Pros
-Initially Very Positive. -Got to experience an array of new technology. -There's a few good people that work there -Didn't have to work much overtime
Cons
-It's a good old boys club - The longer you stay there the longer you realize that everyone who is employed there is a high school friend or a college friend of the other and the management structure reflects that cronyism. This, sadly, goes straight to the CTO. Many people employed there are employed through connections to him and those people are the ones who do some of the least/poorest work and act as if they're protected from all reprimand. Other examples include family members working in close proximity and setting each others salaries. Some managers that directly report to each other have known each other for decades and that sets up a hostile environment where you can't speak freely about problems with your manager because they cover for their friends. -No real opportunity for advancement - The only way to advance is through the management track and those jobs are only offered on a friend of a friend basis. -Poor compensation and raises that are based on the sales of the stores while managers are still given incentives and bonuses based on things like spending. -Poor corporate attitude - The workplace is filled with older people who are more concerned with complaining than actually doing anything the right way. The company doesn't place importance on security or innovation in the way they would have you believe and often times things are done the wrong way just because its too inconvenient to do it right or with customer data integrity in mind because "this is the way its always been done". The employees know there's a right way but they like to complain about all the people keeping them from doing it the right way all the way through the management structure instead of actually affecting change. -Bad environment for women - There is a very poor ratio of men to women and the behavior reflects that. I have been near employees that are talking about porn or commenting on the bodies of female employees as they walk by as if its totally acceptable. I would not suggest that any woman work there or they're going to have to get good at turning a blind eye or really good at taking casual sexual harassment all day. -Poor management - Many of the managers have received no management training. I have been interrogated by my managers and have them attack my performance or attitude by bringing aspects of my personal life that I shared with them in private. This is inappropriate. They also will question the work you do, and when asked for concrete work that would make them happy they say things like "We don't like to tell people what they should and shouldn't be doing." Across all departments employees are widely lied to and promised advancement. This is particularly bad in the call center where managers speak disparagingly of the employees in that department and their own managers seek to keep them from advancing within the company so that they don't lose out on low cost labor. Managers will bury employees and scapegoat in order to cover up any problems in their management style. I've seen a number of managers offer advice to employees that amounts to a personal attack formed as "helpful criticism". Management there has taken on the definition of bullying. -Human Resources - This department only exists to protect the managers. I have had a number of experiences with them and almost all of them were bad. As of today I still never received any requested information from when I turned in my notice. I also watched as they allowed gross mistreatment of employees and avoided filing actual paperwork which seems like a way to allow managers to bully their employees over performance with fear of termination without actually having to document any behavior or record anything that has happened. I also had issues with mistreatment from other employees and mediation was set out and never followed through leaving me to have to solve my own issues (by leaving). There's a lot of reasons not to work there. I've seen people I considered to be good people change their behavior entirely and play the game of working there. I've seen too many people's passion stamped out and replaced with complacency. Its the kind of place that talks bad about employees that leave saying for other jobs "It's like this everywhere." That's no excuse for how it is to work at Aaron's in the technology department.