Toxic culture and workplace - Anonymous employee Handshake Employee Review

1.0
Sep 6, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The mission is great on paper and the company attracts people who are connected to the mission. Cold brew and kombucha on tap.

Cons

Culture It was a totally different experience between the interview process and actually working there. It was presented as an inclusive workplace but it’s actually extremely cutthroat and political. Don’t be fooled by the honeymoon period. Bro-culture mentality Very cliquey: Don’t expect to get along with everyone unless you’re a specific kind of personality. Gossip mill runs rampant: Don’t expect your managers to not talk about you behind your back, often in earshot of other employees Culture of fear: There’s no trust. It seems there was always the assumption (and sometimes accusation) that people aren’t doing their job. They say the pace is fast, but it’s really just chaos with constantly shifting goalposts. It often felt like psychological warfare where everything felt like a test and you were made to constantly doubt your abilities. Work-life balance There is no balance. You are expected to be there feverishly working late, then go home and work even more. Working weekends is needed to keep up and meet demands. Executive immaturity and lack of experience Garrett: the CEO has severe mood swings and you never know where you really stand with him. He plays favorites and over-indexes to pedigree, despite the company’s mission to democratize opportunity for people of all backgrounds. He doesn’t engage with executive women or female employees like he does with male leadership. He seems very arrogant, egotistical, elitist, and narcissistic. It feels like the company is run by executives that have no idea what they’re doing a lot of the time. There’s a general lack of executive direction, ownership, or commitment to a plan. Many managers are inexperienced and have poor people management skills. A word of warning: don’t join this company.

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Pros

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Cons

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Pros

It's flexible and sometimes the money is OK. I got paid most of what they owed me.

Cons

Generally disorganized. The task I was on was one of the more highly paid ones but it was almost impossible to actually do in the allotted time. You aren't supposed to use AI but I think people must. The tasks run far over the time they are supposed to take. The human review system also seemed almost arbitrary. Reviewers did not have the subject matter expertise they claimed to. You will make less than the advertised hourly rate because the tasks routinely take longer than they say they will. If they have averages that are lower, those people are either not submitting accurate hours (there is incentive not to) or are using AI to train AI, which is a bigger problem (but not yours).

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