horrible and getting worse as they grow
Pros
Free lunch most Wednesdays. Nice people to work with, who share your interest in making something that will help educate children. Occasional cocktail parties. Cake celebrations for birthdays. They have a nice holiday luncheon too, offsite.
Cons
The most bizarre but typical thing about Benchmark Education Company is, top leaders yell at people every day, no exaggeration. It can be over the smallest thing too, or something that actually matters. One owner makes a lot of hateful comments about, for example, fat employees. If you protest she will tell you she is joking but everyone knows better, she is very angry and nasty. The company is cheap with the employees and is getting worse all the time. Even though Benchmark Education has made a lot of money, many people do not get annual raises. If you do it will only be because you badgered them over and over. They are really cheap with your time too: you are suppose to use 3 of your 10 vacation days in the week they sort-of close the business between Christmas and New Year's, and you have to use personal days if you can't make it in due to ice on the roads, etc.They don't trust anyone: you are supposed to sign out at reception when you go to lunch! (oh and you can't eat at your desk...) They have grown the business too fast, so instead of a culture, there are people bringing in their friends, spouses, family members, cronies, etc. - so that is where the money goes that should go to salary increases for dedicated employees. They do a lot of things that are random, for example they have crammed the Creative Services group into a corner, where people can't even put their work down on their desks next to their computers, while there are many empty cubicles elsewhere. The quality of management below the level of the ownership varies. Some departments are run well and others are not. The owners have put family members in leadership roles despite their limited experience. That is certainly their prerogative but it makes headaches for people who have to work with or "for" them; it also means that there is no getting ahead based on the quality of your work, because the owners will hardly judge their family members' work objectively, so that means they won't judge your work objectively either. Benchmark Education Company has a bad reputation among human resources professionals and it is 100 percent deserved.Turnover at the executive level of human resources is considerable and there are extensive vacancies even though there has been so much growth. So the employees have no one to go to, no one to stand up for them or to help them build their career. Training is limited too. Many people leave Benchmark Education quite quickly. This reflects a) people who can't put up with the stress of a yelling environment and quit as soon as possible, and b) poor hiring decisions made by inexperienced or partial management. Favoritism is big here - there are some people who can do no wrong, and some who can do no right. They over-pay some people and under-pay others - that is within their right, but it doesn't do anything for morale. (Morale is the least of their concern - all they care about is productivity leading to more profit.)
