Pros
- Everyone has lives outside of work and in turn stay flexible in order to accommodate others. As long as employees get their work done and participate in the meetings they've agreed to, it's no problem to take some time during the nominal workday to run errands, take care of kids, go to doctor's appointments, or get some exercise. - Everyone contributes to a culture that promotes learning and problem solving. If an employee doesn't know something, their co-workers will point them to resources or give them a direct hand. If someone makes a mistake, people pitch in to mitigate and resolve the issue rather than appoint blame. - My co-workers, both inside and outside of my department, work hard, help out, and are genuinely ethical.
Cons
- Salaries fall well below industry standards, especially for more senior members of the team. Our yearly pay "raises" that don't even match inflation. - Benefits are mediocre. When the office was open, this was mitigated somewhat by the fun perks but without that, it's clear that a low 401k match with a long vesting period simply doesn't cut it. - Upper management is incredibly secretive about anything that might make the company look bad: compensation, turnovers, future investment, layoffs, etc. Direct contributors and even lower management are informed of basic decisions only at the last moment (at best!). - As a result of the above, current employees are leaving in droves, which strongly mitigates all of the grassroots-originated pros I mentioned (i.e., all of them).