Lunch and Learns
The company offers lunch and learns and this is open to anyone in the company. But you can’t just talk about anything even though they tell you that you can. You must follow their values.
A lot of staff find these useless and often are not at their desks watching or listening to the presenter.
Lunches are paid but if you’re not in an area that offers Door Dash, credits go to a lifestyle spending account. An account you get taxed for if you spend.
Values
The company has these values that they claim to follow, Hungry, Humble, Care. Don’t ask.
These values are also asked during most interviews. How is anyone supposed to know what they rank these in and what it means to them without digging for it on the unorganized website?
They’re extremely hungry when it comes to building business because it’s about the bottom line.
Humble and care? Nothing humble or caring about the company.
Training
Horrible.
Staff who are not experienced are put into uncomfortable training sessions for new staff. Some are even put into uncomfortable onboarding sessions of new staff and most of the time, with little direction.
They pull senior or experience staff to train new staff and almost always, on the fly. Manuals are never updated and they expect staff who are not trainers or in the position to do so, update them.
They drive on success but how can one succeed if the one who’s training is still guessing through processes and/or have little to no knowledge of the current, ever changing processes?
Processes
If you cannot work in a quick, fast-paced environment, this place is not for you.
The one portal is set in stone or something along those lines but the other portal is always changing. With this, comes with constant, pointless touch points with individuals who are paid way too much money to advise on or paid too little money to figure out the problems.
Portal updates happen quite often and it does not allow a specialist to learn processes that were made the week before because the week following, it is something completely different. Everyone learns on the fly and it’s expected. They want you to think on your feet.
Staff
A lot of people are promoted into positions they have no experience in and are expected to learn the role on their own. Sometimes, direction and training is provided but that’s not always the case.
A lot of staff are friends or family of management/senior leadership and seem to be where they are because of that. But it’s a start-up right? Most are built on friends or family helping with the launch and they see the company grow, etc. However, this can be seen in a particular department and a lot of staff feel a certain way because of it. Friends or family who work in this department are protected in some sense.
If one wants to work part-time, that will only be provided to those who are friends or family. There is a game of favouritism even though they claim there isn’t.
When things go wrong, they don’t follow the standard process: verbal/discussion, write-up, and termination. When there’s a problem with a staff member or if management outright does not like them, they will terminate at will. Most staff do not get to learn from their wrong-doings and are left to figure it out on their own. Again, this comes from poor communication, training and so on. It appears they keep a secret file on everyone and when the bad builds up over the good, that person is eliminated without a chance to discuss. Again, it’s all about the bottom line.
There is a rare instance where they’ll move a problem staff member into a different role or department that may be better suited for them (and everyone else) but almost always, that staff member ends up terminated.
But let’s not forget the nice people, they’re great but again, they have orders to follow.
Overtime/Extra Hours
They like to remind staff to not work too hard or don’t stay on too late. But when staff don’t go the extra mile, they are punished in some sense and are not considered in the rounds of promotions or pay raises.
Pay
It’s salary for everyone and some roles have commission on top of that.
Some of the pay is definitely not competitive as they claim and most recently, most if not all, received glorified title changes and pay bumps after a group termination over video was conducted. Most did not feel good accepting the raises but what is one to do? Money makes the world go round and everyone has bills to pay.
Co-op
This is no place for co-ops.
Co-ops are hired to work like any other and don’t actually learn or fulfill what is required from their placement.
It’s a great stepping stone as for most, this is their first work experience.
The company loves co-ops as funding comes from elsewhere and does not impact them directly.
Hiring
They hire and fire.
The hiring process is horrible. Why set a phone screening if you’re going to ask the same questions during the interview stage?
