Based on my experience at valley forge, I would say that there is room for improvement in all areas of the business. Perhaps most pressing is the attitude by management regarding collaboration or in this case, lack thereof. Another concern would be the high turnover they seem to have, and the lack of female leaders. A diverse environment where women empower women? I think not. This however does not apply if you’re in the in crowd, you may join if you demonstrate your worth by walking over people rather than by hard work. Brings me to my next point, hard work is most certainly not homogeneous with job retention. You should never decide to tell HR or your superiors that you are overwhelmed as this will give them the traction needed to setup their case against you. All in all, there is a bit of everything and as all office environments fare, this is your average run of the mill office politics arena where if you don’t belong with the in crowd in the first week or two than the entire longevity of your stay, you will be working towards getting in as the keys to the office really do apply to the “in crowd”, they get the job perks, the nudges, the circles of excellence and the pay bumps. Again, hard work and staying away from office drama will definitely not improve your chances at any of the above. If you decide VF is the place for you, watch out. A company their size trying to do the whole cool start up thing “with a slide” should really brush up their skills on Human Capital Management instead of an antiquated Human Resource department whose sole purpose is hire and fire.
There also seems to be a high influx of positive reviews in the last couple weeks, please note there is a large group of Marketing specialists in the office whom are at the forefront of getting VF listed as Best Places to Work. Be weary, the attitude in the office by employees is definitely not joyful or proud but fearful and tired.
