Pros
Branch locations get quite a bit of freedom to operate how they wish. You get to experience some cool/unique venues and events on occasion. Fully paid medical and dental premiums and an IRA match.
Cons
Operations are antiquated, literally from old equipment and facilities to "we've always done it that way" mentality to the actual age of the management and leadership teams. There's no defined company branding or culture. I worked there 2.5 years and have no idea what the company's mission or values are. Those should be communicated day 1. What I gathered from my time there, the culture can be described as old, unable to change and wanting employees to give over their whole life to working. Being sick or taking a vacation was definitely frowned upon. This could be somewhat just the mentality of my branch, but shortly before I left corporate rolled out a policy where a VP had to approve any PTO days taken 9 months of the year. Only the other 3 months could you take PTO with approval from a branch manager. So it seemed to be a company-wide mentality. Finally, there's little transparency and communication from the top. For a rather small organization, there are a lot of layers and bureaucracy. Little room for growth, at least at my small branch. Larger branches promoted from within. Few development opportunities. Compensation wasn't great. Event staff are paid hourly, and there are generally lots of opportunities to work overtime due to the sporadic event schedule. If there's lots of overtime to be worked, you can make some good money, but that also means you work tons of hours. Event staff are expected to work weeks and weeks on end without a single day off at busy times, but it's thought to be ok because you make overtime. Legal? Yes. But bad for burnout. Then there are the low seasons where there is literally nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs all day. To end the list, I, quite frankly, didn't feel good about having to sell the services Edlen sells. They're ridiculously expensive, mainly due to union labor (another antiquated aspect of the industry). I felt like the "bad guy" working there, knowing clients only used us because they had to. I can't say I left proud to work there.