Pros
Some real camaraderie develops when basically your whole department feels like an unwanted step-child. Even though management in certain departments is absolutely horrendous and can’t really even be considered “management” due to the sheer lack of accountability and skill of managing, the few good things they did were hire some amazing hard-workers who put metaphoric blood, actual sweat, actual tears, actual panic attacks into their dead-end roles (hard workers who all quit because of aforementioned poor management). If you're able to negotiate well, you get a decent allowance on clothing. However, recipients of said allowance are extremely selective and secretive. There is no transparency regarding any perks. After working here for some time, favoritism in parts of departments run by family members soon becomes extremely obvious. I can't think of any perks other than rare days when there were important meetings, you'd receive free food. There are dogs in the office which is cool, until HR refuses to reprimand the owners of dogs that attack people and cause overall chaos.
Cons
Ha, where do I start? Slowly but surely you will begin to learn why no one seems as happy as you are on your first day. People are not paid well. Benefits barely exist. Insurance options are laughable and expensive, 401k plans are worthless, no matching like other contemporary companies. Vacations have to be begged for and they will be met with a “no,” or you will be passive aggressively punished for the vacation you were lucky enough to get. So more often than not, people are afraid to even ask for time off, making the work/life balance forcefully unfavorable. Doctors appointments have to be approved two weeks in advance and will be questioned, so good luck predicting and planning out even the slightest last-minute emergency. The same rules aren’t applied to all people in the same department. The half of the department that was managed by the family are pretty much able to do whatever they want with no notice to their counterparts. For a company that likes to think they are a laidback, California brand, they are extremely stingy about time. I've never worked anywhere where salaried employees clocked in and out. Also the time-management system is archaic and wasteful. Turning in a slip of paper to note every single time you may have missed a punch is not sustainable or eco-friendly FYI. No one communicates properly (or at all). Blame is shifted onto literally anyone in the vicinity instead of management working together with their subordinates to actually solve the problem. No one learns from mistakes. Amazing employees quit after asking for much needed help and managers literally tell you that it’s only going to get worse with not a single mention of what can be done to help. There always seems to be money flowing into the company and we seemed to have always been congratulating the earnings but it goes to things like rebuilding a “lunch room” that is used twice per year for the holidays instead of on the employees that have paid their dues and mustered up the courage to ask for a well-earned raise (raises that are long overdue and then denied). Also, whoever supposedly is the end-all approval for raises constantly changes to whoever seems to be out of town at the moment. I’ve been told it was up to HR, I’ve been told it’s up to your direct manager, been told that it’s up to one of the partners that owns the company, been told it’s those that work in finance. Whoever you name, it’s that person’s responsibility. The behavior borders abuse, you are made to feel guilty for asking for bare minimum. Also management seemingly likes taking advantage of those with poor experiences at previous jobs and an urgent need of work to pay them low wages. The top of the chain of command is essentially family, so any issues regarding their “managerial” ways will be squashed by their sad excuse of a human resources department and basically an allegiance to the top of company. Also, exit interviews here don’t exist. This company is in denial of it’s extremely high turn-over rate.