I climbed from the bottom to the top and think it's a pretty good company to work for.
Pros
Labroots is an honest company with a real product in an expanding market, so it's nice being part of something legitimate that has the potential to be huge and grow along with it. Working remotely is awesome and I don't want to ever go back to an office! It's not for everyone though since some people need in person interaction in their daily lives. There's growth opportunities here but not as rapid as some people like since it's still a small company of 60ppl and an increasing amount of competitors, but I joined at around 35 staff 5 years ago and have had 2 promotions in that time. Given that the market is sometimes dependent on societal trends, (covid, federal budgets) there are ups and down that you'd expect in a company that hasn't hit a gold mine of unlimited money yet. We are growing at a modest pace while we probably could grow quicker and take more risks. There's no HR department but it's a small company and it's very open so you're talking to the owners and directors of each department on day 1 and any concerns are free to be discussed in the public or private chats. I'm not related to the owners of the company, and neither are my team, or marketing or sales. I haven't seen any nepotism yet and the owners are well aware of the consequences of hiring too many family and friends so we are encouraged not to hire our family or friends either. As a entrepreneur type, the work style aligns with my preferences of self-managing, self-starting. We stick to 40 hour average work weeks and we know if we have to do an occasional late night or early start, we can make up for it the next day or week so it's good for a work-life balance. Pay is competitive with national ranges, and bonuses are reasonable on good years. I've gotten a 3-5% increase each year and recognition for being the most productive on the team. From a developer perspective (I was just a developer when I started) it's a good job for getting experience on every part of a successful website and app. We're all full stack developers and get to work on a lot of different technology and third party, paid and free, services. We're adaptable and all have a say in what technologies or approaches to solve a problem with. Unlike some companies, we're not being asked to leave fake reviews to boost the score! I'm leaving this one because I feel the score needs a boost and some reviews here are definitely exaggerating and making the company sound really bad. Unlike some small companies where the CEO or a few key players drives the sales or the management and without them the company would die, Labroots is self sufficient and the skills are distributed among all the staff so if the CEO disappeared or was sick or busy for a month, everything will keep running like normal because we'd all fill in the gaps easily. No one has ever yelled at me or anyone else that I'm aware of. Everyone is diplomatic about their interactions and differences and resolve disputes maturely and logically. There's no hot tempered person with tenure because they've locked themselves into the job or are too good to fire - everyone has to to get along like mature adults.
Cons
Some people need in person interaction. We chat on slack. Some groups do webcam, most do not. For me the con is that voice meetings are still required. I'd prefer text meetings. When times are busy and we need new staff, we don't have time to hold their hand, so we expect everyone to be able to jump in and figure things out themselves. I'm guilty of that in my department, but thankfully developers already have the figure-it-out mentality, so it works for me and the rest of the team is always available to answer questions. I'm always happy to help staff in other departments learn the ropes too, so it's not like you're thrown in the deep end without a life guard - there's life guards there waiting for you to call for help if needed. There's complaints here on glassdoor about this, and I just don't think it's that bad or that hard to figure things out for yourself here. I started this way and I figured it out. Increasing skills are not proactively rewarded. You can't get a certificate then expect a small raise to match your value. We're hired at a rate agreed upon at first, and raises are given if you've proven your worth to the owner. I'd personally like micro raises for every certificate I earn that makes me more valuable at my job and have a visual, step by step path to take for personal growth. Lack of micromanagement means efforts are unseen. It's a double edged sword here where you get a lot of freedom but you could also work your arse off and because no one's micromanaging you they're not aware that you did anymore than your 40 hours and any more than expected, so you might as well stick with your 40 hours, keep a balanced lifestyle, and request help to get more work done. When there's a lot of customers and business, we do work hard to get things done, and over the past 5 years I've done plenty of 60 hour weeks and a few 70 hour weeks, but each time I've made up for it in the following weeks so I don't get burned out. Anything over 40 isn't good when you have kids, so for me that's a con if I don't make it up to the family in the following weeks. If you need exactly 40 per week and can't handle fluctuations, this wouldn't be an ideal work place for you. 80% of the time it's a flat 40 anyway, but the clients are international so we regularly have to support clients in Asia/Europe in their timezone.
