Is this your company?
3.7
54% would recommend to a friend
David Stern, MD, CPC
74% approve of CEO
73% positive business outlook
Pros
Decent work-life balance. Company outlook was very good.
Cons
Overall compensation was not commensurate with experience.
Pros
The biggest pro of working here is the people, by far. There's so many amazing employees across all the departments. With that said there's also some not great people, but more on that in the con section. The environment is very casual depending on your role, and the work life balance is nice. Although the work you'll be doing as a developer isn't the most exciting, or using the latest and greatest, you have the ability to learn from the many years of experience and different backgrounds your're surrounded by in development. If you're reading this and wondering whether or not PV would be a good choice for you as a developer I would say it depends on a) your interpersonal skills and level of comfort dealing with people including not being afraid to ask questions and listen to others ideas and b) making and standing by the decisions you will make (some big and some small). The other pros have all been listed in previous reviews. Everything from free lunch on Wednesday's, an on-site barista, and more. The one thing nobody has touched on is the company mandated training (both the book learning during the summer and the required training and orientations), so I'll delve into that. Nobody should ever turn down the opportunity to learn, and I think that you can learn from anyone. So when employees mention they're not getting anything from training management should respond to that positively, and inquire as to why, and what could be done differently. Instead of books on talking to people nicely and the steps you should follow to communicate, maybe have technical training's, or go more in depth with business knowledge and read things everyone could benefit from (Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard, Winning by Jack Welch and Good to Great by Jim Collins come to mind). The point should be to inspire the employees to want to learn, not to force them to attend sessions where they're not benefiting from it. To sum up the pros there's a lot, and there's a lot more than employees there realize because it's easier to focus on the negatives and complain about those. Find out what people like, let them give honest feedback (mostly for billing) and strive to provide a fun and edificational environment.
Cons
For the entire development team (including support and QA) there is very little trust from upper management, which is sad because most everyone takes a lot of pride in their work, especially the development team. Nobody likes making mistakes, and nobody makes them on purpose or to be lazy or because they don't care. They care a lot, and they take responsibility for what their working on and I wish that was communicated better. It's been said in multiple meetings that the CEO does not trust development, and I'm sure a GlassDoor review isn't going to change anything but the team leads in development are so dedicated to delivering their best effort it's remarkable that anyone would doubt them. There's a lot of challenges when it comes to the products development maintains, and every decision made by development was made by some of the most intelligent and hard working people I've ever met. An earlier review likened employment to, "being told to have fun riding rides at gun point." I think that's an extremely accurate description of the cons relating to the culture. To sum it up everyone is forced to do the same things, what you like or dislike is of no concern. A lot of this comes from the "culture" which in case you didn't notice is in quotes denoting some irony, I'll explain. The four core values of the company are recited at daily meetings between team members, which is great, however these core values translate to very little day-to-day. Positive energy is the one that stands out the most to me, and if you've worked there you know why. I know on the billing side of things (which is treated far worse than the non-billing side) when someone upsets someone else (even if they just misconstrued what was being conveyed) a team holds a meeting to call someone out in front of everyone. In what way is that positive? Everyone at PV matters, and everyone should be treated as such. Treating employees respectfully and communicating honestly with them will go a long way.
Pros
Are you are a family member of the CEO/Owner and/or are you a High School chum of the CEO/Owner's wife with NO experience and NO formal college education? If you answer yes to this question, you will go far at Practice Velocity. Do you enjoy working and “belonging” to a cult-like atmosphere where any question raised about the financials or the well being of the company are met with resounding hostility and often times the employee is swiftly excused from employment? Practice Velocity is the place for you. Can you handle “Leadership from the Heart/Heart of a Leader” training with Practice Velocity's main charlatan—“The Positive Energy Guy” ? It is a mandatory two day course to indoctrinate new employees into Practice Velocity's brand of antagonistic thought processes. Those who think for themselves, refuse to take the class, or mock the class are soon terminated.
Cons
Management and several of the lower IQ minions are in tightly-knitted cliques: They will use you for their own gain and terminate you when you stand up to them. Practice Velocity is a company that promotes infidelity. It seems that people are encouraged to “cheat”--especially at sanctioned events (e.g. UCAOA). All employees were offered “FREE” coffee until they stopped suddenly and employees had to pay for their new coffee via a hired Barista. Funny thing is that the Barista was shut down by the Health Department less than a week into the program. To prove his “manufactured” power, the CEO/Owner will often demand that employees get up to dance, especially when there are potential clients visiting the Practice Velocity Compound. Any resistance to dancing is met with swift ostracism followed by termination.
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