Pros
Work from home, ability to set schedule parameters
Cons
The founder/CEO wants a software company, not a social media management company. Unfortunately for him, the software LW peddles is atrocious, and so for the moment, he's stuck as a social media management company. He places all hope in a small handful of large clients, and except that, LW is not a start up. After 20 years in business, the company should have a long list of well established clientele, OR marketable software...they have neither. As such, the companies hopes and futures lay in keeping a couple clients happy, and the dream of being a software company means that the software can never ever be the problem, rather it's always human error. Moderators (now called Agents, in an attempt to distance their humanity from their job title) are constantly being blamed for any and all mistakes, even when the mistake is entirely technologically related, because losing even one more (added to a rather long list of clients LW has lost over the past few years) would be disastrous. These 'Agents' are underpaid (LW pays approximately $3-$5/hr below industry standard, and approx $20k/yr below industry standard for client service managers), they are under appreciated (the idea of praising an 'agent' for good work, for stepping in for extra coverage, for working outside their normal availability all go unnoticed), they are constantly bombarded with scoldings and bullying tactics in an attempt to get them to fear for their jobs (and it works. Most 'agents' sign into their email daily and cringe, wondering what scolding or threat is coming today), and are all around treated like disposable chattel who don't even deserve basic benefits. In an attempt to thwart the employee mandate of Obamacare, in January 2016, hours for all US based 'agents' were capped at 29.75 hrs/wk. In July, a new 'pay structure' was put in place, to 'equalise' pay...a 3 tier system was set up paying 'agents' between $10-$12/hr, depending the complexity of the shift. That means that employees who had been with the company 20yrs, and those who were just hired, were now (for the most part aside from a few who were, inexplicably, already making a higher hourly wage) paid exactly the same. Raises are something LW doesn't dole out, regardless of length of employment, increasing the feeling that 'agents' aren't seen as human. Adding to the company culture of fear for livelihood, which is instilled in all 'agents' at the very start, a culture of distrust is cultivated by management continuing to ignore their own established, published for the entire company to see, QA protocols. The extent to which this policy is ignored is entirely based on the personal feelings a manager has for the employee. If you are well liked by a client manager (read: you do what you're told, never question, and all around act like a brainwashed robot), then mistakes are swept under the rug, or blamed on someone else. If, instead, you are disliked by management, the harshest punishment possible is inflicted for every tiny error, including ones which are the result of bugs in the software. As a result, productivity is directly impacted. 'Agents' are well aware that the less content moderated over a shift, the less likely any mistake will happen, and thus less likely for scolding and threatening emails to show up in your inbox. As a company, LW is on a track for complete and utter destruction. They can remove senior moderators with training and education and years of experience, and replace them with nubile newbies, and it won't make a difference. All it would take for LW to fold would be one major client leaving, and taking the jobs of roughly 100 'agents' and, at minimum, 5 managers with it. In reality, LW is imploding from within, and the Powers That Be refuse to see the problem, instead living in Happy Dream Land where they'll sell their buggy, incomprehensible, non-user friendly software to big name companies to do their own in house moderation, make millions, and be the new starts of Silicone Valley. Unfortunately for Happy Dream Land, LW has been trying to do this for 20 years, and hasn't been successful. It's time to take a good, hard, honest look at the future of the company, before there's no one else around to shoulder the blame for your failures.
