Once a mission-driven company, now dominated by politics and short-term thinking - Anonymous employee OpenGov Employee Review

1.0
Oct 6, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many talented, mission-driven engineers and managers remain, genuinely invested in improving local government. The company’s mission, improving transparency and efficiency in government, continues to attract people who care deeply about civic impact.

Cons

Leadership turnover and direction drift: Since the acquisition, the company has lost its CTO, both senior VPs of engineering, and several long-tenured VPs with deep domain knowledge. These departures have left a vacuum filled mostly by sales-oriented leaders or overextended managers. The result is a “promotion by attrition” culture that rewards visibility and compliance over competence. Culture erosion and politics: Collaboration has given way to insular cliques and favoritism. Decisions are made top-down, often by leaders seeking validation rather than sound strategy. Constructive feedback is discouraged, while dissenters are marginalized or reassigned to less visible roles. Weaponized incompetence: Some teams hold ownership over key systems they often leave unstable or hard to work with, yet still restrict others from stepping in to help. Whether intentional or not, this dynamic gives certain teams undue leverage and slows progress across the organization. It fosters dependency and undermines trust between groups trying to collaborate. AI hype over technical rigor: The company has gone all-in on AI, but any critique of quality or real-world applicability is unwelcome. Most critically, success is measured by announcements, not outcomes. Projects that should take months are promised in days, and those who raise concerns about feasibility are labeled as blockers. Uneven accountability: Those who produce quick, flashy prototypes often get promoted, while those who maintain or fix unstable systems shoulder the long-term burden without recognition. Return-to-office tension: The RTO mandate is enforced with attendance spot-checks and reports, even leading to false accusations of absence. Some employees come in sick to avoid scrutiny, a clear sign of eroded trust.

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OpenGov Response
9mo
Thank you for your detailed, candid feedback. While this isn’t what we hear from most teammates, we’re sorry this was your experience and we take it seriously. We’re investing heavily in manager development and our engineering leadership (2 recent SF Leadership Development Programs, with Pune program launching this October). On AI, we agree with you that it needs to be approached responsibly. Like with all our work, we're measuring success by customer impact and real outcomes, not just announcements of shipped features. ‘Win as One’ and ‘Do the Right Thing’ guide us, and honest, constructive feedback is always welcome at OpenGov. If you’re open, we’d value a deeper conversation and encourage you to reach out to the team to talk more.

Explore other reviews about OpenGov

5.0
Jul 17, 2026
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CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to work on bleeding edge technologies, and serve your nations public institutions.

Cons

None I can think of.

1.0
May 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The startup-era culture here was genuinely good — collaborative, energetic, people-first. As the company grew, so did the ego. Leadership lost what made the place work and replaced it with a top-down, my-way culture that has driven out some of the best people.

Cons

I'm writing the review I wish had existed when I was researching this company. Not checking Glassdoor before I started was my single biggest professional regret. Promotion is positioned during recruiting as a near-term, achievable goal. In reality, the criteria are vague, inconsistently applied, and rarely result in actual advancement. KPIs are set at levels that ensure most reps will fall short — creating a perpetual sense of failure that serves management's pressure tactics, not your career growth. Advancement often appears less tied to clear performance metrics and more dependent on subjective favoritism, including maintaining close alignment with or “sucking up to” hiring managers and leadership, rather than merit alone. Transparency is essentially nonexistent. Turnover in the SDR org specifically is high and ongoing, but it’s never acknowledged or addressed internally. Candidates have no way of knowing the full picture going in. One more thing worth knowing: account executives are coached during training to post positive Glassdoor reviews. Please weigh that when you look at the overall rating. “Unlimited PTO” is also not as flexible as it may be presented. In practice, time off appears to be closely monitored and can be restricted, even for high performers, based on internal perceptions of fairness across the team rather than true flexibility or performance-based trust. This makes the benefit feel more like a recruiting talking point than an actual employee perk.

7
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