Pros
Usually a flexible schedule. Aerial Services, Inc provides an extraordinary product - we have very high standards. It is the one thing that I'm proud of from working here.
Cons
Schedule is flexible, but you'll get the stink-eye for taking advantage of it or any time off you have. Some employees have 100s of hours of vacation time they'll never get to take. Company policy prohibits paying out the vacation time. Low salaries, management ignores repeated reports of problems with employees, departments, lack of current equipment (some computers are 10+ years old -- A PRODUCTION COMPANY!). Management / owners are quite literally "crazy". IT department is surly (likely because of being) busy, understaffed, underfunded, overworked. Extraordinarily high standards are placed on the production teams without providing a proper means to perform to those standards. "The way it's always been done" is a favorite phrase-- rejection of new ideas or processes because it differs from the way it's always been done. The management has a cult-like ability to blame its problems on the staff-- generally "You all need to work smarter AND harder" while turning a blind eye against the aging equipment, software, infrastructure that is required to work smoothly. The CEO, specifically, is an ardent micro-manager-- quick to derail work when present. He strongly asserts his preferences while at the same time maintaining that "we're only having a discussion" but the outcome is always that you will do what he says, regardless of its real merit. This attitude is ingrained in the culture. One of our chief goals is to "eliminate waste and rework" but when the CEO is involved, it's a constant stream of rework because nothing is ever the way he would like it-- but he will refuse to tell you exactly what it is that he does want. His influence in the company is damaging to morale and, really, to good business sense most of the time. If you do manage to secure the CEO's permission to make a change, he will excitedly ask you to draw it up in a document. Once you have provided the document, he'll create an impossible chain of hoops to jump through in order to actually secure the purchase order or final approval. Save yourself the trouble. It is really not worth killing yourself to make the owners' dreams come true. I wish someone had written this before I took the job here.