The Worst Kind of Corporate. Very Detailed Review of All Issues Below. - Operations Associate CLEAResult Employee Review

I started here as an entry-level employee back when it was still the non-profit PECI, and worked up from there. A few years in, PECI was purchased by CLEAResult, and I left within a year. It was truly an awful experience, and I would never recommend this company to anyone. While I haven't been there for 2-3 years, I have a few friends who still work there (most have left), and things have only gotten worse. Some of the feedback below is from my own experience, and some is information from friends who still work there. In short, CLEAResult is the worst kind of corporate - owned by a holding company, poor leadership, poor communication from leadership, underhanded business practices (I really wish someone would take up a case with BOLI about their salary disparities between genders and their practice of treating non-exempt employees as exempt - I had no idea that was illegal, and I've passed the statute of limitations), profit over people, etc. Additionally, their growth model is based off of acquiring other businesses, and besides the obvious issues with that, integration is awful and messy and handled horribly. When they acquired PECI, they laid off almost the entirety of the upper level management (who were actually pretty excellent, and it was terrible to see them go), and that's just one example of the things that happened around our "integration." Poor / noncompetitive benefits overall - when I was there it was only a 3% or 5% 401k match, and you had to pay out the nose for medical premiums. For comparison, when I moved to my next company, not only did I get a 30-35% raise to go *down* a position, I also got a 10% 401k match and I got a credit each month for my medical premiums - and 3 weeks of vacation to start, which I was able to negotiate to 4 weeks. WTF. While those benefits are particularly good, I can tell you that basically anywhere is going to have better benefits than CLEAResult. They're based out of Texas, and not very accommodating to Pacific Northwesters - for example, when I was there, their health insurance doesn't cover naturopathy. Supposedly the Pacific NW region is "infamous" in the company for "having low morale." I can't imagine why - it's like we expect fair compensation and decent company culture or something. They keep replacing female leadership with male leadership - almost any time a woman moves from a management role, she's replaced with a dude. High salary disparity between genders. And high salary disparity between job levels - someone working two levels above someone else might actually be making less. Turnover is high, and everyone is pretty much in a constant state of "getting up to speed." Of a 7-8 person team, I was the person who had been there the longest after roughly 2 years. At one point the average turnover rate in the Portland office was something like every 6-8 months. Absolutely bonkers. Management generally passes over people for promotions if they take their vacation time and comp time and/or stick to 40 hours a week, vs. working 45+ hours. This is an "unspoken" thing in upper management that's hard to nail them on, because there's nothing in writing. You generally have to do the job above yours (or even two levels above yours) for at least a year before you get promoted. They also often "promote" without adequate compensation to go along with the title. By the time I left, I was doing a job two levels above mine, and getting paid ~$35k-40k for work that I should have been compensated closer to ~$55-60k. Consistently below market rate for salaries across the board, and have virtually no bonuses or annual increases, beyond a 1.5% or so "cost of living increase" - big whoop. Getting your annual review is a bit of a joke, compensation-wise. As this is a consulting company, so there's a big variety in clients. Some are good, some are awful. I worked for a program that had a terrible reputation within the company, and for good reason - remember folks, when someone asks you in an interview if you work well "under pressure in a dynamic and constantly changing environment," this is code for "our program is utter chaos, everyone leaves in less than a year, we've lost all of our historical knowledge, and we basically just fly by the seat of our pants here." Not all programs were like that, though, so, in short, it can be kind of a crap shoot if you don't know the details of the program you're working for in advance. Then there's the added factor that the work is often contract-based, so there's always the possibility that a program or position will simply end. While they supposedly make an effort to move people around to something new...people do get laid off. In all, I would NEVER recommend someone work here. Never. Unless you are a corporate person and don't mind not having a soul, don't work here. It seriously sucks.