A low rent staffing agency with low quality people and two-bit technology.
Pros
+ Nice building and location. + Some nice people that you'll make great friends with and will help you. + Hands off/zero micromanagement (this is also a con, see cons). + You can build yourself a decent book of business or desk if you're willing to put up with the cons. + Strict 8:30/9 to 5/5:30 schedule. No work/life balance issues here. + Flexible as far as choosing full commission, salary, or a draw. + All you need to do is show up and bring in job orders and get along good with the owners. Even if you never fill them, and/or make placements, and your job is secure. That's it. Better than most agencies these days where you're given 30-60 days to make a placement or you're out. + As far as medical staffing, they are the biggest name in the business. Tons of job orders on that side.
Cons
- At Winston, all you're given is a desk, phone, a computer to bill and produce and that's it. No company-wide ATS or candidate database. No promotion, raises, incentives, or any kind of growth. No benefits, bonuses, options, 401k, vestment, more than a week PTO (which you don't even get in your first year) casual OR summer Fridays, work from home/remote, company events other than a Christmas party, or any kind of planning, strategy, or anything that most normal companies these days give their employees. Just a desk, a phone, and a computer with internet to make placements, and that's it. Forever. Not even a "good job" from management if you go and make 20 placements in your first year. - A previous review about how aggressive, rude, and selfish the other account managers and recruiters is correct. Since the only thing, the owners, brothers Gregg and Todd Kaye only care about is billing, they don't enforce any rules or standards other than attendance and dress code. If you bill high, you can be catty, rude, and unprofessional to your colleagues and candidates in a way that would get you fired at other firms, and you will get away with it. There are some outright sociopaths working there, but because they bill high, and/or have a lot of big clients, and/or have been there for decades, they get a pass from management. The other half of Winston are mostly pikers who only show up for a paycheck and are out of there by 5 pm that are unreliable for anything. And since there is no culture or any kind of team building to speak that would foster some kind of cooperation between colleagues there, the sort of catty, unhelpful, unprofessional environment prevails there. - Dark, dirty, grimy, smelly looking office with insects, that hasn't been upgraded since the 1990s, without wi-fi, or even private rooms to interview candidates. Computers, phones, and other tech there are over ten years old which is fine with the majority of the workforce which are aging, out of touch, Baby Boomers who can't get hired anywhere else. They still use paper for 99% of everything including taking down job orders and making placements. - The work environment overall is terrible. People walk around like zombies counting down the clock while taking two-hour lunch breaks in that dirty and disgusting kitchen. The company gets what they pay for which is low effort, low quality work using low-quality people and technology. If you have any greater ambitions to grow into management and/or work with smart, talented people that will help you to become a better, smarter, and well-paid account executive and recruiter, stay away from Winston and go to an agency that'll at least provide wi-fi, casual Fridays, colleagues who aren't incompetent maniacs, and won't have cockroaches in their kitchen.
