Excessive Over-Monitoring: There are security cameras watching all activity in both offices, which are then broadcast to each other. Individuals have their productivity/activity aggressively measured and judged against an ocean of metrics which they must collect and report on to management.
Harmful Workloads, Mandatory Overtime: Safety Net has ridiculously high expectations of the workloads the team should be capable of handling. On top of the excessive amount of work throughout the day is the imposition of mandatory overtime. Obviously, this practice disrupts work-life balance and negatively impacts employee well-being.
Many employees are hired in as interns and then brought in as full time employees. While this is commendable for providing opportunity, this also means they are easily exploited due to having no reference to what a healthy workload looks like.
This company is a meat grinder. If you do not quit in 6 months, you will be stuck here for years as you will be too exhausted to find another job.
Changes in Financial Transparency: The entire team is extremely concerned about the recent removal of the open-book finances policy. The owners used to pride themselves about their transparent approach to finances. However in light of recent changes they seem happy to keep us in the dark about the specific details of company finances and decision-making. Some financial metrics will apparently continue to be published during monthly company huddles. However, I expect transparency to continue to degrade every year.
Elimination of Gain Share Program: A major disappointment is the removal of the gain-share program, announced in a company meeting just before Christmas. This program had been suspended for the previous couple of years due to lack of profitability. Now that profits have improved, it's been formally removed. It looks like the owners would rather enjoy the branding that comes with giving those additional profits to charity than sharing it with the employees who brought them success.
"Employee-Centered" Culture: During the hiring process, Safety Net will brand itself on it's "employee-centered culture." This promise feels like marketing more than reality. Employees are overworked, underpaid, and now without any of the previous financial transparency and gain share benefits we were initially promised. A new hire's PTO plan is 15 days, with sick days and vacation days pooled together. If you work for the company for 10 years or so, you will eventually earn an amount of PTO that is considered standard at most any other white-collar company. Also expect to be working the day before and after holidays such as Christmas.
