A once-great company that I gradually outgrew - Anonymous employee GoCanvas Employee Review

2.0
Jul 8, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits, especially the unlimited PTO. We also got the day off for the company’s birthday and even Steve Jobs’ birthday. Good work-life balance Company became remote-first during COVID-19 pandemic, but options to work in office or hybrid also exist Many efforts were made to ensure that people were still engaged with each other despite being remote (i.e. virtual happy hours and events, all-hands meetings, etc.) Both CEOs during my tenure were great and seemed incredibly genuine My pay was very good, although this wasn't the case for most at the company

Cons

Lack of support around ongoing training and development (unless you’re in leadership). Yes, some teams shared things like Udemy accounts, but individual employee budgets for conferences, formal courses, etc. didn’t exist. Company is still unorganized around career paths, evaluations, and progression. Paths supposedly existed in my area, as did rubrics with competencies/expectations for each level, but they weren’t always formally followed. There were instances of people moving up multiple levels at a time, and the rubric of expected competencies not being used the same for everyone (if at all). Favoritism is rampant, and those not in this group that express concerns will be gaslit or told to figuratively “stay in your lane” by management and leadership. Speaking of, management and leadership lacks diversity and true understanding of it, making women and underrepresented minorities a constant target of micro-aggressions from them. Processes, documentation, and even the tech stack/code is unorganized and ad-hoc. Company and team surveys don’t seem to change anything, rather they serve as a way to identify and mark those that are unhappy. Pay is very low for vast majority. If you are lucky enough to come in with a good salary, be prepared to receive miniscule yearly pay raises thereafter, next to no opportunities for promotion, and constant scrutiny from management for work and how much you're contributing. This will only intensify when budget cuts are happening.

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GoCanvas Response
4y
Thank you for the time and thought you have put into your Glassdoor review. I am certain that the Glassdoor community appreciates it, I know I certainly do. However, I would have appreciated this more directly whilst you were employed and had the opportunity to address these comments directly. To begin, we agree that the culture supported by a vibrant office that was deliberately used a physical conduit for culture is near impossible to match by a remote-first culture. There are trade-offs to be made when we go remote/hybrid; for example remote work creates increased work/life balance and increased diversity, whilst losing some of the sense of belonging, and the serendipetous collaboration that happens when we are co-located. We disagree with regards to career pathing. We are mid a development Check-in currently geared towards professional development, we have career pathing sessions available to all employees whereby team members sit 1:1 with our people team to plan career pathing, and all rubrics are adhered to. It is true there have been situations where team members have increased multiple levels at a time - these situations have been when we have reassessed team members post M&A to 'true up' incoming team members to the GoCanvas rubric. Finally, the leadership team has become increasingly diverse over the last 3 years. This was deliberate and something we are proud of. I am disappointed to hear of microagressions within the company at all, our engagement surveys -reviewed weekly by our executive - suggest nothing of the sort. And given that we have increased training around belonging and microagressons over the past 12 months I am certain any microaggressions, had they been raised, would have been gladly addressed immediately. I am disappointed that we were not given the opportunity during your tenure. If you are willing, please reach out to me directly and give us the opportunity to ensure any microagressions are not inadvertently repeated. Thank you again for your review, and we wish you all the best moving forwards.

Explore other reviews about GoCanvas

5.0
Oct 16, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great management great product great benefits

Cons

Constant change-make sure you can handle it

3.0
Jul 9, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible PTO (though this is changing). Work-life balance was decent, especially earlier on. My customers were the best part of the role, and I genuinely felt for them as they navigated a significant amount of organizational change.

Cons

I stayed longer than I probably should have because the strongest parts of my experience were early on. After the acquisition, the culture shifted enough that many people started reevaluating their time here. It became more process-heavy, less transparent, and much more rigid than before. Management experiences varied widely. At one point, I went months without a clear direct manager or consistent point of contact, which created confusion around ownership and expectations.

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