Flux may seem like a wonderful place to work, but looks can be very deceiving.
Pros
The benefits package is fairly complete. It includes health insurance (HSA-funded, which means low premiums), dental insurance, eye care insurance, and a 401 (k) retirement plan. It is a small software company with less than twenty employees which creates a mostly comfortable working environment. They also have a ping-pong table and fooseball in the break room for recreation on breaks. They also like to hire people straight out of college, which helps if you need work experience before venturing out into better prospects.
Cons
The company is ran like a dictatorship. There is one senior management staff who is also the President of the company. Most of the problems with the company stem from his management style. If he does not like something you are doing, rather than calling you into the conference room to talk about it he will call a staff meeting and publicly humiliate you in front of your co-workers. Little does he know this technique does not work and makes the staff uncomfortable to come forward with any problems the may have. Unfortunately the President also had trouble separating business from emotions. If he comes to work in a bad mood it means somebody is going to be written up, verbally harassed, or even fired. In the first few months of 2008 about 30% of the staff members were either fired or left voluntarily even though the company had no money problems. He employs an "At Will" attitude which means he will, and has, fired employees who are at or passed their probationary period without any prior notice given to the employee. While I was employed with the company, morale was terrible among the employees because there was a constant fear of being fired for no reason other than the president was in a mood to fire someone. Another issue that constantly was brought to the employees attentions was that you either work for the company whenever the president wanted you to or you did not take your employment with the company very seriously. Most employees work 50-60 hours a week and were expected to do this. Any employee that put in 40-50 hours was talked to about their personal life being more important than the business. The business was expected to be your top priority and family was expected to be second on the list. No overtime or compensation time is given to employees who do work long hours since the pay for all full-time employees is salary pay. Raises are not guaranteed and bonuses, which are usually given every year, were denied to employees because supposedly the business was making less money even though the numbers proved otherwise. The Human Resources department is a complete waste of time. If you voice any concerns about other employees, those statements are immediately turned into the president and he will call a meeting, explaining to you why you are wrong. If you disagree with anything, immediately a threat of termination is issued to get you to comply. There is not room for complaints at Flux, even though there is much to complain about.
