If you can imagine a company was started by a bunch of college kids that never had any structure or people to look up to for proper guidance, you can imagine vivax. Once a week feel good meeting followed up with smaller meetings that waste valuable work time about how to shake people's hands and the power of your third eye.This laid back vibe has also bled through and created a company that handles matters in immature and unprofessional ways. There used to be alot of time you could take off in the off season but now that has substantially dwindled and you can only take about 2 weeks off in December or January if you are a field employee (no more than 3 days consecutively from March to November)
This is not somewhere to spend the rest of your career, great stepping stone for those looking to put something professional on a resume that is lacking experience. Extremely poor work/life balance. Goals set by management are lofty and aimed at driving growth in the company. 75% of the time these goals are not practical and employee bonuses are based off of them, often times making it impossible to hit the targeted income levels that were originally pitched to the employee in their compensation offer. Salary bases are well below industry standard and supplemented with bonus structures to bring income levels up to just below industry entry levels. Note that these bonus structures are not guaranteed so it leaves the employee in a very vulnerable position especially when a department doesn't accomplish the lofty goal set by management the year prior. The employee then has no recourse for all the hard work that they invested and has earned far less than industry standard.
There is a constant chat about frustration and lack of future career direction. When middle level management is asked what their future with the company is, the resounding answer is "I don't know".
Ownership has a good idea of the direction and feel that they want the company to go in however, it is poorly executed. Management fails to provide proper support to employees due to lack of understanding and absence from field participation. The company heavily relies on inaccurate software that they have designed in house to run reports of efficiency and profitability( KPI's). Employee success is based off of this software but often times important information is omitted from the metrics leaving the employees income (bonuses) in jeopardy,but not affecting Vivax! This leaves employees left trying to prove to their managers that they have met their goals and earned bonuses. Along with this, I have seen on multiple occasions, year after year where employees have to constantly remind their managers that they are owed their bonuses. Multiple times beyond that where employees have to incessantly remind managers that they need to be paid the correct amount. Often times the employees are managing the managers in order to guarantee they receive the income that they have earned and discussed. Conversations about income are often "forgotten about" or responded to with "that wasn't what we agreed upon". Do yourself a favor and GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING! 401k Matches are not contributed until the LAST MONTH OF THE FOLLOWING YEAR. That's right...If you work for all of 2018, you will not see your vivax 401k match until December 2019. They hold on to money you could be investing as long as legally possible. No other companies do this.I have also seen them let people go on Christmas Eve in order to not have to pay out year end bonuses. For those who are not let go just before the end of the year with out their bonus, they are often forced to wait until February or March to receive their year end bonus in a last ditch effort to not have to pay those who wish to leave the company and move on to new opportunities. Employees are looked at as a renewable resource, not a valued resource.
Vivax preaches how they have incredible company culture. This is self proclaimed and also a tool used to attract new individuals to the company. They also boast that they are one of the best places to work for. These accolades are earned by harping on new hires in spring time, who were told how amazing the company was, to fill out a survey (Denver Business Journal) about the company in an attempt to earn more awards. Employees who have not filled out the survey are then personally targeted via email and made felt obligated to do so. The one time the survey was sent out in fall, after the busy season had happened, there was not a peep about earning the best work place award. Employee turn over is INCREDIBLY high to the point where less than 10% of each department have been there for more than 3 years.