Where to begin...
First off, this was/is a small start up, so everyone worked VERY closely with everyone, including the CEO who was always within 10ft of everyone.
Perks: Costco was close by
Benefits: Paid for my gym membership.... thats all
Lets start from the beginning with how unprofessional it was, the CEO never called me for my phone interview on the agreed date and time, it was only after I called my recruiter, and then the next day did I have an actual interview.
The Interview process should have been a red flag, about how it was going to be, but I was asked to develop a quick web page, while the CEO sat behind me and looked over my shoulder the entire time.
Then when I was given a job offer, it was via email, however the CEO did not delete the rest of the email thread he had with another employee regarding my skills. I believe the gist of it was "His coding skills are good, but his Design skills needs work". Should've been a red flag, but I needed a job.
After my first day on the job, i was informed by a co-worker that the CEO hopped onto my computer and checked my browser history.
I have never worked under a manger that was this much of a micro manager.
But I stuck it out because of the great co workers I was working with and learning from, we were all so optimistic in the beginning...
Then the kicker, when everything everything hit the fan, and we all became disgruntled employees, and the office became a very negative work environment, when no one wanted to come work longer than their 8 hrs.
The CEO on another one of his rants, blasted an email to the company, it boiled down to this "I love this company so much, if I had to, I would fire all of you and start all over again." He later sent another email trying to explain what he meant, but the damage was already done.
For the next 4 months, my co workers and I began to have lunches together, and all the stories came out, that we knew of, but never knew details.
-One employee was asked to come in before their start time and to start work immediately, in all working longer than 8 hrs, and not getting paid for it.
-A manager was expected to attend Saturday meetings, that was on his own time.
-Another female employee was "accidentally" sent and email detailing a new hire's pay, that was going to be working under her. It was more than what she was making.
- It was never a positive thing when the CEO asked to talk you outside.
- Our remote employees were required to share their screen with the CEO all day (big brother much?)
- I was reprimanded for having a video playing in the background while I was on lunch
- No One arrived earlier than our start time at 9am, if we got their early, we waited outside until 8:59am before we walked in to the office
- The CEO would come down from the upper level of the office, and stroll around looking over everyones shoulder, and if you were not working on a project he asked to speak with you outside, and you were reprimanded.
- We knew which department was making money and which was not, and because my department was losing the CEO money due to under-estimating every project, I felt he was looking for an excuse to "ask me to leave," since I was the only one to stand up to CEO when I called him out on what of his request outside my job description.
After I left, I found out my workload was shipped overseas to Indian developers.
I called it, when one of our co workers left, it was going to be a snowball effect, and lo and behold it happened, there was a mass exodus after one of us quit. Leaving only an intern to deal with the SEO department.
Agreed with whoever commented about the photos on their website and yelp, my photo was still being used on their website YEARS after me and my co workers left.
All in all, the CEO expects everyone of his employees to work just like him, 10+ hrs a day, he quoted himself as making only $7/hr, he wanted us all to eat just like him, salads, and health foods. I remember on one of our weekly team lunches, he went to Trader Joes and got everyone a pre-made salad that he eats, but none of us ate, we all went out after that to get more food.
The CEO did not trust us to do our jobs, hence he consistently micromanaged all of us, which then in turn created a negative work environment, which then in turn forced us to leave this company, and move on to better jobs.
After I left, I was shown the CEO blog, where he confirmed all of these issues with his personality and how he is working on it. In my mind, I am thinking, you were called out on all of these traits by another manager, over a year ago, and if you still haven't fixed it, then there is something else wrong.
