Did a little time at Empire as an ATR captain. All the above is true. It can be horrible/weird, but also pretty good, however, you need a divining rod or something else special to figure where the unexpected will come out and screw you over. Personalities: HR gals have way too much power and are pretty much lower on the bell curve. The DO was good, as was the infamous DP. Pay is absurd. Northern Idaho seems to be proud to work for less. Too bad that doesn't translate elsewhere, CA, WA, AK, HI, etc. The company manual is pretty fair until you read the last page, paraphrase; Company can decide to do whatever it wants whenever it wants and over rules anything in the preceding pages. Flight Safety at Houston was horrible. I was one of the few pilots ever furloughed. Went to India and made 3x and had a great time. Later, they refused to honor the furlough. Then a bit later I re-applied for a re-hire, got a one word email back from M in HR, "really?". Yeah, that's "really" professional. Now they are desperate for ATR pilots. Oh well.