This company squashed any joy I found working there, which is a shame because I liked doing my job. I wasn't even there all that long, but I've been told that's a common trend. There seems to be a very high turnover rate, and for good reason.
I cried disturbingly often for someone who talked directly to clients, and I'm sure some of them could tell I had been crying or was fighting back tears during our call. It was always the same person in management who would snap at me. I wasn't alone in this, as this person would get into screaming matches in the office while people were on the phone with clients, and I have no idea how that's been allowed to slide for so long. Not that I expected one, but while I never got an apology from this specific person, there were people in the office who would apologize in place of them, which is frankly embarrassing. Everyone there is an adult, no one should be making apologies for anyone else, though I sincerely appreciate those people.
Adding onto this, communication of any form was a hellscape to traverse. You could see everyone in the office from your desk and would usually shoot a message or email to ask if you needed something, or a direct call if you were lucky with your timing. I would have time-sensitive questions for a higher-up I worked directly under, and typically would not get a response until I was being snapped at for the thing I had asked about not being done, despite being told to go to them with any questions. You're made to feel stupid or wrong to ask, but when you don't, you're made to feel the same for not asking.
This communication issue went for other things, too. I was one of the only hourly employees, and there were many times when my timecard was not approved when it was supposed to be. I would get emails from the company that we used to keep time asking me to reach out to the person who had to approve of my time. This was extremely concerning since this was someone I had trouble keeping contact with even about client-based topics (despite us sitting in the same room at all hours of the day). It was very typical for me to get paid late, in one instance over a week late.
When I admitted to this higher-up I did not wish to stay, they were very receptive, almost confusingly so. I was told it was a shame, as I was doing well and the clients I talked to liked me, which is the opposite of how I was made to feel for most of my time there, so it was very strange to hear that when I thought my performance was poor based on how I had been treated and talked to.
Everyone was overworked, and you were supposed to see that as a badge of honor. Almost everyone was salary, so working past the time you should was almost expected, and taking lunch was frowned upon. Of course, if you were in an hourly position, this was drastically different as the pay would reflect you skipping lunch, so then they heavily encouraged you to take lunch, claiming it to be very important. Which is true, and almost magical how it isn't equally as important for the employees on salary.
Some of the tasks I had to do were so overwhelming that I would come into the office but wouldn't clock in before starting them so that I didn't have a timer over my head, and someone telling me that I needed to send things out earlier, especially if I was clocking in earlier. The amount of tasks just wasn't something I could keep up with, no matter how hard I tried. While that might have been on me for not being able to keep up, the solution was to scold me instead of trying to figure out a way to get the desired outcome, which doesn't foster a positive environment for growth, learning, or outcome.
Office hours were (and I'm assuming still are) 8 am - 6 pm, 5 days a week, in-office but there were favorites that came in at what seemed to me to be random intervals. I had seen coworkers who were genuinely sick but willing to work from home denied the ability to do so, while a few employees were in the office so rarely I don't think I ever even learned their names.
When people leave, they are pushed, pressed, and pestered to write a positive review for ProPivotal, and while I can't speak to anyone else's offboarding experience, mine felt very odd. Most of the higher-ups were very kind, the CEO included, and wished me well, but others that had been polite and happy to talk to me before treated me like I was the deserter of a cult, to be ignored until I was gone for good.
This was a job I had gone into genuinely excited about and was made to feel so small and miserable that I hit the ground running the first chance I got. It's a place full of fun people with the most aggressive mismanagement I have ever seen. They lose people faster than they can recoup the losses and toss that work onto everyone else with no extra pay, and even management is stressed out and overworked.
The one silver lining is that they showed me exactly what I don't want in my future career.
