Pros
The only good thing I have to say is that it was convenient being able to work remotely from home. I wish this could be a balanced or more positive review but working for Optimal Answers was the worst decision in my life and I need others to know how terrible of an experience and work environment it was so that they won't get roped into the same thing I did.
Cons
To preface, I am not the only one who feels this way about Optimal Answers, there are countless other employees here who have zero motivation, incentive, or hope and we've all discussed this stuff multiple times. But since this is my review of my experience with the company, I can only speak on my behalf. The position I held was very crucial to the company and its visibility as well as day-to-day operations. I was the only one on the team capable of handling the tasks I oversaw. Yet somehow, the company continued to lie for well over a year and a half about incoming revenue and potential financial event outlook. Most of the employees are not paid as we should be. I myself am owed $33,000 and am in the process of retaining an attorney to help recover those unpaid wages. The company takes advantage of employees and makes promises of things getting better in the future. They squeeze what they can out of you then when you've had enough and leave, they expect you won't do anything since the company has a knack for not providing written contracts or any proof at all that you even work for the company. Optimal Answers also knowingly commits tax fraud by misclassifying employees as independent contractors rather than full-time permanent employees. This way, they can avoid paying federal employee taxes and medicare. The company itself is severely disorganized and disjointed. I would warn anybody considering a job here to look elsewhere. If you are someone who enjoys the "luxury" and "privilege" of getting paid on time, do NOT work for this company. You may start off getting your first couple paychecks on time but pretty soon after that, you will start getting excuse after excuse as the company fails to provide you with a paycheck for the work you provide. It isn't worth it. At all. My final con is that the new leadership has utterly destroyed any productivity we previously had by literally changing our roles to handle tasks we were NOT qualified for and had not gone to school for as well as tasks that were totally unrelated to what we had been doing individually. The structure of this organization is anything but organized and not very conducive to allowing employees to properly complete tasks. There are severe micromanagement issues going on by upper management to the point where it becomes very distracting. Be prepared to attend Skype conference calls daily as well as several more every other day for various reasons. These calls typically last an hour to 2 hours long. It seems I'm not allowed to fairly or truly speak my mind regarding Optimal Answers on here because of restrictions so I'll refrain from giving remarks on specific upper management employees. But if I had to describe Optimal Answers as a company/concept in one word, it would be: PIPEDREAM. Please do not waste your time and get swindled like I did. I can't even count the amount of times I worked overtime (without getting paid) and worked weekends and attended countless meetings which lead nowhere or performed hours upon hours of intense work just to be told to get rid of it all for something else. If you do decide to work for this place, just know that you'll be back here soon enough writing your own negative review and I'll have to say "I told you so".