Lack of transparency - Huge discrepancies in hiring salaries among employees in same role with same experience level. For a short time they lowered hiring salary almost $10k to around $35k. Less than six months later, starting salary was raised back up to around $43k. A handful of employees got a pay increase less than 3 months later being told it was "performance based" and told not to tell any of their colleagues as it was "just for them" while other employees were told no performance based increases would be received until 2 years with the company. When employees started asking questions during all hands meetings senior leadership and people ops would scoff, laugh at the questions/frustrations, and at one point said something along the lines of how employees asking questions were acting like spoiled children. All for asking for compensation clarification and asking to understand why no pay increases have taken place due to dramatically increased cost of living/inflation. They even went as far as locking slack channels so that only certain high level employees could post to avoid spreading of info.
Senior management also was very clear that any anonymous questions or feedback would be read and acknowledged but would not be acted upon unless the employees came forward to put their name to the questions or concerns. They stated that anonymous questions/feedback would not be prioritized, and if employees did attach their names to questions or feedback, management was very quick to state that they'd reach out directly instead of addressing it during the company or department wide meetings. This allowed them to once again discourage sharing the info provided.
Huge layoffs were sprung on employees and management day-of the news being given to those employees. Employees logged in to realize they were de-activated on slack and had meetings set up in which they were offered a severance of 2 weeks pay only if they agreed not to write negative reviews about the company. Layoffs were attributed to poor performance while some of those employees had been recognized by lower level leadership as top performers stating that metrics confirmed performance was not an issue at all.
It really is smoke and mirrors. If all you care about is having a stocked kitchen in the office you can sign up to work from a couple days a week, if all you care about is getting sweet treats and tacky gifts in the mail, if health benefits are all you need, if all you need is a paycheck even if it is among the lowest in the industry - maybe Lemonade is for you.
