Duped by the Skonnartist - Anonymous employee Pluralsight Employee Review

Talk to most senior leaders that have left the company that had a lot of direct exposure to the Skonnartist and you’ll likely find the following themes: 1. The company’s real ethics (evidenced by their CEO’s actions not their CEO’s talk) are money ethics that aren’t ethics at all - they are all centered around greed. 2. Gaslighting is rampant! The so called “leadership” sessions conducted by the Skonnartist are to groom you for gaslighting. Real leaders are identified over time by their actions not the marketing image they want you to believe. When you call the company’s leaders out on their questionable behavior, you’re gaslighted. 3. Loyalty is nonexistent. If the full extent and number of betrayals on the Skonnartist’s part were made known, it would make stomachs turn. 4. The “leadership” team is not united. Although the executive team talks a good game about being united, their actions expose that they really aren’t. Direct reports are exposed to the behind the scenes “Game of Thrones” nature of the executive team through their actions and constant tear downs of each other. The behavior filters down to VP and Director level folks at varying degrees and has a cascading effect in certain pockets of the organization. 5. Ridiculous pay and merit programs that aren’t equitable. One look at the company’s public filings and you’ll notice increasing current cash compensation for executives, $1M+ in personal private aircraft expenditures for the Skonnartist, millions of dollars in equity grants for the Skonnartist and other executives, while some front line employees and managers have gone years without a paltry 3% cost of living increase. The increases to executives have come even though they have delivered zero return on equity since the IPO (even before the pandemic). 6. The treatment of alum is horrid. Much like a cult, an employee that decides they no longer want to work for the company is treated like an outcast and their contributions to the prior success of the company are minimized and they are ostracized. This treatment feeds into the gaslighting behaviors. 7. The company openly employs illegal hiring practices to try and fit in with Silicon Valley like diversity practices. Don’t get me wrong, diversity is a great thing; however, like most things in this image driven company, pushing too hard on the image you are trying to project rather than what you really are leads to inauthentic and sometimes illegal behavior. 8. Forced consolidation into an office environment. As the current pandemic has demonstrated, most people can work effectively from home. The forced consolidation into an office in Draper is more ego and control driven than logic driven. The Skonnartist’s messiah complex speak even referred to the new building as a “beacon on the hill”. It is for him. The building is an ego driven move to try and keep up with Josh James (Adobe building influence), Ryan Smith (SAP building influence) and others. Several truly progressive tech companies are questioning the need for office space at all given the availability of tools for people to work effectively from home.