Pros
I have made some really great work acquaintances, but also some of my best friends have come from this place. Being close to the airport was convenient to be 10 minutes away from picking up guests, or catching a ride there yourself. Free parking, but from the get-go I was told to never leave your car there late or on weekends because lots of theft had occurred over the years. We apparently had security cameras installed outside, but I honestly couldn't tell you if they worked/were real.
Cons
I mean, pay is a huge factor. They low-ball you so hard and hardly let you negotiate. They pretty much know the market in Denver is so small, that you'll take whatever you can get because competitors have thinned out over the last couple of years (i.e. Fresh Produce, Sports Authority) There wasn't even an HR department when I was hired, so the woman who managed Payroll was "HR". You submitted hours on an excel spreadsheet that literally anyone could access and edit. At the beginning, hourly associates didn't have any vacation time for the first full-year of employment. After one year, you got six days. Salaried associated got 6-8 or so days after six-months, and then maybe like a few extra days after a full-year of working there. Hardly anywhere close to a standard 2 weeks. A formal HR employee was hired a few months later and they actually decided that having a Company Handbook was a logical decision (After the company existed for HOW many decades?) Vacation eventually improved, but the first three years you maxed out at 10 days of accrual. Still below industry standard. At one point there was a petition to have "Summer Fridays" with early dismissal at 3pm, but it was shot down immediately. Goldbug is split into two offices, one being a few minutes down the road. Katherine is still paying her debts so they can't afford to consolidate into one building. Everyone is packed like sardines in the other office. Katherine also once randomly called everyone into the front of the main office for an impromptu meeting that not all employees were included on. All because two major long-time employees gave their notice, she basically panicked and told us everything was fine and that banks were knocking on the door every day for her business. Hardly true I'm sure. When people left the company it was super selective who got recognized and who didn't. Some people were thrown huge "going away" parties with music, beer, speeches, etc.. For most everyone else, they wouldn't even send out an email or give any notice that someone had left/was leaving. I swear to god you'd come into the office on Monday and they'd be gone (either by their choice or not) and you'd have to awkwardly find out especially if their replacement started the following week and clearly THEY had no idea they just replaced somebody. Turnover is ridiculous. Nobody really lasted very long. I will run into people of Goldbug's past and the first question that usually gets asked is "Did you get out?!" like the office is a torture chamber. Boyfriends/husbands of a goldbug employee even have to deal with all the secondhand stress of their partner coming home crying and upset most days. It's like the men need their own support group. I knew girls on other accounts who would be working until 8pm on weeknights, and would even bring laptops home at night or on weekends to complete additional work. And by work, it was ridiculous data entry. That doesn't build someone's career! That doesn't create any sense of self-value! How is anyone supposed to grow in their professional world and move up in the ranks or move out to another company opportunity if you're just trained to enter data and complete super demeaning tasks. Too many girls here cried at work or went home crying. THAT ISN'T OKAY. Nobody should cry at their job and feel helpless and like they don't matter. I feel strongly that all the positive reviews are to counter-balance the scathingly honest feelings. I think we all know they're fake. They're not even typed or written from any sense of believable viewpoint. Seriously, who talks like that? I mean good lord, the review from April 5th, someone put the job title as "Visual Merchandising" which isn't even a job. They're also so passively vague. Instead of wasting time on fake reviews, wouldn't a good company that cares take a closer look at all the criticism and look inward to understand why these reviews keep coming? But of course not, that's far too easy. This place is legitimately the worst and I'm not kidding. There are constantly so many job openings and for obvious reason. Don't apply here. Don't even humor it. Pretend this place doesn't exist. Work a retail job while you find something better. Not working here anymore is the best thing that ever happened to my emotional well-being.
