Follett Software Company – “Not a bad place to work, but it's not perfect”

Pros

*Pretty relaxed atmosphere
*local management genuinely cares about local employees, its product, customers and the overall quality of K-12 ed tech
*All the free K-Cups your jittery-handed self can drink
*Pay is pretty decent

Cons

*Our company was a small start-up bought out by Follett Software Company about a year and a half ago. Since then, we've had to adapt to their corporate policies and endless processes. These processes presented a particular problem for my department. Before, we were a tightly-knit, super-productive small team churning out Good Thing after Good Thing. Obsessive corporate gate-keeping quickly slowed our department to a crawl. They separated our single department into two siloed departments, made a pillar of our team redundant (someone in IL did what she did here, and she left) and transferred our department director to another entirely different branch of the parent company without so much as a single word of warning to us. Over the past year and a half, I've had 4 different bosses.
My net holiday "bonus" this year amounted to 1/10th of 1% of my annual pay (which is really not much).
I've also noticed favoritism creeping in by senior management- higher-ranking positions are being filled across multiple departments with staff from the home office in IL, when there are others based locally who are just as, if not more qualified to fill their positions.
Company also spends an OBSCENE amount of money on outside consultants, because they're buddies with the director. These people take forever to do anything, FSC could more easily and cost-effectively hire a single F/T employee to churn out better quality work- faster, and with substantially less hand-holding.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit acting like this company is a big fraternity. If you value your employees, prove it by not promoting somebody simply for the fact they have the last name "Follett." Hiring/promoting from within is another proven morale-booster.