Pros
- Flexibility in hours. - Loose requirement on work hours. - Employee’s choice on how they want to contribute to VGT. - Options for technology helpful to a growing company. - Former IGT experience to work on game design. - Scrum and all its benefits of greater team responsibility, increased communication, and regular demos to important decision makers. - Many good company-wide perks. Recognition for patent work. Annual holiday employee appreciation. - Regular employee training. - Shared product release plans.
Cons
It is often necessary and difficult to persuade Jon Yarbrough, both CEO and owner, of things that do not fall under his expertise since VGT’s large income leaves him unaccountable. The people that get to make the most important decisions at VGT are overly relied upon because of the trust they are given by Jon Yarbrough. Decision makers at VGT fall into two categories or can even be both. 1. People who do not deserve to be in their position and rarely do anything to resolve problems. 2. People who extend their authority and responsibilities beyond their original capabilities and assigned duty by dismissing everyone who disagrees with them. This leaves little room for anyone else to accomplish the things that they see needing to be done at VGT. Requirements for a product’s release are often overlooked at which point it is found that VGT lacks the capacity and resources to complete them in the desired manner. VGT makes long term goals but rarely succeeds at them due to unforeseen complications. Upper level management gives their attention to one company goal at a time and micro manages it while all other goals are given background priority and largely forgotten about. Under performing employees that cannot self-motivate themselves go unnoticed because they are placed on tasks that are not given enough attention by management. VGT’s most valuable employees resign out of frustration. Universal solutions are applied to very small and simple problems at VGT. The analogy of using a baseball bat instead of a fly swatter is frequently used around work. VGT believes that all of its employees are a “free” resource that does not need to be factored into any expense. VGT will throw as many employees as it can at a problem and then blame everyone but their selves when there is nothing to show for it. Serious disagreements with someone at the VP level or higher have been resolved by removing the lower level employee from their responsibilities and often firing them from the company. Conflict and disputes between employees are handled by no longer allowing those employees to interact with each other. Sick days are combined with PTO so that employees have to sacrifice their vacation days to recover from illness. Contagious employees come in when they are sick and risk spreading illness to other employees to avoid sacrificing their vacation time.