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Faithlife

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Engaged Employer

Faithlife reviews

3.9

69% would recommend to a friend

(321 total reviews)
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William (Bill) McCarthy

Not enough data to show CEO approval

65% positive business outlook

Faithlife has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 321 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Faithlife employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

321 reviews
2.0
May 29, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

General - Ping pong, game night, free soda & coffee, occasional free food, company picnic & Christmas party, borrow sporting equipment. Note: these can't by themselves make a bad job good, just enhance an already good one. - Free to make statements of faith without fear of reprisal. - Very few rules, if you're the type that does well with ambiguity and dislikes certain recipes for success. - You get to read the CEO's book, "Fire Someone Today" for free. Plus hundreds of other books on self-improvement, sales, software development, and the so on. Exempt Positions - Super flexible - manage your own time. - Very few rules. Software Development - Work at a desk or at a couch or in a different room every day. - Varying freedom to work at home, depending on the situation--strong culture of teleconferencing. - Opportunity perhaps yearly for a week-long retreat to a vacation home in Arizona.

Cons

General - Besides the freedom to express faith and a perhaps higher percentage of Christian coworkers than elsewhere (especially in content departments), being a "Christian company" seems like a distinction without a difference. Clearly, those working for this company are at least not hostile to doing work to further study of the bible. But in the sales department, you're almost bound to be underpaid and mistreated, and in software development you'd best enjoy working in a silo. - The lack of rules (varying between departments) leaves managerial decisions up to individual preference--so there is no guaranteed objective basis for handling any particular situation. If you don't handle ambiguity well, this may not be the place for you. - The "we're so awesome doing important stuff unlike all those other places" sales pitch to attract talent also speaks of a culture problem at the same time. Beware. - The software development and sales departments are deeply divided over many issues, and due to the CEO and his brother individually heading these, respectively, and both being extremely strong personalities, the divide is bound to never be resolved. Expect ongoing frustration, unpleasant politics, stress, and annoyance around this fundamental company problem. Software Development - Receive inadequate frequency and quantity of feedback. - Huge focus on "the right way" to build software, as determined by the extensive coding guidelines and the personal opinions of the people who happen to review your particular code check-in. If your background and tendencies dovetail well with those, great, but if they don't--expect friction. And rewrites. And again. - Having a completely unclear management hierarchy, you may not know who is actually making decisions about you or if they actually have the information you think they, whoever they are, should have. If you're suffering from an illness that doesn't keep you home but affects your work performance, who do you tell? Who actually cares? - Expect to overhear trash talking about how other developers (by name), or entire other departments, are not as competent or smart or "with it" or have the emotional/reasoning capacity of children. - You will almost certainly not be interviewed by the people you will work for and with. Do not expect that your own assessment during your interview about "could I work with these people" will necessarily apply to the actual people you work with. - There's a good chance your direct manager may work in a completely different city. Despite using videoconferencing extensively to work around this as much as possible, there remain problems with such long-distance interaction, starting with some people taking videoconference meetings far more lightly than they would a scheduled physical meeting. - It's cliquey. Some people are cool and others are not. Will you be one of the cool ones?

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Faithlife Response
11y
I'm sorry you were frustrated by your experience. Software development is a team of 90+ people, and you are correct that who interviews you may not be who you are on a team with; that's likely to be true in many larger organizations. We're shifting team sizes and assignments frequently as projects complete and priorities change. I appreciate your detailed assessment, and I think you make some good points: we do have a lack of rules, and that comes with good and bad things. Without a big book of Company Rules, there is no assurance that Manager A will act just like Manager B in the same situation. On the other hand, presumably each manager knows more about the specifics of the situation before them than The Author of the Rules. But it can lead to inconsistency. I recognize that we can help address some of this with more management training and conversation, and that process is underway. It's probably going to continue to be a problem, though, and it's likely we'll continue to choose 'no rules' over 'big rule book' into the future. That takes continued conversation as well as a willingness to make an appeal when you disagree. And I know that's not everyone's style; I think we'll continue to be a great workplace for people who dislike rules and are willing to be part of the conversation. I think we'll be a more frustrating workplace for people who want it all spelled out with clarity and consistency in advance. We're a participatory place. You're also right that there are cultural differences between the software development and sales departments. Some of this comes from the healthy tension between Dan and me, and some from the job functions. Sales is a more competitive, numbers-on-the-board kind of job. Software development is often a quieter, thinking-alone-for-hours job. They draw different people and develop different cultures; one tends to feed competition in terms of performance, the other in terms of technical smarts. In both cultures -- and throughout the company -- these different patterns in work culture should be tempered by an overlay of kindness and respect, and that's our goal. But as you point out, sometimes the policy isn't permeating the whole organization, and we'll continue to work on that. Thanks again for taking the time to provide feedback. -- Bob
1.0
Mar 13, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best part of working at Faithlife is the exceptional coworkers you will soon love and appreciate. People bond quickly here and close friendships are made. You'll also have opportunities to try different things. Faithlife is doing a lot of cool stuff and it's likely that you can diversify your professional portfolio quickly if you take initiative to get involved with a variety of projects. Free Lynda.com courses are also a nice perk. Unlimited PTO is fantastic too (yes, it really is unlimited - no catch).

