An Unfortunate Downward Spiral - Anonymous employee Evolve Employee Review

TLDR: There are countless things under the surface desperately begging to be addressed and contributing to this sinking workplace. If either pay, benefits or work/life balance were comparable with other high growth companies, maybe people would stick around. Instead, any genuine people you meet won’t be there for long because they’ll realize they could be treated significantly better elsewhere. If you’re in your mid-late 20’s or above looking to elevate your career and be compensated fairly for the value you bring to the table, this is not the place. They claim they care about the employee experience, but when they use the same words of how they “won’t stop looking to improve” for over a year with little change, how could anyone be confident leadership is doing what they say? Turnover is through the roof. They will underplay it like it’s normal to happen anywhere, but the unusually high amount of people leaving at Evolve is questionable and bound to make anyone think twice. The company has potential to be successful but it’s currently deteriorating because the people holding it up are not appreciated and are grossly under compensated in all areas. Management & Favoritism: There's a frightening inconsistency among management styles where certain employees are heavily favored despite their obvious lack of effort and competence. This had me regularly questioning the ethics of working here which I’ve never had to do anywhere else in my career. Favoritism at its finest is glaringly apparent on many team. Managers are fully aware of the constructive feedback employees give, yet only empty promises remain months later after recurring conversations. Lack of Standards: Team and individual metrics might look impressive on dashboards, but you’re looking through rose colored glasses if you don’t notice there are numerous shady tactics people use to cheat to get their numbers among multiple teams, leading to skepticism that erodes trust. It’s baffling how managers notice alarming red flags and don’t care. Hours: You're micromanaged to the minute. You took 50 min for your mandatory 30 min lunch? Better stay 20 min later at some point in the week to get your entire 40 hours in which you’ll need to sustain living in the Denver area. They aggressively dissuade overtime and get frustrated when it happens even with explanation. Being required to clock in and out for every single minute is again a sign of lack of trust and insulting to the ones who are reliable. Pay: It is NOT competitive. This has been the elephant in the room creating a tense environment. It’s seriously not possible to live in a decent apartment/house in the Denver area on the wages you’re given and expect to save anything, have any spending money or be constantly stressed about paying bills. Denver is an enormously popular city now and the pay is certainly not in line with the market. Neglecting any mature conversation regarding a raise makes you feel undervalued, especially when yearly raises are minimal at best. How do people get by? Most commonly people will admit to living in less than ideal areas outside of Denver (many of which have long commutes) and pile on debt. Or, they have ample help from their families to get by or live with their parents. This reality is a major struggle, should not be ignored and is fueling turnover. If actions speak louder than words, ensuring pay is in line with the market is not a priority for the leadership team. Benefits: Severely lacking, but I give credit to the team as they’ve been enhanced since the start of 2019. Health insurance is covered for specific plans (completely for the HDHP and partially for others). A 401K with a 4% match with T Rowe Price is available and they’re working on incorporating equity as part of the compensation package. PTO is one of the lowest for a US company - a cringeworthy one day per month and you’re instructed to take it at certain times of the year. 3 paid sick days per year. No perks on any sort of travel, not even to stay at one of Evolve’s 11K+ properties. Teams: The team events I’ve gone to I’ve paid for food, drinks and activities. The base for team bonding is potlucks for lunches because it's all employee funded and provided. Let’s call it what it is: a way for the company to sit back and hype it up to be a team event without any effort on their end. You're given 10 min to go socialize and eat because you have to get back to your desk to work and/or keep picking up calls. The ability to work from home is rare, wildly inconsistent and dependent on favoritism from your manager. To be clear: this is not a typical high growth company you might envision where it’s laid back, people can be held accountable, and most days are accompanied by free snacks/lunch, etc. Despite how cool any promotional material may look, you should know it’s bare bones.