Going nowhere, fast! - Anonymous employee Helix Employee Review

1.0
Aug 8, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I cannot speak for the San Carlos office, the San Fran and Denver office are now gone but the people are San Diego office are like one big family. They are really great people to work with.

Cons

Substantial layoff took place, culture is now lacking, morale is down since then. The company pivoted, lost the main investor, now have to purchase supplies at full price. With uncertain revenue sources and limited investment, joining here is likely not a long term career as people continually leave. I know one person who departed about a month before the layoff who was aware of the burn rate and said before leaving that they would be surprised of the company was operating by the end of the year.

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Helix Response
6y
Thanks for your post, and your acknowledgement of the great team in San Diego. I can confirm that the Bay Area team is also great! Unfortunately some of your information is incorrect. Firstly, we didn’t lose our largest investor. We have a very experienced and supportive group of investors including Warburg Pincus, Sutter Hill Ventures, Temasek, DFJ, Kleiner Perkins and Illumina. Secondly, given our pivot we have reorganized our business to focus completely on the population health market, and we have plenty of runway to achieve our goals without needing to raise additional funds. If you would like to discuss any aspects of our strategic shift, financial position, other changes we went through or our prospects please don’t hesitate to contact me. I always welcome an opportunity to transparently share the facts with our employees. The population health market holds tremendous promise, and I’m excited about the traction we now have, just 3 months into our dedicated focus on that space. That is testament to the wonderful team you referenced in your post and their shared passion to empower every person to improve their life through DNA. Regards, Marc

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1.0
Nov 2, 2024
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Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

The industry the company is in has potential.

Cons

After a decade, many basic processes are still not standardized. Simple tasks that should be easy elsewhere take unnecessary effort here. Mid-level managers form cliques, handling conflicts by forcing the more reasonable side to back down. Double standards are everywhere. People who don’t do the work tend to oppress those who do. Managers have a shallow understanding of both the work and people, resorting to bullying those who are kind while avoiding confrontations with the strong or rude. There's a constant manpower shortage, and higher-level issues are often dumped on lower-level employees, but salaries and promotions don’t reflect this. Meetings are mostly for show—employees are only allowed to ask trivial questions or praise each other. If you bring up real issues, they’ll either ask you to fix them yourself or tell you to stay quiet. Layoffs have been frequent over the past year, mostly targeting decent employees who won’t cause trouble or those who dare to speak up. The company is rigidly hierarchical, both in title and race. Middle managers give speeches as if they’re important figures, which is laughable. The quality of employees has dropped, and management is full of holes. Issues in old negative Glassdoor reviews remain unresolved to this day. The tolerance for toxic employees and the chaotic management have left good employees discouraged—they either find excuses to leave or simply cut down their productivity. As one one-star review said, this company needs a complete overhaul, not just minor tweaks.

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