The workload is overwhelming and several staff in several different departments have experienced emotional breakdowns, even before Covid. The job should not be as stressful as it is. The former CEO, Bill, was aware of this - he has been told this to his face in early 2020.
Gaslighting - this is a HUGE problem coming from upper management. To paraphrase a portion of an email from the operations manager "Hey team, what happens when we over-promise and under-deliver?" - this was regarding the fact that many of us were struggling to complete their required number of invoices while simultaneously being required to answer all email correspondence within 12-24 hours (20-30 emails per day, several of which may require research and phone calls to follow up on). The email went on to take no responsibility for over-promising results to our clients in the first place.
There is no training and all the requirements for each state you work with are in the employees' heads and not accessible anywhere. They only JUST started putting together training material and guides this year. To put things in perspective - some employees have been with the company for over 10 years. But not many as turnover is VERY high.
You will not feel like your job is safe. It's not uncommon for upper management to email out (sometimes cc-ing the client) asking why you aren't doing your job to their expectations and that mistakes are unprofessional because "we're supposed to be the experts." I got such an email during my second week of employment with only 4 days of training. If you choose to work here, please know you may feel like you're the lone "screw-up" but you're not. They're interested in the problems magically fixing themselves rather than listening and taking the steps to find a better solution.
Expectations will be added to your ever-growing pile because "it shouldn't take long" and "just take an hour each day on each of these multiple reports." Your feedback won't matter. Your coworkers have tried telling management that the expectations are unrealistic. Maybe only one or two people can manage it consistently in the whole team - so they think everyone should be able to do it.
If you're de-motivated by motivational posters, be warned that the internal chat system frequently was filled with "motivational" quotes in 2020. These were mostly about how you should constantly push yourself all the time to improve and to basically push yourself to your limits every day in work and life. They rarely seem to be actually good for your mental health or about self-care. They have the opposite effect on me - and I'm generally a very positive person. This job has drained me of that.
Work/life balance -- they like to believe they fully support work/life balance. That has not been my experience. Especially if your team is behind. Several employees check their emails off-the-clock just to keep up. Some people research their states' requirements and changes off-the-clock. Overtime keeps being offered to help "catch up" and we can never seem to catch up. Many times I've heard from my coworkers "I can't take time off, there's just too much I need to get done!" Some only had maybe 3 non-working days in a month because they felt obligated to work the offered overtime and then working for free by following up on emails and researching off the clock.
As a new employee, you will be expected to learn as though you were part of a start-up rather than a company that's been operating for decades because they don't offer adequate training or reference materials. The big difference being that they have a huge number of clients rather than just a handful to answer to right away. And they just had a big campaign to gain more clients when the employees were already struggling to keep up with the ones they already have. You will be told that these are "growing pains" that will pay off in the long run -- but it will be at your expense as a functional human being. Their excuse, "no one has ever done what we're doing before so we're flying without guidance." Isn't that exciting?
I've only been caught up with my work maybe 3 times in a year. And taking a week off puts you WAY behind.
Lastly - all tasks are equal in their priority level. Whether it is entering work, emails, phone calls, cleaning up reports, following up on incomplete invoices, etc. Management cannot prioritize tasks that need to be done. Everything needs to be done right now and is top priority. Good luck with that.
There is a new CEO since I quit, but it sounds like it's still business as usual and turnover reflects that.
