Unprofessional favoritism with management. Crippling micromanaging is a very serious and real issue. Once you do something they don't like or doesn't align with the company's standards, you get coached + reset. Now, you become a target, and they watch you, literally. You can't have friendships with co-workers, especially with the Team Leads - management would prefer to kill those quickly or make it super hard for you to enjoy your job around said friends to "promote a professional environment".
They promote a family-like atmosphere while 'trying' to keep the professional line visible, but that's when the hypocrisy starts. They pick and choose who is allowed to act like that. It has a very fake, bubbly atmosphere. You can't have "irrelevant conversations" about school, video games, or anything unrelated to the company, but if they want to talk, they can talk and do whatever they want. There are a lot of missed standards for management, yet they want us to follow them and look up to them as leaders.
They try to bolden the line between TLs and the rest of the team, like separating children in class. In all honesty, game guides speak to each other, and the Team Leads more than they do to management, so at least at this location, it felt like Team Leads and down were a team for the most part, then management basically felt like a separate team, recently it even felt like they were literally against us. It's draining, to say the least.
Most game guides are young adults or high school seniors; often, they don't treat us like adults until it's convenient for them; it's a very odd working atmosphere. And the pay could be better. I don't know what happened to raises, but they don't do that at this company. Pick and choose your battles.
BEST ADVICE:
Just do the job well and clock out; it'll save you the headache and stress after they start red-flagging you. Remember, it's a job at the end of the day. It's not worth it to cause yourself issues for less than $14 an hour.