Interesting work, but an unstable and sometime hostile environment
Pros
Most colleagues are very friendly and helpful. The work is very interesting, and day-to-day work life is pretty laid back. You are generally free to manage your own time without being micromanaged. Casual dress code is great. Starting pay was decent given the location and my level of experience, and they were willing to take time to train me in the areas where I was lacking. Flexible with work hours (ie, no issue if you need to step out for an appointment in the middle of the day as long as the time is made up elsewhere). Good location.
Cons
Complete lack of any sort of structured review process; I worked here for over a year and a half and never received any sort of official or structured performance review. This comes with the additional negative of no structure or standard system surrounding salary increases. I did not receive any raises or bonuses during my time here despite my skill level and therefore value to the company having definitely gone up over the time of my employment. My subsequent employer (who is also located in Sydney) offered me a starting salary $10k higher than my salary at Protocase, and yearly raises (of which I have so far received two and now earn nearly double what I earned at Protocase 2.5 years ago). I was also never made aware of any specific opportunities for advancement, or even a structure/hierarchy within my team. It seemed that there was no real way to advance in a career from the role I started in, since the whole team had essentially the same title and job description (though I think we actually didn't have official job descriptions, I was kind of told I could refer to it however I felt when I asked what my official job title was; some of us used software developer, some software engineer, etc.) The largest con, however, is the negativity, lack of communication, and seemingly rash and unwarranted actions and decisions from upper management. I have witnessed and experienced firsthand angry and unwarranted outbursts from upper management, including raised voices to the point of yelling, and swearing directed at staff members, completely unprompted, on multiple occasions. Quite frankly it is incredibly unprofessional and degrading to treat employees this way, and creates a hostile work environment. This is especially problematic because it is generally "caused" by some perceived lack of productivity, and yet there is no review system to inform employees that there is an issue to be addressed, which has resulted in employees losing their jobs with absolutely no warning, despite being assured by HR that it is not the (former) employee's fault and that it will be considered a layoff so the former employee will be eligible for employment insurance.
