Pros
Very talented teammates, especially in the developers department. A good place where to learn what not to do as an employer, and what to avoid in your future career.
Cons
No benefits whatsoever (fruit in the office cannot be considered a benfit, and unlimited soda cans are hardly a healthy thing to be proud of). No sick policy, if you get ill everything is at discretion of the company (which, as others suggested, is a synonym for the CEO), and sick pay is the UK statutory minimum. Job titles are meaningless and intentionally fuzzy, as is CEO opinion that they are useless. The result is that since no one knows exactly what theit title is, is difficult to compare with salaries of positions at other companies, and also it's easy for management to ask people to do tasks outside of their contractual position without recognising a change in the work relationship (no change of title, no salary reviews). Salary is very poor, QA is paid sensibly less than the real living wage, all other positions are paid way less than industry average. In the meantime, the CEO pays himself hundreds of thousands of pounds in dividends each year. Production strategy is non-existant, and the company structure is severely lacking and opaque, causing all sorts of problems in planning and development. Unsurprising high turnover, incouraged by management practices and lack of any kind of attempt from the company to entice people to stay. The managers never have your back, and they either bow to the CEO's will when dealing with issues or bereavements, or they are complicit. Long 40 hours week (breaks are not considered). QA+Devs are in a separate building than Production+Design. Art is moved about. Dev building is very cold (but QA room can get super hot due to bad ventilation) and Art office is in an Access Self Storage and has only 1 dedicated toilet for 20 people. Communication among workers is actively discouraged, and in the offices reigns a weird and awkward silence. If the silence is interrputed, managers actively shush you. No Christmas office closing period. End of year bonuses are "at company discretion", and they weren't paid the past year. Legal minimum of holidays. No name in the credits of published titles. Unpaid overtime. HR cannot do anything to address workers issue without the CEOs sign off, and there are no procedures in place for complaints. People have been fired after raising H&S issues, or just because the CEO didn't like them at a personal level. The CEO doesn't like people working from home, and forced people to get back to the office in unsafe times and conditions, at first without even due process, and reprimending people that voiced concerns. The CEO is in the HR mailing list. CEO doesn't let employees know the revenue rate of sold titles. If payment day is weekend, they pay on Monday, not the day before. Overall, the company is plagued by a culture of silence and repression, management unaccountability, and if it wasn't a tech company wouldn't be out of place in victorian London.