Archival Team is a Mess - Archivist Heritage Werks Employee Review

Note: My experiences are from the perspective of the Archival team. -No formal training process. You shadow others when you start and see what they happen to be doing on that day, and then your team lead will go through some other things with you, but there's no formality to it to ensure that you are learning important specifics that you will need moving forward. And almost nothing is ever in writing, so if they forget to tell you something or you miss one detail, you have nothing to reference to make sure you're doing things right. -Negative Culture. Management is unfriendly, demanding, and dismissive. I witnessed on multiple occasions people in management roles speaking poorly about employees. They don't value constructive input from employees and frankly don’t even seem to like people in general. Saying hi in the hallway appears to make their skin crawl. They're mostly concerned with how fast you can process collections with a definite quantity-over-quality approach, running the archives much like a factory. It's a stressful and unfulfilling atmosphere, and the attitude is that you are expendable. Hour-long lectures about what the team is doing wrong are not uncommon. Turnover is very high. I saw multiple new hires quit within 90 days. -Terrible communication. As stated, very little is ever in writing. The Employee Handbook is outdated and inaccurate. Policy updates are given to you in rambling lecture format in a meeting. There are no meeting minutes. There are no formal written policies. If you are on PTO during said meeting, no one will update you when you return, but you will be responsible for adhering to the new policy you’ve never heard. Supervisors often don't understand important tools you need to fulfill your duties and thus do not train you sufficiently on those tools. -Aloof CEO - The CEO lives in Chicago. He pops into the office every few months for client visits or to give presentations on how wonderful the company is. He loves to talk about the great culture and how happy everyone is. Then he goes back to Chicago and doesn't see day-to-day operations. At best, he simply doesn't understand how broken management is because he isn't there. At worst, he knows and thinks it's good. -No HR Department. They'll tell you they have one, but really it's just the CFO, who is also not in the state and therefore doesn't understand the company's day-to-day. So any issues you might have must either go through the Chief Financial Officer (her priority being the company's bottom line) or your managers, who don't value you or your opinion. You are alone and have no advocate. I think they like it that way. -Location. The office is in Suwanee, GA, a cool 30 miles from Atlanta. This means unless you live in the immediate area, your commute will be terrible. Suwanee also has very little to offer outside of Taco Bell and Wal-Mart. In summary, if you are desperate for a job, then do what you have to do. Chances are they're hiring because someone quit or was fired. In that case I recommend collecting your paycheck while you look for something better. Otherwise, I'd say hold out for a company that values good people and good work.