Pros
Lunch was the best part. In a company that didn’t treat people well, David Weinrot was a rare exception. He knows his stuff with a deep understanding of our business and marketing, has an amazing ability to run the numbers, and manage toward actual results. No ego, no BS. Just someone who did the work and expected others to do the same. He mentored his staff better than anyone else I've ever worked with/for, and it showed. His team came prepared, earned respect in meetings, and moved up while others churned.
Cons
The senior execs were out of touch, and the layer beneath them created an antagonistic environment. Many times I had to implement projects that I knew were doomed, based on my own or a team member's experience, just because a senior exec or board member thought it sounded good. It didn’t matter that we had tried similar things before and knew they wouldn’t work. My C-level boss did nothing to shield us from that. And when things inevitably failed, he blamed his team instead of taking any responsibility. He’s still there. The CEO brags about his $800 shoes and $1,500 sweater at the holiday party. It's nice that he can afford that while the rest of us are nowhere near that. The systems are outdated. There’s a NIMBY attitude toward new ideas. When they acquire companies with better platforms (like MyPoints), they scrap the better code and stick with their own. And the unlimited PTO is unlimited until you try to use it. Then they say you're taking too much time off.
