Once upon a time, this was a great place to work
Pros
Many of the people who work for ESM are pretty incredible. The job tends to attract people who genuinely care about others and want to make a difference. This leads to an overall good team to work with (with a few notable exceptions). While this may seem to be a great reason to work for ESM (who doesn’t want to work with great people?), it is a heartbreaking reason to stay away. Since Xexox acquired ESM, the company has changed dramatically. Xerox does not care whatsoever about these amazing, talented people who care so much. ESM does offer health insurance (pretty expensive), 10 days of vacation, 10 days of sick time, and four floating holidays. Individual teams seem to develop their own culture – some of them better than others.
Cons
In less than four years, the culture of ESM changed from a pretty decent place to work with a great atmosphere to one lacking any sort of direction, hope, or excitement. Despite the insincere platitudes that there is no reason that Xerox would have purchased ESM just to run it into the ground, that is exactly what is happening. ESM’s greatest resource as a business was in its people – people who are now desperately searching for any and every escape route possible. Regardless of how hard the people who remain work, it appears as though ESM is a sinking ship. Bound by corporate red tape (it’s more than a cliché!), leadership at ESM is basically powerless to make any real changes to improve or salvage the company. Additionally, anyone who works in a “support department” is constantly in danger of being furloughed (two week-long furloughs in less than one year), or being laid off due to Xerox’s “cost cutting” measures. Xerox will not even approve the costs to replace the water/ice machine, forcing the employees to drink tap water. The machine broke in October of 2013 and as of May 2014 has still not been repaired/replaced. They shut down two of their offices (Westminster and Southlands) at the end of 2013, limit what types of office supplies can be ordered (no pads of paper or tissue for you!), and refuse to update/replace broken down or obsolete technology. The writing is on the wall. Will ESM be around to even see 2015?
