Unsustainable pace and the worst work/life balance in existence
Pros
To be honest, I loved the beginning part of my time. I felt like I learned a lot and gained new skills, but that was before the business really took off in "unprecedented times" and made insane strides. Yes, growth is great, but sales doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and staff grew 0% alongside it. So everyone was expected to do 2, 3, 4, or more jobs. And if you didn't? You "weren't passionate enough." Salary, as expected, did not increase with increased responsibilities. Also who is getting paid to write Glassdoor reviews? Those 5-star ones are filled with synergy buzzwords, so be wary.
Cons
Major cons include literally zero balance: management calls you "family" so they can pretend you don't have a family or loved ones outside of work. And that passion you have for books? It will die. No matter how much you love them. They will squash it out of you. You're expected to work so fast, at an unreasonable pace with an unreasonable workload that you cannot create anything to be proud of—you're just trying to keep your head above water. And if you can't keep up? "You are fixed mindset. Try having growth mindset!" Also it's the ruler in useless company-wide meetings that waste everyone's time just so management can pat itself on the back and be performative. The longer I'm gone, the more I realize just how toxic this place was. And I really did love my job for a minute. (I didn't even mention pay, which is abysmal and not even CLOSE to what market rate is, no matter what your department, and when you ask for a raise they say "but you have benefits!" which are also only so-so.)
