Pros
Extraordinarily talented and friendly team, and a wide variety of compelling projects to work on.
Cons
Hardworking and extremely talented employees who should be viewed as assets to the team are often fired with little to no warning due to the CEO's capricious anxieties, emotional outbursts, or personal opinions of someone. There is no formal system for review or advancement at the company. Regardless of dedication or performance, employees are only allowed to progress professionally at Ideum if the CEO personally feels like giving them a promotion. When I worked at Ideum, I saw my hardworking employees go for years at a time without reviews or raises and remain in junior positions, while others got 10k raises within 3-6 months if the CEO felt they “deserved” it. The CEO would regularly interfere on projects when making judgements about people's competency or skill, often leading to more chaos, confusion, and self-doubt from those on the team than was to there begin with. The CEO insists on micromanaging things wherever he sees fit, and as a result, there is no long-term structure or growth plan in place for the company. Who will run Ideum once Jim Spadaccini retires? No one. The company will blow away into the New Mexican wind and disappear, leaving those who worked there without any agency or ownership over a community that should be as much theirs to develop and nourish as it is the CEO’s in the first place.