low pay, not very good benefits, poor ethics, incompetent management
Pros
Laid back work environment. Not too much overtime, Dogs in the office on Fridays. Mostly friendly work environment. Bowe, who is one of the co-founders is a great guy. Intelligent, driven, competent and understands and knows how to work with the emotional component. If I just worked for/with Bowe, I'd probably still be with the company. They close down for 2 weeks over Christmas. It's unpaid and it's because it's the slow time of the year. But I suppose it's a nice break for many folks.
Cons
My biggest grievance is that when I was offered the job and I balked at the very low salary, $35k/yr the GM said that after 90 days, "we would revisit my pay and that they could even move me to a different pay scale." At 90 days, there was no "revisiting of pay nor discussion of moving to a different pay scale." I was given a $1 raise, which at 90 days might seem pretty good, except that was still a about $10/hr away from the salary I originally hoped for, which was far below the market rate for an experienced network engineer/IT Manager. During my review when I told the GM the salary that I thought the job was worth and that I wanted, $45k/yr, that he would have to go the Board of Directors. Later I came to find out that management is only allowed to give a up to a $1/hr raise at each raise. I was also told that this was a "shoulder-to-shoulder" management position. Quote from my offer letter: "And what I was referring to this position being an integral component to Aurora and our continuing growth, is just that. This is a shoulder to shoulder position with Bowe, Austin and myself. We collaborate with, value and respect the input and decisions made by our management team." However, I was not treated as such. As an example, when the 90 day review came up for the IT Tech, whom I managed, I was not asked by the GM for any input. Also, although I had a moderate degree of autonomy, it was usually difficult to get them to see the all the problems and the proper long-term solutions. Lastly, on of the co-founders, Austin, is a terrible communicator and knows nothing about of "collaborating with, valuing and respecting the input and decisions made by our management team." You have to work for a year, before you can take any paid vacation. Many holidays are not paid time-off days.