Pros
Family Like Culture at HQ: The corporate headquarters in St. Louis truly treats people like family. During onboarding and the training, I felt valued and welcomed by the home office. This supportive culture shows that the company can have a great environment, just not in Memphis. • Welcoming Little Rock Team: My interactions with the Little Rock branch were positive. The team there was friendly, warm, and always willing to help with questions. It’s clear some offices uphold the company’s values of teamwork and support. • Industry and Projects: The audiovisual projects themselves were interesting and could have been rewarding. Conference Technologies works on modern AV solutions, so in theory there are opportunities to learn, if only the local team were supportive. There were a few techs who were supportive. One was Jay. He was simply respectful, kind, and honest about the work.He was willing to teach when the time permitted on projects
Cons
Toxic Local Leadership: The Memphis office suffers from unprofessional and hostile leadership. One senior installation technician Bill, frequently yelled at colleagues and even threw equipment in frustration. His temper tantrums created a climate of fear. He also made scathing, belittling remarks about newer team members, crushing morale. Despite being tasked to train new hires, Bill and others flat out refused to do so and actively excluded newcomers from the team, treating one as unwelcome outsiders. • Broken Promises on Training: Before hiring, management assured me there would be a reasonable timeframe for training and getting up to speed. In practice, that promise was completely dismissed. From day one, it was sink, or swim with no real training. I was chastised for not knowing processes that I was never taught. The “reasonable timeframe” for learning was non-existent , management either forgot their promise or never cared to begin with. • Culture of Gossip and Exclusion: The longer-term employees in Memphis engaged in constant gossip and negative talk about newcomers. Instead of helping us learn, they would talk behind our backs and undermine us. This created a clique-ish atmosphere where new hires felt isolated and demoralized. Reporting this toxic behavior to management was useless; my complaints about harassment and exclusion were ignored and never addressed. It was clear that bullying was tolerated as the norm. • Disregard for Diversity Concerns: Some issues I observed bordered on racial bias and unfair treatment, which made me extremely uncomfortable. When these concerns were raised to management, they were immediately dismissed without investigation. There was a disturbing lack of interest in addressing possible discrimination. It felt like certain employees were singled out or judged more harshly, and management wouldn’t lift a finger to ensure a fair, respectful workplace. • Lack of Support I also noticed that employees’ disabilities or personal circumstances were downplayed or ignored. Instead of providing support or reasonable accommodations, the attitude was that you have to “tough it out” no matter what. Employees who had different backgrounds or even prior service (for example, military veterans or experienced hires) were treated as if their past contributions meant nothing. • Ineffective Management: Overall, management in the Memphis office demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to address serious workplace issues. They paid lip service to company values but did nothing when those values were violated daily on the floor. The lack of accountability for bad behavior from shouting and equipment throwing, to gossip, to bias ,starts at the top. This neglect allowed a toxic, fear based culture to fester in Memphis, undoing the positive efforts of the broader company. They would smile in your face, and begin to sharpen the knife while your back was turned