Pros
The benefits are decent, especially if you are right out of college. Pod outings can be fun if you enjoy getting really drunk with your manager and hearing really personal stories about his/her intimate relationships. The dress code is relaxed and easy (just don't wear a bikini, and you'll be fine). Some female employees wear surprising transparent dresses without a problem. Some people enjoy the view over Boston, though it's limited to a couple surrounding buildings. You are in easy walking distance to the Prudential Center (right next door) and Boylston/Newbury Streets, even if you don't have a large enough paycheck to buy anything. If you work on a weekend, CSN provides a nice soggy burrito lunch. Coworkers are generally fun and friendly until they've been working there too long (more than a week or two).
Cons
-Managers are incompetent -- most of them worked their way up the ladder when the company was young and have no experience outside CSN. They know the company well but have no clue how to be proper managers. -Managers are inappropriate and unprofessional -- they form inappropriate relationships with employees under their jurisdiction and gossip about people in their own groups. They share inappropriate stories about their lives outside work and make those who are not their "buddies" feel extremely uncomfortable. (This is especially evident between male managers and female employees.) They describe in intimate detail their personal lives -- drinking, relationships, etc.. -Compensation has nothing to do with performance -- the system used to determine both salary and bonuses is intrinsically flawed and was never tested before implementation. The only way to get a decent (relative term, here) salary is to cheat the system, and this is actually encouraged by managers (when I asked how I could improve, my manager listed a number of ways to cheat). In addition, the program that pulls numbers to determine your paycheck is incorrect 95% of the time and not updated correctly 99% of the time. It is a workplace joke, but no laughing matter when it comes to your salary. (I was repeatedly told me that by my level of service and numbers I should have had the highest salary, but because of the remaining flaws in the system I was stuck near the bottom. But since everything is based solely on the (incorrect) numbers reported, there was no room for him to make an exception in my case. This happened to a number of employees.) -You might not get paid properly -- 5 months later, I am still waiting to be paid the bonuses that I was told I would get but I didn't receive due to some oversight. I have now been told that I will not be receiving these funds for no justifiable reason. -Lack of communication -- customer service reps are not kept in the loop. The first we hear about a change is when it is about to be enacted (each change makes a rep's life worse, and there are many changes). -Schedule horrors -- watch out, as this will change on you constantly (not only the daily start time, but the days you will be working) and you will never be able to plan anything more than a couple of weeks in advance ever again. And yes, you are expected to request days off before you know what days you will be working. -The "relaxed" environment is cutthroat -- with all the cheating going on, it's impossible for the few honest employees there are to get ahead. When I started there, everyone was willing to help anyone out. Now that all the changes have been enacted, people refuse to offer assistance and instead respond by stealing sales and sabotaging other reps. -No one is happy -- out of the 40 or so reps I spoke with, only 1 or 2 were somewhat content with the job, and this was only because they hoped to move to another department (which is becoming extremely difficult to do). The level of discontent is so high that employees no longer even hush their voices when senior management walks by.
