How this company made the best places to work for in DFW is beyond me. I would suggest they are paying someone at Texas Monthly Magazine to make their top 100 because they are absolutely a cult type culture that will try and control all aspects of your life.
To explain what I mean, here are the points to make note of.
1. Their charismatic CEO is more of a figure head who really doesn't do much other than lead the mandatory meeting every day that everyone is asked to attend to make you feel good about yourself while masking their poor dismal financial numbers and trying to spin it in a positive light. We will do better because of you! (Total guilt trip into a performance metric that we live or die on your actions)
2. The main decisions are made by people who are not qualified to run their departments much less a company. But they are hell bent on running your life outside of work.
3. Other employees are made fun of by upper management and are given nick names that would make HR cringe. Even though HR is aware and participates in said behavior, so thus it's allowed to continue.
4. People are groomed into specific roles they aren't qualified for thus the crazy management style but you're made to feel good about those decisions.
5. You will be asked to work long hours and weekends not to mention that the work life balance is non-existent. If you call in 3 times even if it's legitimately excused, your fired.
Take those 5 points and line them up with a google search on how to recognize a cult and every part of what I mentioned fits.
What to expect upon hire?
You will sit through a mandatory first day of work ceremony where you will get a framed certificate of what is to be expected of you. Sort of like an employment contract with rays of sunshine blown into the nether regions of your backside, to feel good about all of the long fruitless hours you will put in for dismal pay.
The honeymoon will end shortly after and all of the pressure of the dismal sales and gloomy outlook for the company as a whole start to weigh in as you are now the only person who will be able to save their red line financials.
But don't be surprised when payroll is a bit late, or you miss getting a check on time since this company doesn't pay it's bills to vendors, and have bounced the occasional payroll check to some higher salaried employees.
One of the biggest concerns is their marketing practices. Why the FTC hasn't shut this place down yet is beyond me. You feel dirty going home knowing that as a sales person, you are not only separating old alumni people from their hard earned social security checks but that you participated in the one thing everyone hates, which is direct marketing to a person's private email, and spammed with post cards every other day because they need your information to sell you more sweaters or t-shirts to go along with that 10.00 album that had a 1000% markup.
