Pros
Excellent coworkers, though many of the best have already left or have been fired or pushed out. From what I have heard, SLP used to be a nice place to work back in the day, with good work life balance, decent pay, and flexible hours. Over the past few years though, it has spiralled into a very toxic place to work. On top of this, the financials are poor which adds to the stress of working there. Please seriously consider working elsewhere if you have the option.
Cons
Upper management is rude and wildly incompetent. Troy Tyler (COO) recently told employees to their faces, several of which who have been working at the company for nearly two decades, that they are "replaceable," people who have dedicated so much to the company and love it deeply, and are top performers as well. People who are truly not replaceable, although telling anyone that is disturbing, regardless of their tenure at a company. Gary Gerber (CEO) always defends Troy's actions and never backs up employees, no matter how ludicrous Troy's statements and actions are. This is a huge failure on Gary's part, the man who founded the company back in the 80's. It's difficult to watch the founder blindly support Troy as he continues to make decisions that continue to run the company into the ground. Troy has recently hired several unqualified/incompetent upper and middle managers, people who are quickly alienating and driving out qualified personnel. SLP has unequal hiring practices, putting women through extensive interviews including aptitude, personality and knowledge testing, only to hire less qualified men who were not subjected to the same interview process it tests. This is the only job I have ever had and likely will ever have where I argued with and watched countless other people argue and fight openly with management in all-hands and team meetings. Requests from management are often unreasonable and when you stand your ground and provide justification for why it doesn't make sense to do things their way, managers just ask you to do it over and over again until you give in. Management continually drives great employees away. Remaining employees are forced to take on extra work and responsibilities as a result, often under duress and under an immense amount of stress, and chaos, all with little to no recognition. When I requested a small raise at my one year mark, I was told that raises were not allocated in the annual budget for anyone in my department and it was denied. During my employment, the company announced it was having cash flow issues. Later, everyone's pay was cut for months and people were forced to use their PTO so payroll could be paid (PTO pay comes out of a separate account then typical payroll). Even after the company received a large PPP allocation that year, which was intended to assist with payroll during the pandemic, compensation for lost pay was not dispersed. Instead of reimbursing lost wages, Troy, who is "acting CFO," decided the company should take a profit. Many women in the company have been asked to take on additional roles for no additional compensation. This leads to poor performance since they are unable to fully focus on any one role. When Troy requested that they take over the additional role(s), he told them that it would be interim only and that he was hiring a replacement, however years have passed and they are still occupying these positions along with the original role they were hired for. Some in management, without manager pay. The consensus of many employees is that women are taken advantage of at SLP. Management lies to and manipulates employees. Reimbursements for expenses are promised verbally and then when expense reports are submitted, management denies that they ever agreed to pay you back. People have been laid off after taking company approved vacation. International employees are told they will receive H1B sponsorship if they accept the job only to be told later that they will have to compete against each other to see who gets sponsored. Also, that they have to contract with and pay for their own lawyer to secure their visa with only partial reimbursement. I have never heard of this practice at any other company before. SLP is preying on vulnerable people who need a visa to work and to remain in the country. At SLP, work drama was so stressful and affected me so badly, that my partner begged me to get another job. I have since quit and started another job with better compensation & benefits, excellent work life balance and kind managers who stick up for and fight for their employees. If you are reading this, you can do better and are worth more than SLP can offer. For your sake and/or your family's sake, consider working somewhere else.