Now I know what I don't want in a job
Pros
TPT is filled with smart, ambitious people. I have found some of best friends and lifelong connections there. I loved working with linguists all around the world. I only wish that I was able to really work with them, not just push translations through the system to create a rushed and poor quality deliverable. This is a great "starter job" so people can understand what they do and do not want in their career. For most, this is a burn out position though. Supposedly, if you work hard you can make a lot of money... too much money for the work actually done by management making said money. The employees who are actually carrying out most of the work (project coordinators and account managers) do not receive any benefits like profit sharing. Therefore, they feel the pressure to make sales and increase revenue, but have no incentive whatsoever. Meanwhile, their managers are making the money off of them.
Cons
Pattern of staff terminations (voluntary or not), clearly indicates there is a spoke broken in the training curve and production wheel...although blame is continually deflected from this blatant problem to make it appear the issue is the lack of skill with the production team. Continual acceptance of impossible deadlines that result in undue stress to the production staff - as well as making them vulnerable, and typically given, to the blame for missed deadlines. These issues have been happening for months if not years, with continual staff turnover. Unfortunately it's not the staff's problem, but the production model that is in place, and middle management appears to believe it's purely a staff issue - as proved by their revolving door of departing staff. Can 100 employees all be so bad at their jobs? Wouldn't that reflect poorly on the hiring judgement of your managers? This is a vicious cycle, and for middle management not to understand it will continue for months to come - unless serious review is taken- is sticking their heads in the sand. After all...(taken from their job advertisements :) ) Put simply, you hire the most talented candidates and are supposed to give them the guidance, resources, and opportunities they need to grow their career in an expanding environment. By supporting the continual acceptance of deadlines that are not obtainable, production staff members are continually set up to fail. Setting up a production model that would require individuals to work 12 or more hours a day as a typical work week is taking advantage of employees and not professional or admirable. It's a blatant disregard of someone's health and personal life outside of their job. Management's choice to constantly perform at an understaffed level is a source of unhappiness and frustration within all sectors of TPT. Senior Management pushes PMs to increase their revenue and mark up per project, but this isn't possible with the workload or influx of new employees that must be trained. How can any business plan support continual increase in revenue when your most valuable assets keep walking out the door? In my one year with the company, I know of at least 12 people who came or left, or BOTH within ONLY my department. That figure doesn't even include the people from sales or other production departments. This past year, employees participated in a company project where they were asked to submit ideas on ways of improvement, but is anyone in a management role truly going to implement any of the suggestions? By the end of the project, it seemed like only the projects that increased revenue and not the ones that may increase employee happiness or sanity, would be the projects implemented. I didn't enjoy missing dinners with my mom when she visited - even though I gave my management a heads up when I wanted to leave by a certain hour. I didn't enjoy missing buses that were to take me away for week-end escapes, due to having to work late on consecutive Friday nights. I didn't enjoy hearing how my speaking up on how other department delays resulted in my missing deadlines - responding to my concerns as being unacceptable. I didn't enjoy being told that I was immature for making friendships with other Project Managers in my department. I didn't enjoy working 85 hours the week before Christmas because we were understaffed and taking on too much work as a department. What I do now enjoy, is my new job, making more a year and knowing I'll be home by 6pm - allowing me to now resume with living a life. P.S. Did I mention the women's bathroom frequently runs out of toilet paper and/or paper towels and there's always one stall that no one dares enter?
