There are 3 major issues with this company which create a lot of problems and a pretty negative environment. They are the upper management, the culture and the CEO. There are a lot of great people who work here and a lot of talent, unfortunately, this company is not a place where hard work, talent or dedication are recognized or noticed. There is almost no upward mobility, because there is almost no organizational structure. The culture is non-existent, people barely interact, the office is windowless, full of cockroaches and the awful working conditions have become a pretty sad joke among the employees.
I was with the company for over 3 years in various roles. I was an account manager in the virtual bookstore for 2 of those years. On a side note - I wasn’t fired, so this is not a spiteful post by a disgruntled former employee. If you are interviewing for a position in this department, there are a few things you should know
1: Your starting salary will be your only salary. Raises never happen. Ever. The CEO specifically states that raises are not guaranteed, even for yearly cost of living adjustments.
2: You will never receive a performance review. The leadership of this department will promise them a couple times a year, but there are always reasons why they "just don't have time" to get around to them. If you sit down and express concern about this issue, you will be patronized.
3: During the "travel seasons" you will be expected to be on call for trips that will be planned at the last minute. These are not trips which they didn't know about until the last minute, these are trips that they know about months in advance, but wait until the last minute to make travel arrangements and tell employees to plan for them. Expect less than a few days of notice for these trips.
4: When you are traveling, your accommodations will include red eye flights and/or long drives. It is quite common to travel for an entire day after your school visit, getting home well after midnight and then you are expected back in the office the next morning. Expect to work many days’ worth of overtime, with no compensation.
5: The department is inefficiently (because there is no organizational structure) managed. The leadership is quite often profane, sexually inappropriate and oblivious to problems. Those in charge get very stressed and overwhelmed because they refuse to delegate or lead. There is no one problem when it comes to upper management, but this is a huge component.
The company tries to brand themselves as an innovative startup, but they are far from either. The entire business model is chasing the industry leaders’ ideas. eCampus isn't doing anything that makes them an industry leader, they are industry followers at the back of the line. At any level of management there is a lack of direction and vision. These issues start at the top and trickle all the way down, creating a toxic work environment and an unsustainable business model. They want to grow by signing new accounts, but they don’t want to build a scalable organizational structure.
If this review seems hyperbolic, it is because the issues are comically bad. They seem to go out of their way to avoid making positive progressive changes.
