Vantaggi
I learned a great deal during my time at Greystone, not only in terms of work skills but how to handle office politics. I also was lucky enough to work with, be mentored by, and befriend some unique and wonderful people. They have a very generous PTO policy, paid parking, and they know how to have a good time. Senior leadership is highly accessible and genuinely engaged with employees on a day to day basis. There is a lot of focus on clients, and they work very hard to create and maintain actual relationships. I think that's getting harder for them as they grow, but it's admirable that they are striving to hold onto that; losing that personal connection is what sinks most growing MSPs. I think the majority of clients who work with Greystone absolutely love it, and sometimes leave for a cheaper option only to come back a year later with horror stories about how bad the service was elsewhere. Greystone is lucky to have a number of people in leadership positions who aren't kidding about how much they care about the people who work for them, and I had a couple of advocates during my time there who I know went to bat for me, spoke up about my value to the company, and tried to shield me from some behind-the-scenes nastiness. Some of them have left, and hopefully are better appreciated elsewhere.
Svantaggi
What Greystone says (and believes) about itself is not aligned with the reality experienced by its employees. Here are a few examples: 1) As you will see in some other reviews, Greystone is very proud that it doesn't micro-manage or hold your hand; they expect you to make decisions. But in fact, many employees feel that it's 'sink or swim'. I watched my colleagues battle stress, doing their best to 'figure it out' because if they asked for help or training, they were sometimes mocked, seen as incompetent, and gossiped about. Sometimes this mockery and gossip was coming from their direct supervisor. Then, at company meetings, leadership will sermonize about the importance of relying on your team and asking for help before blaming mistakes on employees who try to do it all on their own. 2) Greystone takes a 'get it done' attitude with a focus on quick decision-making. That will seem like a relief to people coming from organizations that get bogged down in endless bureaucracy, meetings, and committees. But in reality, this attitude exists because both the President and CEO have impulsive personalities and grow impatient with discussion of complex issues. Simple decisions that should be delegated are constantly getting bottlenecked at the President or CEO, stalling all momentum... until, after multiple reminders, employees either go around them or they make snap decisions to 'get it done'. 3) The people at Greystone don't like gossip, office politics, and oversensitivity. The President used to be fond of saying that if you don't like your toes getting stepped on, then "get stronger toes". However, Greystone also created the title 'Technical Engineer' because they didn't want to offend anyone by calling them 'Junior' or 'Seconday' Consultants, or giving anyone the title 'Senior' Consultant. After firing an aggressive, abusive employee, the President asked everyone to avoid saying anything negative about him, even within the office. Some time later, after a frequently absent and poor-performing employee quit, the President openly mocked her during the announcement. Leadership itself takes things very personally. They consider themselves deeply invested, but don't worry if it makes them behave unprofessionally at times (it does). 4) As another neutral-to-negative review mentioned, many of the reviews here (so far) came in the wake of a request by the President of the company. That's not terribly unusual, especially in a competitive market for talent, but due to the small size of the company, it's next to impossible to leave a truly anonymous review. Bear that in mind when you read glowingly positive reviews, and remember what I said about management taking things personally. I think they truly believe that their employees feel safe speaking up, but at least in my experience there, no one really did. The feeling was that it would either be ignored, dismissed, or hurt their career. The truth is, I could go on. Greystone fails to provide adequate formal training for the positions it asks people to fill. Greystone has a kneejerk, defensive, "we're a casual workplace!" attitude when it comes to complaints about sexist or racist remarks, as though the complainant is the one causing the problem. Greystone pretends to trust employees but is absolutely watching over their shoulder at every turn. Greystone confuses "we rely on you" with "we value you" and doesn't realize that employees just want to be compensated adequately, not given a pat on the back. Greystone does not prioritize anything that doesn't directly make them money or reward friends of the leadership. Greystone preys on inexperienced workers and gets them to believe that they should feel lucky to have a job at all, so they certainly shouldn't ask for more. And on, and on.
