Always busy, but usually lacking direction. Set up to fail...like trying to hit a moving target.
Pros
Diverse group of folks which is somewhat difficult to find in Oklahoma. Nice facility with gym. Flexible work hours which is good for parents and for others who live far away. Possibility of traveling abroad. Opportunities to meet high level management who work for BIG customers, which is great for networking.
Cons
High turnover. 1) The company would go on a hiring spree, only to find that OH was too high a few months down the road. Layoffs in significant numbers would happen every 2 to 3 years. (In an office of 20 to 30 people, on average the company would lose and gain one person per month) 2) Some departments would go from having one, two, three employees to a department of one--only the manager. (Once, a mandatory department was completely wiped out and a new set of employees were brought in a couple of days later. No explanation was given to non-management) 3) I saw employees with the most talent leave on their own. Sometimes they left because they didn't understand their job duties or the employee was removed from their position to another for which they were not trained. 4) On rare occasions, someone would be fired during a team-building activity. There were some very good systems and processes in the main office; however, upper level managers thought their participation should be excluded because of their status in the company. Other employees directly under the upper level management would follow upper level management's lead in ignoring the systems and processes. Global offices were notorious for asking OKC questions which they could have answered themselves, if they would have attempted to be resourceful. Then when questions should logically be asked, those would be the questions that went unasked. Annual reviews take place every other year, at best. Every other time, reviews would be completed but never discussed. Occasionally, employees would find out that their job description had changed when one would be left out of a series of meetings, or secondarily during all hands meetings. Because the company operates in firefighting mode most of the time, long-term goals were almost never met. Owner would get in a 'mood' that would occasionally last for months and all team-building activities would be canceled. (I believe an entire year went by once where the only activity was a Christmas gift exchange during the lunch hour). During the "no team-building activity" periods, I remember a time when employees were actuality asked to stop initiating their own non-company sponsored potlucks. The ratio of managers to workers was almost always lopsided.