demise. Why just aboard a sinking ship?
