Intercom reviews about "manager"

changes in WFH policies so now its 3 days a week in office

Intercom has a toxic culture. Managers often avoid responsibility and blame team members, while pushing unrealistic expectations in the name of “growth.” Collaboration is weak — many compete behind the scenes while presenting as friendly in front. Employees who perform technically well but communicate poorly or treat others disrespectfully are not held accountable but praised. If you value a healthy work environment, supportive leadership, and authentic collaboration, this is not the place for you.

Awful work-life balance. The CEO told us that the competitors were working long hours 7 days a week so we needed to step it up. This was added to the annual review rubric. Some managers are full of ego and just downright negative. Mine frequently talked about others behind their back. He slammed things and yelled like a maniac when he got frustrated. In fact, he yelled and cursed at me a few times. Nothing ever happened to him. They change the direction of the company suddenly. Over the past few years, there have been so many sudden changes. It's disruptive but you just have to adapt. Things felt fake and manipulative. The impression they give you during the interview is not going to last. They seem careful about curating their image. Based on coworkers complained about the job, I would bet $1000 that there's something fishy behind the recent surge in positive reviews. I recall that they had about 3.6 stars months ago, and suddenly the score is high again. Do a search on "Intercom unhappy employees". This image protection goes deep. Our Slack messages were deleted every 6 months. Interestingly this happened a legal controversy. Google the name of the CEO and "legal". Lastly, there's a big ethical question about what leadership team wants for the world. During onboarding, leadership makes it clear that they want a world where many human jobs are taken over by AI. They make this clear on LinkedIn posts too. But if you look up their political opinions (they're very loud about them online), it seems clear that they don't care what will happen to displaced workers. Research the things I've mentioned. Ask yourself if this is the kind of world you want to live in. And if these are the kind of people you want to work for.

-Performance reviews are over-demanding and I’m convinced they’re set up to keep you underpaid and feeling insecure in your job. Anything less than perfect performance will land you an unsatisfactory review and risk to lose your job. -Demand waay too much from you. They have a one-sided value of “incredibly high standards” for incredibly mediocre-average pay. -Constantly adding more responsibilities and expectations without increasing pay. -CEO is rude.. nothing he has ever said has uplifted me. It’s more like I have to mute him every all-hands meeting. -They have a pay philosophy to justify under paying you. It’s totally possible to be there for 2-3 years and be paid less than someone who just starts. Says they pay for performance.. But they pay new people who they never seen perform more than you. - Some managers are good.. Some managers are not good and even have a known notorious reputation on the team for such. I was told “good luck” on several occasions when I told multiple colleagues who my manager is. -Even when I brought concerns to senior leadership they very much were dismissed. -The whole environment is a recipe to burn you out. They think the solution is having a happy hour. -Outside maybe some seniors, there’s not many people who been there over 5 years. Even after a couple years you might be one of the more tenured people on the team due to turnover. -They have some of the most petty and entitled customers I’ve worked with. Management more often than not side with the customers instead of employees even when they’re being unreasonable. - High-performers / seniors using hacks/cheats to avoid hard work and pass the work to other team members.

- look at the CEO’s Twitter (regardless of politics, he runs the company like he does his Twitter - incites fear, fires those who disagree with him, misogynist (and you can also see it within their R&D and IT org) - performance cycles are whack, like someone else mentioned - leadership instills constant fear in you - my direct leadership was just as bad, incredibly classist, rude, incompetent and just horrible people managers (this is by design though, their HR org - especially the HRBPs - are truly evil only there to fire people, which they do every single day under the guise of performance issues. - expand scope, increase workload and tell you it’s your job (“people don’t get promoted every 6 months around here”) that is, unless you’re part of an org that’s close to any executives - then there are constant promotions AND headcount being added to some teams… ex. Is their finance org (how many accountants do you need for a company of 1,000?)

no cons at this current moment in time

The culture at Intercom has significant challenges, many of which stem from leadership. Witch hunts are a regular, public occurrence. Rather than taking accountability, managers and senior managers, fearful for their own positions, often throw their teams under the bus. ​​The company is also highly reactive. While adapting to change is not inherently a problem, these pivots often come with unrealistic goals and shifting timelines that set employees up to fail. When outcomes inevitably fall short, individuals are positioned as the problem rather than the expectations or strategy being reconsidered. Externally, leadership emphasizes “building a world-class team” and “holding incredibly high standards.” In practice, this has fostered a culture of fear and intimidation. High expectations are framed as a pursuit of excellence, but too often translate into a lack of trust in employees and a constant need to re-prove one’s value. Success and tenure is less about contribution and more about avoiding blame when things go wrong.

*Very intensive hustle culture. *High churn rate (More likely role specific, heard it's a lot worse in the CS side). *Overtime not expected but sometimes needed.

Fast-paced, high-pressure environment with constantly shifting priorities and unnecessary deadlines, making it hard to ever have a low-pressure period. Probation is tough, and even after passing, employees are often pushed and harassed until they are let go. Most engineers are technically strong, but expectations to become tech leads or handle complex project planning fall unfairly on them, while shared responsibilities are ignored. Managers challenge employees under the guise of “growth,” creating a blame culture where setting boundaries is left entirely to the individual. Mental health and well-being are rarely supported, and “witch hunts” and scapegoating are common, disproportionately affecting women and neurodivergent employees.