Pros
If you're in with the right people, you're more likely to have more flexibility with your schedule. It really depends on which department you wind up in. Some are great. Others are not. Nice coworkers. People are usually more than happy to help you if you just ask.
Cons
Some or all of the problems that some departments have: No room for advancement. You apply for a promotion thinking, "I've got this. I have a lot more experience, my numbers are much higher, and I'm liked by my co-workers as much if not more than the other candidates." But wait, you forgot to account for the fact that your boss is friends with one or more of the other candidates, which means they will get the job over you. They are strict about their rules, but there are people who somehow break these rules constantly without repercussions. For example, you are allowed 10 occurrences (for arriving late, leaving early, calling in sick) before you are fired (with warnings at certain intervals). There are people who call in sick for one to two days at a time every other week... for over a year. They surpassed their allotted occurrences a long time ago. There are other people who got multiple occurrences for planned absences or for time that was actually corrected and shouldn't have counted as an occurrence. It's very easy for them to say that you have so many occurrences right now but then give you a higher number a week later even though you hadn't done anything worth receiving an occurrence. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS email your supervisor about any possible occurrences or corrections and SAVE those emails. If you're not a favored employee, there tend to be a lot of "mistake" discrepancies. Expect to train people who get paid more than you. Once they hire you on for a certain amount, it won't change outside of the annual 2% raise. They will raise the pay for new employees as time progresses. For example, if you started 5 years ago at $10 hr, you will be getting maybe $11 even though they are now hiring new employees for $15/hr. Your pay is not based on your loyalty or work performance. Work performance is not appreciated. Whether your supervisor likes you or not has nothing to do with your work performance. There are quite a few people who are slow, inaccurate, and don't put in any effort to do their job and yet they get the same treatment (if not better, depending on how much management likes them) as those who have an excellent work performance. At times, the former group of people will get a promotion over the latter. This has happened multiple times. If you are one of the hard workers, you'll notice that some of the work done by those who were promoted ends up being sent back because it is incorrect, and you will have to fix their mistakes. You might even possibly have to spend time training them because they don't know how to do the work, or they don't know how to do it correctly. If you're good, expect to be asked to take on projects outside of your pay grade. They will ask you to take on more responsibilities without any intention of promoting you when you apply. It's just a way to get lazy people into higher positions without making them do the work or because they can't do it correctly.
