Pluspunten
The place tends to play favorites, so if you're able to fall in line and somehow become a favorite, you can get away with more here than at other places. Similarly, I didn't see much accountability when it comes to their salespeople, so underperformers probably last longer here than at competitors. I should also add that all of my time at this company was out of the Chicago office, and my comments on culture solely apply to that office. The Toronto office, best I could tell, is your typical large corporate HQ, with all the good and bad that that entails, but they are exempt from any of the following criticisms.
Minpunten
If you ask anyone that works there why they work there, they will inevitably say something about how it's the culture that drew them to the place. "We take care of each other," they say, and for most of my time there, I probably would have said the same thing. However, my experience at the tail end of my time there and after having lost my job there made me see the culture for what it actually is, and that is one built on insecurity, groupthink, and incessant gossip. Make no mistake: I met many good people when I worked there, and some of them are still there. The problem is that the culture itself doesn't stand for anything, which allows the handful of malicious individuals there to pretty much get away with whatever they like, and the decent people are either too busy, too scared, or too brainwashed to say one word about it. After I lost my job there, I actually had multiple people tell me that they were uncomfortable continuing to associate with me because they were afraid that doing so would hurt their standing within the office and in some cases their very employment with the company. I cannot speak to the specifics that caused them to conclude that or how widespread that feeling is, but if even one person feels that way, what other word could describe the culture other than toxic? I still think there can be decent career opportunities there, but if they entail having to work out of the Chicago office, I would be very wary.
