Pros
The company seeks input from everyone to improve workflow and the customer experience. You stay in the know with company wide meetings to see the year-over-year growth and successes. The customers are pleasant and we get to write handwritten thank yous to them. The product is gorgeous and sells itself. Training happens often to keep everyone up to date. Facilities are nice with free coffee/soda, and coworkers are great people.
Cons
The contractor vs. full-time employee rift is the elephant in the room. Dangling the conversion carrot in front of contractors ruins team morale. It can take over a year to be converted, and conversion isn't guaranteed. Hours are sporadic and typically range from 4 to 12 hour days with little notice. Sometimes you don’t know your shift until you show up. It’s common for a 4 hour day to turn into an 8 hour day over the lunch hour. Or the total reverse happens and you are sent home hours early. This is great for flexible people, but otherwise work/life balance is nonexistent. Being a production designer is a glorified customer service role. You will call customers, leave voicemails, update shipping/billing information, change order quantities, etc. For holiday it’s mandatory 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week for 2 weeks. You work most holidays and there’s no paid time off. Black-out dates last months at a time. Depending on your shift, you’ll work weekends.