Pros
Honestly - none at all!
Cons
We were all happily working for a decent sized pretty well run SME when Babble rolled into town as our new owners. A lot of warm and fluffy speak about wanting it to be a place your family would love to work - honestly you would want your very own place reserved in hell over working here, as the conditions and prospects are better. The first couple of weeks were a procession of the "faces" from the upper echelons of the business that came to see us - each barely able to feign less interest in what was going on than the last. The whole thing is an exercise in fattening the Turkey up for Christmas, just trying to add perceived value to dupe the next lot of investors into taking on the mish mash of disconnected entities they have created. This is when the chickens will come home to roost for the new owners when they realise there isn't an efficient and streamlined business under the shiny veneer. Anyway that is enough poultry analogies. The CEO pats himself on the back at every monthly Town Hall when a new turnover record has been broken. It really isn't that difficult when you are throwing other peoples money at acquiring a couple of new businesses every other month. Making the pile bigger is easy, keeping the pile stable and stopping it from collapsing is what they need to work on, but the thrill of acquisition obviously far outweighs the desire to create a well run business. They have taken people from middle management level in a small or medium size business, and promoted them to director level in some cases - at what is now a large corporate - there are many many people so far out of their depth that there should really be a dedicated Babble lifeboat station. Any decisions that do actually get made, are borne out of a lack of knowledge or in some cases down right ignorance - monumental decisions wil be made, and then a week later a complete about turn occurs as they flip flop from one disaster to another. If there is a master plan or any sort of overall strategy, I presume it is located somewhere next to the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant as nobody can bear witness to having seen it. They have one hook to keep their staff happy - have every other Friday off. Pay review? - nope. Sales staff commissions ruthlessly slashed? - yep. But you get an extra day off once a fortnight - perhaps now you could get a part time job to supplement your lost earnings?! They don't seem to realise anybody only staying for the extra time off, rather than for the productivity and reward are likely to be those slightly less inclined to put in a shift. So avoid like the proverbial plague, else you will wish you could contract the very same to end the misery. Babble - where productivity went to die...