Pros
Some brilliant, fun, and compassionate people work/have worked at Beall. There is a strong sense of camaraderie among employees, and I truly cherish some of the relationships that I formed there. Additionally, the company delivers high quality, solid research based on data gathered by incredibly intelligent moderators, analysts, directors, etc. It is for these reasons that I give Beall 2 stars instead of 1.
Cons
Some context to start: -Beall was formed in the early 2000s and produces excellent work for some fairly high-profile clients -Despite these facts, Beall cannot grow beyond ~12 employees because turnover is so extreme -- the "veterans" when I worked there had been there about 3 years (excluding the true veterans who had been there several years longer... it's important to note that these two people work REMOTELY) anywhere from 6 months to 2 years was far more typical -There is a common denominator: the person in charge whose emotional instability makes the work environment unhealthy and, ultimately, intolerable I will do my best to keep this concise. The CEO does not value the people who work for her and takes them for granted. She has an extremely volatile personality and can turn on anyone at any moment. For example, on several occasions, she would react to an early draft of a report saying it was "nearly there - just needs a tiny bit more work." Fast forward to draft number two, and she would absolutely tear it apart, saying it needed to be entirely reworked and put into a different "framework." Also, she refuses to relinquish any control over the company's projects, even as the number of projects in house grows and any one person's involvement in all of them inches past the point of being infeasible to the point of being impossible. Nonetheless, she continues to make her presence known and is prone to nitpicking in the eleventh hour over a specific sentence, often replacing one sentence with another that has the exact meaning, the only difference being one was written by her and the other was not. She has been known to berate her employees, telling them they are disposable and their work is inadequate and that she could find a replacement at any moment, only to turn around and treat the company to lunch as a form of (obviously, unsatisfactory) recompense. These mood swings are dramatic and unpredictable. Those issues are bad enough. Those issues are what prompted me to leave -- the feeling of being constantly on edge, unsure of what was around the corner; the knowledge that depending on the day and the CEO's mood, my work could be received in myriad different ways. Something that may be praised on a good day could be torn apart on a bad day. Here are some miscellaneous tidbits: -Frequent inappropriate comments: unsolicited relationship advice, constantly referring to clients as her "boyfriends", and dirty jokes -Refusal to allow employees to work remotely (apart from the two who have been there a long time) and extremely tight leash in general - going out for lunch is a no-no Survival at Beall requires more than thick skin. You need to be absolutely unflappable, and willing and able to withstand what I think is best described as psychological and emotional turmoil. It is not worth it. There are other companies out there.