Pros
It has taken time away from YES! to be objective. So, here it goes The YES! Attitude is a way of life: YES! I can Help; YES! We are a Team; YES! We add Value; YES! We build Community. Funny, I've been gone for a while now and I still find myself doing my best to live and work the YES! Attitude. In the beginning it was all hands on deck, everyone jumping in to make a difference and give the Community Managers what they needed to be successful, to make a positive difference in the lives of the residents, to build community, by adding value to their lives and the company because we were a team and we showed that we were a team because we helped each other out. We asked for help, we offered helped, we supported each other, we added value to each other’s lives and to the company and we built community - get the picture? It was joint effort. Heck, in the beginning I didn't even know that Gary McDaniel was the CEO of the company - I literally, had no idea! That's who we were, a Team. All of us! When lived, the YES! Attitude was transformative - and you honestly did not mind working longer hours because we worked hard, played hard and flexibility was inherent. In the beginning. The benefits were great, bonuses and profit sharing was awesome, the 401k plan is matching to 4%, a Health Saving account that the company contributes towards when getting a high deductable insurance plan, graduated PTO as seniority was reached, Spring Break and Fall Break - opportunities for community building at the corporate office (frmly the Home Office), monthly activities to bond us to each other, regular company updates and chances for open dialogue. Potential (and by potential, just that...see cons) for growth and professional development, and above all others - the most amazing, hard working, and dedicated co-workers I have ever had. Now the cons....
Cons
For years our Attitude was the driving force of the YES! Culture. It was so ingrained in me that it took me 3 years to make the decision to move on from YES!...3 years to make the decision, and 6 to 9 months to implement my departure. The mantra, YES! I can Help and YES! We are Team both inspired and drove many of us to work longer hours than we should have - especially considering that a) raises on average were non-existent for the home office team, instead we had opportunities to earn subjective bonuses. And by subjective, that is exactly what I mean - many of us never know what the basis for our bonuses were, how our rates were decided, and how we could achieve higher bonuses when given lower ones (I blame managers for this, for not being transparent with their staffs.) By the end of my tenure gone was the attitude and in its place was "you take care of yes and yes will take of you" and "if you aren't happy here, maybe you aren't a good fit" - well, the day I first heard the second statement was the day I realized YES! had grown a too big too fast for its own good. Long gone were the days of 'all hands on deck' and in its place was specialization, 'that's not your job' comments, followed by 'that's not my job' comments, to nothing getting done because no one would take ownership, meetings to decide when to have a meeting -- yada yada yada. The killer though was the loss of profit sharing for some folks, which was a nice perk, replaced with annual performance reviews with raises billed as incentive increases. My butt - they were cost of living raises 3% that was it (when you insurance goes up 7% but your raise is only 3% and you've been killing yourself, seriously?) Long hours, loss of flexibility, clock watchers, years of begging for a team only to slowly lose any autonomy, finding about decisions long after they were made only to be the one to clean it all up.
