IT is unknowingly led by a sales guy and micromanaged by a computer-illiterate owner who believes he is the next Steve Jobs. You'll hear "I'm an entrepreneur" more than you'll care to count.
Best practices are ignored, and—as expected—too much time is spent putting out fires. No effort put into planning or collaborating contributes to the cycle. There are silos of information across all partner companies (Beacon Funding, Liventus, and ECS Accounting). Some suggestions for improvement are met with "That's not how we do things" or "That's big company thinking," only to be implemented later as the owner's idea. Other suggestions are typically requests that have been already implemented, because upper management refuses to attend any planning/SIT/UAT and are not aware of the current state. Style over substance is the norm, and a flashy interface is seen as a success over a stable system. Upper management and the CEO consider a project to be a never-ending laundry list of requests that is always open to changes based on their whims and whimsies.
Screaming and temper tantrums are the CEO’s preferred method of communication. When advising against a bad idea, you will hear "I pay his/her/your salary, so he'll/she'll/you'll do what I tell you to" thrown around at a decibel level that is appropriate for the front row of a Metallica concert. This leads to communication being sporadic, random, useless, and unwanted.
All employee schedules are micromanaged and petty changes were made to company policy to single out employees regarding time sheets. The CEO has openly complained about employees using too much vacation time (1-2 weeks) for getting married or having a child.
Benefits are downright horrible, given the limited and expensive health plan choices and atrocious work/life balance. Office technology is held together with duct tape and bubble gum, and test systems are seen as unnecessary. Spyware on every employee's computer consistently causes problems for almost every other piece of unnecessarily, over-customized application. "Project completion" bonuses are so vaguely defined that it pretty much comes down to how the CEO is feeling that particular day. However, there is no proper scoping, planning, or (most importantly) a projected end date, so these "bonuses" essentially do not exist.
The toxic work environment consists of top managers openly and unprofessionally gossiping about the sales force, project managers eavesdropping on conversations outside VPs' closed doors, and other people managers sabotaging team resources.
Employees are told to write superficial company reviews on Glassdoor to bury the bad reviews, as evident by the time stamps. Company Facebook pages (Beacon Funding, Liventus, and ECS Accounting) are used to stroke the CEO's ego.
If you're looking for growth, this is not the place. There is a half-baked, inconsistent career plan that is occasionally reviewed. This is a place for family members, family friends, and sycophants who want a short commute to work.
