Pros
-- There truly were some real and genuine people that worked there. -- I learned a lot while I was with the company. -- The experience was a positive addition to my resume. -- I walked out of there with a much thicker skin than what I started out with.
Kontras
When I first started working at Netsmart, it was presented to me as such a warm and caring environment; one that was run by people that had a real connection with their client base and with the good people who made up each of the departments that kept the business afloat. It was a feel-good place to work, I could tell, one that was really going to allow me to make a difference just by the contributions I would be making as an employee. This is the way that they sell themselves to you, as a prospective hire. They bring you on, and give you the warm and fuzzies and just when you think things are starting to become more familiar and start taking on duties and responsibilities on your own, that is when they sink their teeth in, and the masks come off. The C-Level Leadership and Management of Netsmart is made up of a group of people who advocate and preach about mental health and the stigmas surrounding it, when they themselves are some of the sickest individuals I have ever met. They are money hungry, manipulative con-artists that can look you directly in the eyes and say one thing, and the moment you turn your back, slander and throw you under the bus to anyone (executives and peers alike) that is in ears' distance. It is all about how THEY can get ahead, all the while keeping the backbone of the company (us little guys) held down just low enough that we continue to reach for that reward at the end of the string that is dangling overhead, yet it's always JUST out of reach. Most of the Senior VP's and Department Management started out just like most of us did, as a Support Agent, a Billing Specialist or a Delivery Consultant, but over the course of their upward climb, they too began taking on the qualities of those that were mentoring them. If you are not the type of person that is absent of morals, comfortable with stabbing people in the back, being completely two-faced or stepping on other people below you to make your way further up the proverbial ladder, then you are probably not going to see any growth opportunities present themselves to you at Netsmart. Those of you that come in with the motto like I did, "Work to Live, not Live to Work," may be content for a while, especially if you're only of mediocre output capability or drive. However, if you DO happen to show that you're the type that likes a challenge or is willing to go the extra mile, you had better be prepared... because once you are pegged as one of the "selected", thus begins the decline of the work / home-life balance that you were likely pretty fond of. Unrealistic expectations begin becoming requirements and were due, like yesterday. Half-baked initiatives start being thrown at you that contain next-to-zero architecture, along with at least 1-2 spreadsheets of data pulled from an unknown third-party system and dumped into an incompatible, completely unusable format that will require days of data mining in order to have anything that can even be used. You’ll start being expected to attend back to back to back meetings, meetings that you don’t really even provide value to, and then of course the follow up meetings held to talk about the prior meetings that were mostly spent arguing about the wording of the meeting agenda. Your hours will start getting longer and your arrival at home later. Your relationships will become increasingly strained and you’ll start feeling as though you never see your family (because you basically WON’T be seeing them, except in passing). Your kids are growing up before your very eyes and all you can think about is the 10,000 emails you have popping up on your screen at 10:00 at night about the latest fire drill that can’t possibly wait until morning (never mind the fact that the whole issue is not even part of your job description or pay grade). Sleep isn’t all that familiar anymore by this point though, because despite being up half the night working to fix that outage, you’re still expected to be in the office and ready to work BY the designated start time or there WILL be some conversations had with HR, or possibly even some extra nasty things said behind your back to your peers about how you are just not cutting it (ultimately, trying to peg peers against each other with expectations that they might have a potential opportunity for promotion, when in all actuality, it’s merely a manipulation tactic to get you to work just that little bit harder so that you don’t get bumped back down into the category of the “unnoticed”). During the course of all of this, you will quickly learn that Netsmart has a VERY high turnover rate. Associates are groomed and turned into SME’s for whatever item is the hot topic at the time that THEY happened to be “selected”. Once that associate breaks and leaves the company, that knowledge goes with them (since there are no real documentation or knowledge sharing processes in place), and it is then left up to whoever remains to pick it all up on top of their already overloaded mess of in-flight work. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the organizational structure is updated, changed and rearranged at least 3-4 times during any given calendar year, as well as where your actual desk is physically located. So be prepared to spend an offensive amount of time packing and unpacking your desk for it to be rolled up or down an elevator or across a parking lot to the other building, only to then be moved back to where you were, 2 spots down on the same floor you started from a couple of months later. Along with that, from each change in your reporting structure comes meeting overlaps, multiple evaluations/transitions, unnecessary overhead and micromanagement to the most extreme degree. I cannot stress enough how bad the micromanagement is here; they legitimately instill in you that you cannot be trusted to perform routine or simple tasks and that you have to explain, report, account for and record every last detail so that they are aware of and know all the details of what you’re up to, in case they are questioned by their management. The ultimate end result from the time you came in as a new employee with that fresh hope and an eager outlook focused on making a difference, to the time that you finally build up the courage to resign your position, is a person that you barely even recognize in the mirror. Your own health was compromised during the course of your employment, and not just the weight that you’ve gained from the catered-in buffets of food that stays in constant rotation at the Netsmart office (both to discourage any need for the employee to have to leave and go grab something for lunch, and to ensure that everyone is kept fed, full and ready to comply!), but your mental and emotional health took a serious beating. The light is gone from your eyes, and you didn’t even realize it while it was slowly fading out. You are in a severe depression and are struggling now to do the simplest of tasks. You aren’t sure what is going to happen with paying your bills, since you had to get out of there before you had any official offers on the table. Your family relationships are just questionable at best from taking hit after hit as you were busy living the new motto instilled in you by Netsmart as the only way... “Live to Work,” and that is exactly what your life became. Now, where to begin with picking up the pieces? All of that to say... I would not recommend working for Netsmart, the rating would be zero stars if that was a possibility. Thank you to anyone that took the time to read through this whole review. I hope that through my experience, that others may be spared a similar circumstance.