Pros
If you're offered a job at Tech Hero, and have a single alternative up to and including collecting unemployment, you should exercise that alternative. I worked at Tech Hero for over 1.5 years, and at no point was anyone in the organization remunerated to a level equivalent with their knowledge and skills. No one with the title Network Administrator made over $60K/year. The Help Desk Manager (my direct supervisor) earned less than $65K/year for most of the three years he was there. At least three employees during my tenure accepted positions at other companies paying 20 - 40 percent more than Tech Hero for the same position. Do you like to work from home? How about a hybrid work environment? Well, too bad. Despite 99 percent of this job being performed remotely through RMM systems, you must drive into the office daily to sit in the absolute dead silence (more on that later) and the glare of florescent lights. On the occasions I did get to work from home, I performed that exact same work, with the only difference being the vice-president of the company didn't come into my room to ask me why an empty cardboard box he'd placed there a week earlier was still there. As far as health and medical benefits, the benefits themselves provide adequate coverage, but it cost me over $600 per paycheck (bi-weekly) to cover my family, and that was the base package. So, beyond those gems, it's a satisfying job in a supportive environment, correct? Not. Even. CLOSE! The owner, who's also the president, will tell you, remind you, at any point and numerous times: "I grew up in Europe and know seven languages." "I actually have one of the highest IQ's on the planet. I'm really smart." "I'm so good at making money. I mean I'm really good at this [stuff]." He's also a big fan of these standard jokes, and will repeat them several times a week: "Am I [homosexual]? No. But my boyfriend? Oh yeah, he's really [homosexual]." "[Homosexual] weekend? I mean, good weekend?" "Are you [intercourse] [co-worker]? I mean, it's alright if you are." "If you guys are sleeping together," he points to us, "I don't want to know about it. I mean, it's fine, I just don't want to know?"
Cons
The owner and president will insist that he values initiative in employees, and will lecture employees about having none. However, when several employees, including myself, showed initiative by beginning or advancing a project, or by cleaning up a server, we were rebuked for acting outside of approval and pulled from the project, only to be re-added the following week because there was no one else to work on it. One employee, who suggested a solution to me once, said, "I'd suggest that to [the president], but I don't feel like being yelled at for having a good idea." YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO YOUR FELLOW CO-WORKERS ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT WORK, AND EVEN THEN ONLY WHEN IT'S ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! Not joking, if you start a conversation with your co-worker about weekend plans, the owner will walk down the hall and chastise you for wasting his money on conversation, that he's not paying you to talk, etc. This is especially hilarious because, even though you're required to log four to five hours of billable time each day, there are days that no more than two customer calls or requests come in and there's literally nothing to work on. You will mind-numbingly stare at your workstation, unable to even whisper without the owner hearing it, and watch minutes click by. We were instructed to park either behind the office building or across the street in order to keep those parking spaces in front of the entrance clear for customers, even though Tech Hero has no walk-in customers. In a year-and-a-half of working there, three customers total entered the office to drop their computer off. Those of us who arrived earliest in the morning would often turn on only one bank of lights in order to enjoy the semi-darkness and lack of glare. However, so we were sure of who was in charge, the owner ordered that whoever arrives first in the morning needs to turn on all of the lights, even though no one liked the lights and the owner arrived 1.5 hours after everyone else in the office. When I informed the owner that we liked working with only one bank of lights on, he informed me that if I "didn't like working here," I could leave, which is his canned response to anyone who disagrees with anything he says. So I got another job.