Pros
It was a stable job with a great culture and promising career growth opportunities—until the pandemic. The benefits were excellent, the business was thriving, and I considered my co-workers my work family. There was a healthy work-life balance, and overall employee morale was high.
This was the place I wanted to continue working, constantly learning new skills, putting in extra effort, and taking on additional responsibilities. Through merit, I earned several career advancements. I had envisioned building my career here long-term and eventually retiring with the company.
Then the pandemic hit hard. Despite everyone's best efforts to adapt and maintain performance, the damage was done.
Cons
After the pandemic, the company struggled to fully recover. The chosen approach was to restructure and cut budgets, leading to layoffs. Stability disappeared, along with any certainty about the future.
Despite these changes, the company remains top-heavy. The culture has become toxic, driven by cliques and favoritism. Success is often based on who you know and whether you are liked. When solutions to problems are proposed, they are frequently ignored—especially if they might upset those who are part of the problem but also belong to the favored group. As a result, issues persist, never truly being resolved.
Despite executives' efforts to implement change, they rely on the judgment and opinions of leadership, which are often biased by personal favoritism rather than the actual needs of the business.
Another major concern is how layoffs are handled. Employees who were let go were treated like trespassers, creating a sense that they had done something wrong rather than being victims of financial cuts. Adding to the distress, layoffs tend to happen right before the holidays, making an already difficult situation even more painful for those affected.