Pros
Via has a knack for attracting very bright, passionate people to the company. Everyone I worked with was quick on the uptake and always provided very creative problem-solving solutions. They are very mission-oriented and you feel that you are working towards improving the life of thousands of riders who rely on Via services for their daily transportation needs.
Cons
One common theme that I hope you, a potentially prospective employee at Via, glean from these Glassdoor reviews is the amount of overwork placed on everyone at the company. There is a very fine line between juggling multiple manageable tasks in a ‘fast-paced’ work environment and overloading employees’ plates with unrealistic goals. Unfortunately, it seems, that Via crossed this line much before I joined the company and will continue to cross that line after my departure. In my first six months of working with Via, I enjoyed the challenge of onboarding new partners—answering complex technical queries to help provide support and grow the business. I frequently worked late nights in order to exceed all the goals set by management to prove my worth and grow my career, and took on additional work to help the business where I could. When I was hired, the manager at the time touted the fact that Via has a very non-standard approach to promotions and raises, unlike most ‘traditional’ companies where you set aside a certain part of the year to go over achievements and goals for the next year to evaluate against pay raises. While Via states that they ‘reward good work,’ the truth is this lack of structured career growth is used to keep employees paid below their deserved wage to save company money. During my time with Via, no one on my team was promoted, given pay raises, or even acknowledged for the work that we contributed. When going to managers to ask for performance reviews and to reevaluate pay, we would get the same canned answers about how as long as we continued to show growth and development, our salary and title would continue to reflect the work we do. After I continued to push for a raise or title bump for a few more months, my workload continued to grow and I was growing increasingly more burnt out. I saw little room for growth inside the role I was in and considered a lateral move between teams, but the more I spoke with colleagues on other teams, I learned that my experience was not unique within the company. I was told by other longer-term employees that it was just the “Via way” and not something that they expected to change any time soon. My departure from Via was fairly recent and during a fresh wave of departures across the company. As people continue to come and go, the only thing I hope is that Via can go beyond their empty promises to do better and actually deliver the results it needs to increase employee retention and satisfaction. Only then, will company be able to move forward from this exodus of employees and retain the talent they spend so much money to attract.