Pros
There were some good things about working at AZOVA. 1) Free Snacks 2) Co-Workers were pretty great. 3) Hours were pretty flexible, within reason. 4) Some ability to telecommute. 5) I got some insight into the Telemedicine industry 6) The VP of Ops was fair, easy to work with, and just the kind of leader you want in a company. (However, her influence is lessened due to the CEO) 7) I learned a lot about how not to run a business and treat employees.
Cons
Unfortunately, I would say the cons outweigh the pros. First of all, the work was pretty boring. For a customer service job, I did a surprisingly low amount of work with customers, maybe 20%. The remaining 80% of my time was spent doing repetitive, seemingly menial tasks, such as testing the software or creating materials that may or may not actually be used. To be fair, the company did say in my initial interview that I would be doing a lot of different types of things, but I could not have predicted how little time I would be implementing as an Implementation Manager. If that kind of work is your cup of tea, great; it was not my favorite. Second, the organization of the company was a bit messy. For example, be prepared for frustration when you or your clients want any type of development done. This frustration was largely due to the impulsivity of the CEO, who had the developers in a perpetual time crunch as she cranked out new ideas, leaving outstanding development requests to be tended to another day (or week, or month). The VP of Ops was starting to make some small headway at reigning things in when I left, so maybe it's better now. However, if the CEO still maintains her erratic behavior, I am doubtful. Third, the pay is well below the industry standard for similar jobs. Fourth, the CEO does not have much respect for home/work boundaries. You have some protection from this as an hourly employee, but if you are salaried, be aware this may be an issue. Speaking of the CEO... believe what you read in the other reviews. I think generally speaking she’s a good person who cares about humanity and she really is brilliant. However, when it comes to business, the CEO can be less than kind. While I was there, she: - Occasionally made promises to clients the company wasn't equipped to deliver on (same with the sales department) which made frontline work more stressful. - Often changed her mind and direction without informing her employees, putting us in awkward positions with our clients - Played favorites, BIG time. - Disregarded the thoughts and suggestions of myself and some of my coworkers (unless you were one of her favorites) - Tried to do everything herself, was unable to do so effectively, and therefore left everyone scrambling to keep things organized. My largest complaint of the CEO, though, is that she spontaneously fired me after less than 3 months of employment for no given reason. Of course, she reserves the right to do this and I signed an agreement before starting in which I accepted this possibility. However, to actually fire someone (rather, have someone else do it because she couldn’t be bothered to speak to me herself) without any indication or warning is pretty unethical. Why was I fired, you might ask? I honestly don’t know. The CEO just told my manager that I “wasn’t getting it”, and requested I be let go immediately. This was on a Friday evening, after I had left work. My manager pushed for more info, since the move was surprising to her, but could get no further explanation from the CEO. Even though she was unable to spare me the termination or give me any details as to why it was occurring, my manager at least had the tact to wait until she could deliver the news to me in person on Monday morning, rather than just off me over the phone or email like the CEO wanted. (My manager never tried to paint herself as a hero during this exchange, she merely stated the facts that she could not get any more info as to why I was being fired nor was the CEO up for any discussion on the matter.) Somehow though, despite it all, I wasn’t entirely surprised to be fired like that. I had many negative interactions with the CEO - she often talked down to me when I tried to present ideas and treated most of my questions as unhelpful, leaving me feel dumb and incapable. There were even multiple instances where, I kid you not, my suggestions/questions were met with indifference and irritation while the EXACT same suggestions/questions poised by a coworker were met with attention and praise. In the end, I think I was fired because, as another co-worker observed, the CEO just didn’t like me. And to top it all off, I am not the first person this has happened to at this company. Read the reviews. I wish I would have heeded the signs before taking this job. For one, the reviews. You always hear that the people who give negative reviews are the outliers and assume (safely so, most of the time) that the majority of people had a good experience. Trust me when I say that there just aren’t enough employees at this small company for all those negative reviews to be outliers. Regarding the positive reviews, I would take those with a pinch of salt - look at the close proximity as to when they were posted. I would guess the management is asking their employees to write positive reviews for the company to offset the negative ones. And with a CEO who spontaneously fires people, it isn't surprising that the employees would sing nothing but praises. Second, I read once that you should always ask the interviewer during a job interview what their hobbies are and what the culture of the company is, as they help reveal the type of work environment you can expect at the company. The answers the CEO gave me during my interview were that she had no hobbies (no time) and that the culture of the company was hard work. Again, maybe that sounds like your kind of work environment, but I prefer a company with a real, defined culture besides “we work hard”. And if you are thinking, while reading about my experiences, "oh, that would never happen to me", please note that I am no dummy (having done very well in school) and have never so much as been cited (or even warned) at any of my previous jobs. Indeed, I was never so much as warned at this job either. Again, total surprise. So in conclusion, there were some great people at AZOVA and some benefits to working there. However, in my opinion the dull busywork, the disorganization, the low pay, and the CEO's behavior (with a spontaneous, surprise termination at the top of that list) obviously outweighed the pros. *Disclaimer: I have been away from the company for 7 months now. I have waited so long to review so as to ensure I wasn’t overly emotional and biased when expressing my thoughts. However, the time gap may mean that not all of my thoughts on the company are still accurate.