Cons

I'll use this portion of the GlassDoor review to help applicants understand some things they may not think to ask about during the interview process. There are some policies that hiring managers sometimes fail to mention. I'll list just two of them. #1 - Only managers qualify for insurance coverage for their families and there are only about 20 managers in the company so most people don't get it and many don't know that until after they start. #2 - Insurance doesn't start for at least 3 months (sometimes nearly 4) from the start date. #3 – Negotiate a fair wage because you won’t get a raise for a while Turnover is crazy here. I'll list 4 reasons from my perspective why people leave. There are other reasons but I suspect these are the most common ones. #1 - The lack of decision rights and ownership. Only a few people have it. This is unusual for a company this size and most people need to feel ownership in order to be satisfied with their career. This may be why some of our best talent didn't stick around as long as we would've liked. #2 - The way senior management uses fear and harsh communication to motivate. Trust, empowerment, and respect are much more effective when it comes to motivating people. I don't think senior management even knows how they come across to us but many feel like our jobs are in jeopardy. Instead of motivating us to work harder, this harsh communication style actually motivates us to look for work because we're afraid we may be fired. The communication style here is definitely unusual, unkind, and many of us don't respond well to it. #3 - Constant change causes people to leave. Some of my coworkers have changed roles 4 times in the last 12 months. The company is proud of changes like this and thinks it helps people grow. But few people respond to constant change with excitement. Yes, companies need to be agile in order to survive but change for the sake of change isn't healthy for employees. Imagine moving to the corner of the country for a job only to have that position eliminated in the first quarter, month, or even day (yes, that happened). People choose to uproot their entire lives because of a particular role they were interested in but they aren't given much of a voice when that position or the entire team is eliminated. Sure, the company will find another place for you but it might be something you wouldn't have chosen to relocate for. #4 - Ambiguity is another reason why people leave. Clarity is rare. Tasks are often assigned without enough detail for people to execute them. Some are afraid to ask questions because there is a sense of annoyance and judgment when we ask for help. Applicant, I recommend that you hunt down a handful of former employees (ask around or search for people on LinkedIn) and ask them some specific questions to help you understand if you are the right fit to join Faithlife. Weigh the risks, do your research, ask the right questions, and make a good decision. I hope these things help.

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Faithlife Response
11y
Thanks for taking the time to post this detailed review. I consider 'owning things' to be one of the most important things team members can do -- I even wrote a blog post on what it means to own something. So I'm surprised you feel you don't have an opportunity to do that; I'd love to talk to you about which team or with what manager you're experiencing that limitation. We are a constant change culture, and you're right to observe that we're proud of it. We're in the tech space, and working with publishing; tech is perpetual change, and publishing is in the middle of a massive structural disruption. I'm sorry if a particular change put you in a different function than you signed on for, but I also think it goes with this territory -- you'd need to be in a different industry to not see job functions changing frequently. However, in our culture of Initiative, you can turn this to your advantage: many of your teammates have defined their own roles, embracing the culture of change to identify their own next assignment. I'd encourage you to make the case for the job you want to do that we eliminated, or, better yet, invent the new role that you can do well and which delivers even better value. I'd be happy to discuss this with you, or explore ideas. -- Bob
1.0
Sep 2, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Same as all the others, free drinks/coffee, and some other perks like company picnics. "Unlimited" vacation* (see Cons), good insurance for employee (not dependents)

Cons

There is a huge disconnect between the publicly stated values of honesty, openness, etc. and what the company culture is, especially between sales/marketing & development. Our sales department was told we had expectations of "ABC" and now we're evaluated for "XYZ", and upper management is unwilling to even speak to us face to face to hear our concerns. There doesn't seem to be a lot of upward mobility here, but I don't think most people last long enough to see that lived out. All of the perks of unlimited vacation and others don't apply really to hourly employees who even have to clock out sometimes to go to meetings held on company property (provided through employee services).

Viewing 10 - 12 of 321 Reviews

Glassdoor has 342 Faithlife reviews submitted anonymously by Faithlife employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Faithlife is right for you.