Pros
Much of the staff are hard workers who care about trying to do a good job (which will NEVER be recognized by management or HR). Benefits have been decent but as the company’s outlook becomes more and more bleak, those are slowly being whittled away also.
Cons
Where to start? Well, at the top makes sense. The owner bought the company around 2004, and U. S. sales have pretty consistently dropped ever since. Opening in China about 5 years ago helped briefly, but sales there have already dropped to 1/2 or less of where they started. Other markets are being closed (e. g. Mexico). Most of it can be tied directly to the inability of the owner to offer any strategic direction to the company whatsoever. He focuses on constantly “re-branding” products (sometimes just a couple years after having already having done so,) rather than making any meaningful changes to the compensation plan or infrastructure that might actually draw new people to the company. Unfortunately, he married into money so this is just a plaything for him to say he is a CEO, and he doesn’t seem at all interested in making it successful. The company is on its third or fourth President since he has owned the company, each less effective than their predecessor. The current one came in over 3 years ago with much promise, but has seen sales continue to drop the entire time, to near historic lows. Her level of micromanagement is like nothing I have ever seen from someone in senior management, and it is becoming clear she focuses on the minutiae because she has no actual long-term strategy for pulling the company out of the death spiral it is in. As might be expected in a company on life support, morale is terrible. Again, because there is no strategic vision whatsoever, people work long hours, often on projects that end up not being implemented. Or worse, they are often changed at the last minute and rolled out haphazardly, simply confusing the customers more. Little, if any, recognition is given for the work people do. Raises have remained the same for at least 10 years, never more than 2%. The annual review process is a joke and doesn’t tie to raises or bonuses in any way, so people “going through the motions” get the same small increase that hard workers do. And the HR group, on the rarest of occasions when they are actually doing something, are only looking out for management and never advocating for employees. There are so many more issues, but ultimately they all stem from a lack of any strategic vision on the part of senior management, and a complete disregard for the employees.