After the initial warm welcome, people remain friendly and helpful but you learn very quickly to keep a very low profile. There is an extreme sense of paranoia in the office - the most benign question is responded to with darting eyes and a whisper of, "I'll tell you when we walk to our cars this afternoon.". The office environment is the height of micro-management ... definitely a high-volume outgoing telesales center complete with call metrics, call recordings, email reviews, and windows from the hallway looking into every office. Unfortunately none of those tools are ever used in the way of providing constructive guidance, even when direction is requested. Instead, they are used as a method of surveillance (which probably increases the level of paranoia in the office) and a method of elimination. There is a high degree of turnover among the staff. Mid-level management shows little interest in developing the staff; instead they seem to be more concerned with "CYA" and advancing their own careers, even if it requires dishonesty.
As mentioned, if you are a top performer you are awarded many perks. However, if you are an average employee, you will not receive any guidance or direction to help make you (and them) more successful. The company promotes a culture of "sink or swim" and quickly "cuts it's losses" if someone is not producing the numbers that put them in the "top performers" group.
The job was a classic "bait and switch" ... what was "sold" as: a fabulous opportunity with tremendous earning potential, within a "family" culture that truly cares about it's employees and their success, was actually the most oppressive job of my life. The critical success factors outlined in the interview process did not match up with reality.
