Pros
Beautiful campus in a great location
Cons
TLDR: the company is on fire financially, physical violence is condoned, CEO builds his brand on "shaking hands and kissing babies" (his words) which you eventually learn is just manipulation. CEO is so obsessed with controlling narratives that it prevents him from activating on projects and tasks. There is so much more (and way worse) that has happened, but since they involve several current staff members whom I respect deeply, I will not share them - as I feel that they would be subject to more abuse or manipulation by the CEO. If you are a current staff member reading this, I encourage you to get out and share your story. Below is my letter of resignation. After I sent this, the CEO emailed me to ask that I sign an NDA (imagine that). To which I declined. Anything in parentheses was not apart of my resignation letter but I felt it was important to note: - Workplace Violence: In my first week on campus, I witnessed an incident of workplace violence in which a staff member choked another. When I brought it up in my lunch with the CEO the following week, his only response was “Do you think it’s cultural?” The day after I brought it up to the CEO, the same individual approached the same staff member and became aggressive again (which I have on video), diffusing only after a request from the victim to respect personal boundaries. This made me nervous for staff well-being at Claim. I do not want to work somewhere where I could get physically assaulted and/or have it dismissed by my boss as a cultural misunderstanding. (NOTE: This staff member is on a growth path to become the Chief of Staff and is the closest thing they have to an HR...which is terrifying.) - Derogatory Comments: In each meeting I have had with the CEO since being on campus, he has made an overwhelming amount of negative comments about other staff members' work performance and attire. In a conversation regarding leggings in the workplace, the CEO’s comment was that they are “inappropriate to wear, there are men that work here.” I do not want to work somewhere where dress standards are built to control the responses of men rather than to build an organizational brand. There was also an instance where the CEO loudly (in front of all the staff on the 3rd floor) laughed and asked why we have a homeless instructor. I do not want to work somewhere where my leaders disregard my confidentiality and dignity. (He will spend so much time ranting about former employees, calling them "snakes" and "thieves" which is interesting considering he has never fired an employee, which gives me the impression that he's just upset upset that they left) - Politics In The Workplace: In my first meeting alone with the CEO, he was informing me on how to navigate the networking market in St. Louis (because I had moved from out of state for this position, unfortunately, which was a major financial loss). As he continued speaking, he unexpectedly brought up Critical Race Theory and his opinions of it being taught in public schools. I do not want to work somewhere that aligns itself politically or allows workplace conversations on politics. - Morally Gray Internship Program: The staff delivering this product were not informed of the product, nor given tasks regarding the product until the day prior (to the "internship" orientation). We were expected to highlight how the internship differs from the existing program, when in reality it doesn’t differ at all. It’s not even a real internship. An internship is defined as a blend of education and professional experience - this program does not provide any professional experience, and it cannot be listed on a resume as an internship. Furthermore, the role was listed on Linkedin as $30/hr, when in reality the role pays only $450 total post graduation. I do not want to work somewhere that misleads and deceives students by launching unprepared and misrepresented programs. (Fun fact - did you know that companies in Missouri who hire an intern get a $1500 tax credit? This, I assume, is the reasoning behind it being called an internship, though it is not one.) - Performance Review: I received feedback both verbally and through written documentation sent to me post-meeting. The feedback between the two was drastically different. I do not want to work somewhere that gives me inconsistent feedback. In my verbal review, the only piece of critical feedback I received was that others called me “emotional” in their performance review. I don’t want to work somewhere where the only conversation on my performance is based on hearsay. My written review indicated I was actually under performing in several areas (which came as a shock to me due to my verbal feedback being incredibly positive). In the ambition section, I was under performing in “Is willing to participate in any responsibility or work outside normal business hours” and “Is willing to take on tedious or challenging tasks whenever necessary.” I don’t want to work somewhere that measures success by how poor of a work/life balance employees maintain. I feel that this compromises employee safety by risking serious burnout. Interestingly, the following were the only items left blank on my review: "Understands and applies safe working practices" "Refuses actions &/or shortcuts that compromise safety" "Surveys entire situation & considers potential safety hazards" - Quality Concerns: Current financial constraints have caused many issues with candidate quality: - Students who need additional assistance cannot receive any 1:1 support from instructional staff outside of class hours, including students on extensions who must complete capstone projects completely independently with only 2 total hours of instructional support. - Claim Academy’s instructional and student management team is primarily composed of entry level professionals with no background in education and are expected to teach classes 2 days post onboarding. I was tasked with creating training for instructors on how to teach alongside Claim’s processes & procedures. When creating this training, I was told that we probably won’t be able to pay them to attend any form of training, so we will simply have to put it into a handbook, and that will be their “training” on how to teach. We hire entry level professionals, provide them no training, and then expect them to perform like mid level professionals. (and then shame them publicly in team meetings when they don't) - A month ago (I wrote this on May 31st), students were notified that they would have to pay for their own certification and Claim would later reimburse them rather than paying for the certification up front, as we had done prior. This has caused many to not take the certification exam. All of these are examples of how we have decreased candidate quality through budget cuts, making my job of selling high quality candidates and a high quality service increasingly difficult. I don’t want to work somewhere that asks me to sell a product that cuts corners and lacks quality. - Lack of Middle Management: The CEO has no middle management to manage any of his staff, so he is currently managing everyone in the company across all teams. With that being said, with how busy he is, he doesn't have capacity to effectively monitor, manage, or assist any of the people or tasks he is managing. When he is the decision maker for every decision and he is unreachable, we end up having to hold off on activating on time bound tasks because we are simply waiting on him. I don’t want to work somewhere where my manager doesn’t have the capacity for the tasks they are charged with executing that affect my outcomes.