BetterUp reviews

3.2

48% would recommend to a friend

(484 total reviews)
avatar

Alexi Robichaux

53% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

BetterUp has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 484 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The BetterUp employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

484 reviews
1.0
May 12, 2023

The Mission is Not for You.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The talent inside this organization is truly of the highest caliber at the IC/Front Line Leadership level. You will build great community inside the company, relationships that will last a lifetime as you will be trauma-bonded through the experience. Great benefits, access to coaching - which need to be leverage to take care of yourself, as you mental health is at risk inside this mental health organization (weird, right?!)

Cons

No psychological safety inside this company. You either tow the line or you are out. No accountability from executive leadership, in their eyes they are perfect and the current outcomes of our business is blamed on hiring. Let's all agree, if a person is highly successful prior to joining and is highly successful after leaving, then the problem is not the individuals it is the operations of the business that limited and blocked their ability to find success here. Nepotism runs deep here, there is an inner circle of folks with titles that do not match their experience and have had numerous complaints to HR that go unmanaged. It is known they are untouchable and everyone knows it and at this point has to laugh about it. (side note: let's tone down the VP titles that are overly abundant here for no reason and no org chart to support it) There is no true HR function (easily read as a desire to maintain control), this is unique given our product and need to sell into CHRO that we do not prioritize or value this function. Onboarding requires a Glassdoor review, they add it to your calendar as {Action Requested] to block time to review the company your first week in your role. They are currently actively pursuing removal of negative Glassdoor reviews and have been successful on a handful and in the interim requesting teams flood Glassdoor with positive reviews that all share one thing in common "we are a fast paced startup, and we are not for everyone" This is outward published example of the gaslighting that exists here. "You are not a fit, you are not an extreme owner, you have a victim mindset" when you pose anything that challenges their directions or when you are forced to do the job of many with changing priorities. They leverage the mission and employees' true desire to change people's lives to neglect the burnout that exists but the truth is we are chasing dollars/valuation not impact. Very few people are happy here, and so being told if you do not like it here then leave; passive path to downsizing so we do not impact the brand outwardly. This is not the time to join this organization, perhaps when the board makes changes at the top then we will see this business run properly but until then be warned. Fun fact: The title of this post is a direct quote from founder to company.

1.0
May 10, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fantastic group of front line leaders and individual contributors. The mission is incredible and the intent to help individuals and organizations thrive is spot on-externally.

Cons

Pay attention to the onslaught of raving reviews that appear after a few negative ones are posted so CEO can get back to 4.0 rating. New hires are instructed to post on Glassdoor before they even know how to do their jobs. Everything wrong is the sales team’s fault so every few years they rip and replace the sales team, but the strategy, executive team and decision makers don’t change, so failure repeats itself.

1.0
May 8, 2023

An abundance of hypocrisy and toxicity

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the smartest colleagues I've worked with in my career. Great misson and you can very visibly see the impact it has on people's lives. If you have never worked at a startup, you will learn a ton in a short time.

Cons

1) Decisons are made in an ivory tower with executives who take no consideration of implementation or the human element. Never share a dissenting opinion with leadership because you're only wasting energy. That is unless you're a Mckinsey or Bain alum in which case they are all ears and will implement what you say immediately. 2) Abysmal communication and working in silos are the norm and often promoted. It's the "year of the manager", but managers get very little cascade or context for their teams and yet are penalized for the team performance. It is incredibly common for you to find out what is happening in your department from a cross functional coworker rather than your manager. 3) Inequitable support functions. Leadership only invests in other leadership and not actual support roles to do the strategy execution. How do you expect any progress to made when you continue to increase Director/VP bloat and not in people who do the actual work? Groups like IT, Brand, Analytics and Sales Ops are selective in who and what they support leaving the rest on their own. 4) No opportunity for vertical progression unless you play internal politics. If you're connected to an OG, don't worry about this. You will get promoted/a bonus/a raise no matter what. If you're not connected, good luck on not getting "downscoped" this year if you already haven't but don't worry you can keep whatever title you want on LinkedIn and that's what's important. 5) Another reviewer put it perfectly - gaslighting. It is so prevalent here and starts from the very top. No matter how bad the emotional abuse or burnout, if you don't feel and act obsessively grateful for working here at all times, the strong implication (and often verbalized) is you shouldn't be here. They dangle the carrot of lives being impacted which sucks you in to take on more abuse. 6) You also saw this in other reviews - it is incredibly common to weaponize the high impact behaviors against you. When you try to hold someone accountable, you are not exhibiting extreme ownership and a bias towards action and should do their work as well.

Viewing 208 - 210 of 484 Reviews

Glassdoor has 731 BetterUp reviews submitted anonymously by BetterUp employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if BetterUp is right for you.