There are many reasons to avoid Lantern. To kick things off, the benefits should be the easiest perk to attract talent, especially for a company that still claims startup status after 14 years, yet they are subpar. The health plans are only slightly better than the exchanges when one considers the 5 figure in-network out of pocket maximums. PTO is light and has a concerning catch - you will forfeit unused PTO unless state law requires such a payout. Thus, if you wish to join Lantern, you may wish to review your state's laws on PTO payouts on separation.
However, the worst part of working in Technology at Lantern is the CIO. The CIO has clear favorites and believes that tenure is everything. There were serious problems with execution of product roadmaps and creating a high performing organization, mainly because of the previous sentence. Many people were not bought into the mission, just putting in their 8 hours and going home. This includes people from very junior to very senior in Technology. If the CIO liked them, and if they had been there for many years, lack of performance was fine. Others would be thrown under the bus.
Then there were people across multiple departments, including non-Technology departments, that tried to help. They identified weaknesses concerning processes and people, providing recommendations on how to move forward and making some changes to move things forward. Unfortunately, the CIO is unable to identify talent, having too many biases and believing people with ambition had little to no talent. Thus, rather than take advantage of that wise cross-functional counsel to improve the organization, he blamed those very people that were trying to help for his past failures, and he worked with HR to exit them. The right people are gone, many of the wrong people are still there, some people are very hard workers and getting used, and he takes no accountability for failed projects and even failed programs. If you join his organization, well, actually, you shouldn't.
