1. Miles has had the same leadership team since the inception of the company, and for some of them this has been the only company they've ever worked at, so many of the top leadership members are greatly lacking in real world experience and outside perspective other than what they've learned at Miles.
2. The IT and software divisions are run like separate companies, but one of the company "beliefs" is "We are one company," so although everyone says it, it's simply untrue. It's extremely difficult to communicate and work together when issues arise that require cross divisional work as there are little to no processes in place for that.
3. Over documented and under-streamlined. There are a ton of processes documented, but they are housed in 4 or 5 different locations and all written at different times, so the processes are unclear and not followed, and the ones that are followed are weak or can change when convenient for management.
4. Working well over 40 hours a week is extremely common and expected.
5. IT division receives overtime pay but software division employees typically do not.
6. Resources are spread painfully thin, often putting employees in bad situations with clients.
7. Although significance is put on learning new things, obtaining certifications, etc., the actual on-boarding and training process of new hires in most departments is very poor - very much a sink or swim mentality with little to no mentorship. Potentially successful employees are often terminated before they are even given a chance.
8. Leadership are always attempting to improve the company's bottom line and its culture by reading popular business books, and then frequently executing changes based off ideas from these books. Targeted and well executed changes can be great, but not when they are on a whim and without any regard to the lives of employees. For example, one day you might come to work to find the entire Sales division has had its members either reassigned or dismissed. I'm sure it came as a shock to some of the dedicated employees that lost their jobs. Low and behold, 6 months later the company's new customer intake had completely dropped off, and they decided to create a sales department once again...this actually happened. In the end, the employees don't matter when it comes to the righteous filled notions of leadership.
9. The CEO tries very hard to appear "eccentric," by purchasing Lego furniture for his office, running over clocks with his car at company meetings, putting his legs/feet on top of desks at leadership sessions while talking, etc. Efforts are made to get these things turned into news articles and other PR items. It feels acutely phony.
10. The company represents itself falsely to seem much larger than they are, claiming to have over 7 locations and a fleet of company cars. The main office is located in a run down bank in Moorestown, NJ, which still has the old bank's drive through attached to it. There is 1 other very small office in Clifton, NJ. The other "locations" are hired 3rd party re-sellers. Additionally, the company cars are intentionally mislabeled with high, non-sequential #'s to make it appear like they actually have that many cars in their fleet.
11. There's a huge emphasis placed on participating in Miles activities outside of work. This includes leadership sessions (open discussion about different topics), the Miles book club (where you can read and discuss the latest business books), a Miles soccer league, horseshoe tournaments, company picnics and minor league sports games. This would be a pro if there wasn't pressure to join all of these activities from upper management, already adding to your ~50 hr work week. The soccer league helps facilitate bonds between male managers and their male employees, but the same can't be said for female staff members.
12. It's preferred that employees wear shirts and jackets with the company logo on them, or a Miles logo pin on non-Miles attire. News articles about Miles claim there is a casual dress policy, but that's not true. This past year men were allowed to not wear ties, but that's the extent of the casual dress policy.
13. There are company guidelines on dress documented and available to employees that say it's better for women to wear make up than none at all, which is very offensive.
14. Poor management related to appropriate HR practices. It's common that if you call out sick or change your schedule, upon return everyone will know what health problems, family issues, or religious activities you had because it was freely shared by your manager verbally or via email sent to the department.
15. Managers have a policy that staff with children will always have first choice of holiday vacation days.
16. There are no women in upper management.
17. In the end, they truly want their employees to be happy, as long as it's in the best interest of the company.
