Pluspunten
There is an opportunity to work on large-scale, highly visible initiatives with meaningful ownership and autonomy. Employees on the corporate side are often given significant responsibility, and the pace of work ensures exposure to a wide variety of operational and strategic challenges. I also had the opportunity to work with several talented and collaborative external agency partners and coworkers who genuinely cared about producing strong work under difficult circumstances.
Minpunten
Many of the reviews here appear to reflect experiences within CGS’s global call center operations, so I wanted to offer a perspective specifically from the corporate side of the organization.
The corporate environment felt increasingly reactive and unsustainable over time. Nearly every initiative operated in a constant state of urgency, to the point where emergency-level execution became the day-to-day norm. Projects were frequently launched without realistic staffing, bandwidth, prioritization, or long-term operational planning in place, creating a culture where teams were expected to continuously absorb shifting priorities and high-pressure demands.
The company operates with extremely lean staffing across many corporate functions, resulting in siloed ownership and negligible redundancy or support coverage. This creates significant pressure on individuals and contributes heavily to burnout, especially during major launches or organizational transitions.
One of the more difficult aspects of the experience was the disconnect between modern workplace expectations and the company’s operational culture. Despite virtually all collaboration occurring through Microsoft Teams and remote meetings, the organization maintained a rigid in-office structure that often felt disconnected from the actual nature of the work being performed. Work-life balance was challenging, particularly for employees with long commutes or high operational workloads.
The PTO and benefits structure also felt below market compared to other enterprise organizations. PTO policies in particular were unusually restrictive during the first year of employment and may come as a surprise to candidates if not carefully reviewed during onboarding. PTO is not accrued, but rather delivered in blocks every six months. Any planned travel or family events scheduled before your sixth-month anniversary will be taken unpaid, without exception.
From a leadership perspective, the company often felt heavily driven by reactive decision-making rather than long-term strategic alignment. Initiatives could shift direction quickly, priorities frequently changed, and substantial projects often stalled before reaching implementation due to a lack of bandwidth. Over time, this created an environment where constant execution was valued more than sustainable operational effectiveness.
There also appeared to be a significant disconnect between newer leadership hires and the long-established executive culture of the organization. The company has operated under the same founder-led leadership structure for decades, and at times, this created an environment where modernization efforts, operational best practices, and proactive decision-making initiatives implemented by new leadership felt difficult to advance consistently. From an employee perspective, new leadership often seemed reactive rather than empowered, which contributed to organizational uncertainty and hesitation around strategic initiatives.
The office environment itself also reflected some of the broader organizational challenges. Large portions of the corporate office remained sparsely occupied following repeated reductions and restructuring over the years, contributing to an atmosphere that often felt disconnected and unusually stagnant for a modern corporate environment.
I was ultimately part of a reduction in force following the loss of a major client. My role was eliminated and outsourced to external agencies. No severance or transition services were provided. All benefits ended immediately, with COBRA offered afterward.