VBA Reviews

3 months ago I wouldn’t have any cons but this serves as your warning. After the Private Equity “majority transaction” the morals have changed SO much. They have begun mass terminations (considering the employee count it is a large amount) and have “eliminated positions” even though the responsibilities and projects are still active. This isn’t exact language but the investors have boasted about how they will cut costs by laying off employees so they can just hire staff that they can pay lower wages to and then exploit the lower paid staff by demanding they meet whatever quotas set or face being fired. (This was actually stated to employees) Leadership also bragged to employees about how much they were getting from the buyout (payouts with 6-7 zeros). Despite how much money the company AND leadership personally received, the company decided to withhold <$2,000 in earned commissions even though earned commissions are WAGES. After a ton of back and forth with emails that detail how they don’t value employees anymore, they said they would pay the sum of the earned wages - but they would only do so as severance. That would require I sign a severance agreement which would also release them from all sorts of liability and it would sign off on a nondisparagement clause. Eventually I did receive my full pay but only when I said “I wanna give a heads up that I am going to file my complaint since I am sure you will receive something in the mail regarding that. Just want to make sure I alert you so you aren’t surprised”. Once I left that message I was able to receive my commissions. I don’t fault HR at all, BTW. This is 100% coming from certain leadership and HR and other departmental heads involved in payroll are stuck in the middle and try to do everything they can to be fair to staff.

VBA was a fantastic employer for many years. However, since Spectrum Equity invested in the company last year, significant changes have left the organization in complete disarray. The once excellent culture has been completely crushed. Multiple rounds of layoffs have occurred, each followed by assurances from Spectrum's implanted leaders that there would be no further cuts, only for more employees to quietly disappear week after week, discovered by colleagues attempting to connect with them on company platforms to find they had been deactivated. The deception and dishonesty are troubling, but even more disheartening is the original executive team's decision to prioritize financial gain over the well-being of their longtime, dedicated colleagues, promising "opportunities" that have yet to materialize. The workplace environment has deteriorated into one of toxicity and instability, with employees living in constant fear of being the next unexpected termination, while those who remain are burdened with excessive workloads. Leadership fails to advocate for their team members and allows affluent clients to openly disrespect them. I am embarrassed and disgusted to ever have been part of this organization.