47% positive business outlook
Pros
20 days of PTO are provided.
Cons
The salaries are not raised annually more than 1-3% to keep up YOY. No bonuses. Insurance rates keep rising for employees, essentially with this, it's a pay cut each year. Many people made less in 2017 than in 2016.
Pros
The only pro's are the regular employees. These people work long hours and many actually care about what they do.
Cons
All the executive managers need to be replaced, from the president on down to the director level. They only care about one thing and that's how much money THEY are making. Five year business plan? What's that? Three year business plan? You may as well be speaking Greek to the executives! The only plan is to extinguish the multiple fires that spring up on a daily basis! Company is top heavy. To many management layers all making way to much money. All the SVP's and VP's are nothing but a bunch of "yes men". Once upon a time the company used to actually care about its employees, the pay was good and the benefits were excellent! Four weeks PTO, free healthcare,bonus program, and 401k matching up to 6% starting day one. However, because the executive team is inept at running the company its profitability in almost non existent, so in order to "save" money employee benefits have been downgraded on a yearly bases. New employees are paid lowest possible dollar and mass layoffs are common and a yearly occurrence. 50 to 60 hour work week is more common than not and to add insult to injury, employees are salaried. This company is hemorrhaging money, a train wreck waiting to happen!
Pros
The company is not that big with about 100 employees, so there is a family atmosphere. The people that work there are great and very helpful and welcoming. The Benefits are great.
Cons
They Salary for most positions is not in line with the market and bonus is based on Company Performance so most years we don't get a bonus.
Pros
Working at TTC, people treated me with the respect of being an expert in my field and empowered me to make decisions to improve the infrastructure and systems in the company. I accomplished many projects in the year I worked there. My direct manager was pretty great--he got out of your way and didn't micro-manage, but when he was needed, he was usually there. It does reek a bit of the "Gool ol boys" club, as most of the managers are stalwarts who have been there for a very very long time.
Cons
The salary is lower than larger competitors/enterprises. If you complain, they'll effectively say they can't afford to pay more. There was no bonuses. The insurance wasn't great. The time management/ask of employees/work life balance was not fair. When things were busy, they added an evening shift for production, and then still expected me to be supporting them without any raise or compensation. They also would not effectively staff a backup for me, who was critical to support various business systems. This made it extremely difficult to take any vacation or even take a sick day. They had no WFH policy. When there was a terrible snow storm in VA, IT staff was still expected to risk their safety to come in to the office when there was absolutely no need.
Pros
The company culture is laid back yet highly productive, there are a lot of really intelligent people working here, everyone is very friendly, and the company shows appreciation for all of the people that help drive the business forward. They have frequent luncheons, friday meetings, wellness incentives, great health benefits, annual bonus, generous PTO, service awards, annual bonus, and the list goes on.
Cons
It's a growing organization so there are some very typical challenges associated with growth and change.
Pros
The Teaching Company (TTC) has afforded me opportunities to learn new skills and grow a career. They produce an amazing product that I’m proud to say I am a part of. I love the work I do, and I enjoy working with most of the team at TTC. TTC offers comprehensive benefits, and personally for me it’s a great commute. Also, there is relatively little micromanaging (in my role). I have the freedom to do my job without hindrance.
Cons
There’s an old joke that goes like this: Two managers are talking and one says to the other, “What if we invest in our employees and they leave?” To which the other manager responds, “What if we don’t and they stay!” The joke is amusing unless you’re the butt of it. And at TTC, you often feel like the butt. The scenario the joke leaves out is one too often seen at TTC; "What if we don't invest in them, and they leave because of that?" While opportunities arise as positions are vacated, once you take on your role, you're locked in without room to grow, so don't count on TTC developing your skills. Just do the work, take on more tasks until you burn out, then move on to the next employer. Here are some of my personal observations from my years of working for TTC: Employees in first level management and below are some of the most creative, driven, talented, and hardworking people you’ll ever meet, but the integrity disintegrates the higher up you go on the management chain. While benefits are still above average, they are being chipped away every year. The benefit package was quite robust upon being hired years ago, but seems to be losing luster every year. Don't get me wrong, HR pumps up the bennies like they're selling you a Jaguar, but you'll actually be getting a Corolla. The benefits are practical and comprehensive, but don't get starry-eyed from HR gushing over them. Many of the benefits are tied to how the company is doing as a whole, and I haven't received a true bonus in years! Pay can range from good to lean based on where you end up in the company. For example, entry level call center representative pay is higher than average, but being promoted from within the company can put you at a disadvantage as you likely will not receive the same pay level as someone being hired in from outside the company. While still subject to the elitism of upper management, the CMO is a good enough guy with what seems like a steady plan for the company. However, his background is in flipping companies, which (as a current employee) is unsettling. I worry about what happens when the company sells. Will people will lose their jobs while upper management laughs all the way to the bank? This might seem overly paranoid on my part, but the lack of transparency in upper management only adds to the building anxiety. Upper management is cold and unapproachable, to speak nothing of the overly obvious lack of diversity. Don’t bother talking to them or offering your ideas because they aren’t listening to you unless you are also upper management. They passively berate their subordinates, but that’s how they know you exist. The average associate level employees don’t even get a “hello” in the hallway from management because they simply do not even register on their importance radar. Even if you wanted to speak with management, you’re out of luck because they’re probably in a meeting. TTC has more meetings to meet about meeting to discuss meeting for more meetings. The over-indulgence of meetings became so prevalent that TTC brought in a professional to meet with everyone in the company to teach them how to have more effective meetings. Sadly, that was another waste of money for the company, as we are still heavily saturated in muddled, ineffective meetings. Yearly layoffs have been a viable way to skirt EBITDA shortcomings, though 2016 was especially brutal. This year TTC went right for the salary jugular. And while TTC wiped out some dead weight, a few really good people got caught up in the cut as well. As a small company perpetrating as a large company, TTC is already running lean, so you can only imagine how the workload becomes exponentially more heavy with every person TTC let go. Sadly, those left behind are expected to carry on, but are not compensated for the additional work they have added to their already full workload. Good people aren’t given the help they need and burn out under the circumstances. The current hiring freeze makes getting any relief impossible. Speaking of workloads, there is a terrifying amount of core jobs within the company that have little to no redundancy. It’s a wonder we’ve carried on as well as we have over the years. Backup plans, emergency plans, and contingency plans are not highly prioritized. As a TTC employee, you quickly learn to always CYA as you will be the person blamed for shortcomings, even if it was due to lack of support or resources. Speaking of resources, don’t even get me started on the technology. Assembled of spit and duct tape with a work-around for everything, TTC repeatedly goes cheap and pays the price. I realize budgets are a real hindrance, but there is truth in the saying ‘do it nice or do it twice’. TTC often pays for going cheap with additional man hours and having to buy a better version of something because the cheap version doesn’t do what TTC needs it to do. TTC is a company banking on technology, to save its business, but we can’t get enough upfront capitol to keep relevant. With everything that’s been said, I want to have hope for this company. As I mentioned before, I will always be thankful to this company for the opportunities it has afforded me, but like many employees here, I feel that this is a classic “springboard company”. You come in, you gain your experience, then you hit a wall with your career advancement where you find yourself in a position with no growth potential. With nowhere to go at TTC, you then take all your experience and knowledge gained from TTC and springboard into the next job.
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