Pros
It was steady work and there were a lot of good people there. I appreciated the efforts of the upper leadership to improve morale. They had some really democratic practices and did let staff have a say in some decisions - such as how to proceed with uniforms, branding, some design aspects in some of the new building renovations.
Cons
Though leadership was trying to improve things, they really fell short. It is like an organization lost in time. We joked that it was old school, and there were Office Space moments too. You had to laugh, but sometimes it was a depressing place to work. The physical workspaces were quite dismal. I had a decent office with a window and then they restructured. My supervisor, myself, and coworkers were all moved to a different building in a room that had no windows. The fluorescent-lined hallways were a dismal grey, which reminded me of a submarine. They have a new director now, they have increased salaries, and it sounds like it is doing a lot better. I wish the best for Access because I know the work they do is important. There was a coldness to the company culture. There is a policy where if the employee is out sick, the supervisor is not allowed to contact them for any reason. I became really sick with pneumonia and my boss didn't reach out once to just say, "hope you are doing ok", I didn't realize that this was a policy until much later and just took his silence for not caring about me at all. But even when I returned, he didn't say anything about me being out. There were many of challenging things about working with him, but overall, this was a hurtful experience and if affected our remaining working relationship. Lastly, I brought up an issue to leadership that was related to equity - a policy that benefitted only the high-salaried employees, but in some cases, was affecting the bottom line of employees who made lower salaries. Some of the leadership team was open to hearing me and working with me, but the ED was very defensive the whole time. I dropped the issue because it couldn't go anywhere, and I was leaving anyway.
