Pros
The best part of the job was the co-workers. Whether you loved them or hated them, it was always entertaining to come to work. Very eclectic staff with such a variety of people. You figured out quickly who you could trust and who would throw you under the bus if the opportunity arose. If you were full-time, there was health insurance, medical flex spending, dependent care flex, 401K and vacation days. The benefits weren't super top notch but for the size of the business, it was at least something. At times there were profit sharing and holiday bonuses. Lakewinds also gave small but nice gestures/gifts for employees who worked at the coop for long periods of time. They do try hard to have a good work/life balance.
Cons
The organizational changes happened quickly and often. Change is inevitable with any job or business. The problems stemmed from not preparing staff with enough information or tools to implement successfully. This made employees frustrated and only gave a sense of failure versus success. The gossip spread quickly and management only added fuel to the fire. Marketing created a large gap of communication, trust, and business priorities. This issue of marketing not listening to its department management team and co-workers created a negative working environment. There were meetings with marketing team that would leave people in tears. There were days that nobody wanted to go into work. The senior management team was so far removed from the day-to-day operations it was pathetic, Staff would be turned down on requests for equipment, marketing tools, and hiring enough employees. The reason the in-store staff needed these tools: to grow the business, to increase sales, and in-store foot traffic. People tried to speak up about the issues at work but nothing was ever done to change it.