Pluspunten
Active Network worked with a great company to bring in a very modernized office environment. Most areas have an "open office" setup. The common areas are great and relaxing. The main common area has things such as an arcade style basketball hoop, ping pong and foosball tables, as well as a multi-monitor display to showcase recent noteworthy activities and accomplishments. The break room has booths and TVs that allow you to enjoy your lunch in a "restaurant" style environment. The office is located in a recently renovated building that isn't far from the Dart station. I see a lot of Active employees using the trains to commute to work. The building is located in the business district area. This means there is an endless number of restaurants you can visit and try out for lunch. The company promotes health and fitness and has a lot of programs to get involved with. Yoga, cycling, running, etc... The I.T. team seem to be ahead of most corporations. There are around 20 large/small rooms scattered throughout the office that have flat screen TVs. Your laptops are pre-configured to easily connect to those monitors for meetings and scrums. You can also "walk in" to the I.T. office and discuss any issues you are having with your Mac/PC. The view outside the window might be one of the best views of the city. Every Friday the company provides bagels and fruits for breakfast.
Minpunten
"United We Fear" should be the corporate motto. It starts from the top with the CEO. He instills fear in his executive team which trickles its way down to directors and team managers. The entire company is scared of the repercussions associated with not being able to meet a deadline or sales quotas. The executives fail to let the directors and managers lead their teams, but instead use them as puppets to manage the teams themselves. The managers/directors are ALL extremely submissive to the executives. I've yet to see an ounce of resistance to their ideas. You're expected to work long hours without remote work as a viable option (unless it's the weekend, which isn't unusual). Many employees are working 60-70 hours a week without bonuses or compensation. I've never seen employee morale so LOW at a company. It isn't unusual for an executive to bypass his directors and managers and directly work side by side with a regular employee on a pressing project. The stress levels are through the roof on a variety of teams: graphic designers, software developers, account managers, brand managers and ALL sales teams. In fact, the CEO has large monitors displayed throughout the office (including his own office) that show the top 10 and bottom 10 sales performers. Again, using fear/humiliation as a way to motivate employees. A popular story that is told throughout the office is the time a sales employee sent a friend request to the CEO on LinkedIn during work hours. The CEO came down to the floor with the full intent on firing that employee on the spot. Not only is that a ridiculous thing to do at a tech company, but that employee was taking PTO on that particular day. Embarrassing. The company is very open with the strategy of selling the company in a couple of years. That would make most employees question long term job stability. However, everybody that I know at the company has no plans on staying for longer than 2 years max. Most are leaving at the 1 year mark. The micromanagement is insane. This isn't an issue for one particular team, but instead it has become the norm for managers/directors on all teams to be WAY too controlling of their employees. Executives will circle the office like hawks to make sure employees are at their desks and working diligently. They will hold the directors/managers accountable if there are any slip-ups. In return, the directors/managers will micromanage in order to avoid repercussions from their superiors. The way teams are organized at Active makes ZERO sense. It is VERY common to have a team working on a dedicated brand, but each team member reports to a different boss. This creates a lot of issues, because there ends up being 10 bosses involved in a project that should only involve one or two superiors. Executives will not hesitate to belittle directors in front of their team members. I see it happen all the time. The compensation doesn't meet the industry standard for technology related roles. The restroom facilities only have two stalls per floor. There's around 250 employees per floor. I'll let your imagination handle that one. There is no defined culture at this company. The personality types within specific teams are all over the place. This mostly has to do with the fact that Active is willingly looking for the cheapest employee that they can find to fill the role. Talent is never the first thing on their mind.