Horrible Company - Toronto's Tech Sweat Shop
Pros
Fridays when the CEO is not at the office and all employees are in a happy mood because of that. Apart from that, there is not a single positive thing working for this company. Technology does solve a problem for customers like airports and shopping centres. We seem to be established in the Airports niche with some traction in shopping centres.
Cons
The culture at the office is toxic. There is hardly any person who is happy with the work that they do. From my interactions with the team, morale is low and I hardly spoke with anyone who is happy. Most people are looking for a way out and they are willing to leave at the next available opportunity. The CEO is very unpopular among the team. Team events: Quarterly lunch on Thursday at the local pizzeria. A weekly healthy lunch is standard at most innovative companies. Some even offer a daily/weekly lunch credit. Aislelabs mentions on their website that they do offer Korean food and belgian beers but that is only for the Tech team and is not offered to other team members. Beer allowed but only for the Tech team and on Thursday evenings after 6 pm when the rest of the team goes home. Once the sales, account management and marketing teams go home, the beer flows with abundance. I wonder why, until this day and age, terrible companies like Aislelabs still choose to create and facilitate cultures like that where instead of bringing people together to succeed as a company, they sow division. It seems so obvious to me that this should not be the case. A short happy hour once a week is necessary to bring the whole company together to socialize, collaborate and gather around a common purpose: to succeed as a team. The red Ping Pong table is hardly used for playing. Not even used as a boardroom. It does however, constitutes the façade to lure unsuspecting candidates in. Do not be fooled. No HR. Who needs HR? Not only does the CEO run the Sales and Marketing team. He can also do HR. This is another form the company takes shortcuts that end up causing more harm than good. Management does nothing to really motivate and inspire the team. They seem to be very uninterested. They are not building a company to deliver great value to our customers. Their primary concern is to position the company for a sale. I find it hard that any investor would be willing to put their money in such a badly run and managed company. Lying seems the norm at this company. Lying to employees. Lying to candidates. Lying to clients. Lying. Lying. Constant Lying.