Pros
Not too many pros. Maybe PTO. After a year of working at Upgrade you have the potential of getting granted 4,000 stock options.
Cons
Too many Cons. This used to be a good company to work for, but not anymore. Upper management (above directors) does not care about employees. We are just numbers to them. Huge budget cuts are happening across the company in preparation for the IPO coming up. Those budget cuts include employees income (raises), less opportunities for advancement in the company, letting go of an entire service team (lay-offs), hiring workers overseas (cheaper labor). Taking away things like storage of data that was available on hand, but now has to be specially requested (this is causing delays in work flow and it's just an extra step that has added frustration to work). The social culture of this company is that if you are the teacher's pet, or play the favorites game, you get advancement, or potentially special treatment. The jobs at the company could easily be work from home, but because they want their name on the top of the building in Phoenix, they require people to go into the office. Not sure why they just don't get billboards around town, which probably would be more effective, or just advertising in general. To me, it's a silly reason to keep an office and all the overhead that comes with it if you are wanting to cut the budget and shore up money for the company to go public, getting rid of the office would be one of the first things that I would do. They are implementing more and more AI into job roles. This is concerning and almost feels like they are potentially getting ready for more lay-offs since AI is taking over some job functions. Some people are nice enough to say hi around the office, but most, even the ones on the same team as you, don't even say hello at all. The office buildings are located in the heart of downtown Phoenix, which is a pain to get to. They provide parking, but it's far from the office, and walking in the heat in the summer is not fun. Plus there are many unhoused downtown that linger around the building and sometimes make it uncomfortable going to the office. The lights are too bright in the office and they will not adjust them for any reason. Management in general has poor communication. They don't do a good job of communicating changes when they happen, and typically will tell some teammates the changes and not others, causing mass confusion. Sometimes, they don't communicate things at all, like if we are changing the seating or moving to a new area of the building. No opportunities for advancement, no mentor program, and no actual coaching is happening.