The main problem with Lower is that it's being led by inexperienced associates at most levels, and they have no clue how to lead or inspire others. Most of the sales AVPs and VPs wouldn't be more than entry level sales associates at larger and established financial institutions. Many of them were promoted due to hitting sales goals when interest rates were low, but they have no knowledge of how to manage or lead others. There was a clear lack of respect by many of the managers' direct reports because they never earned it in the first place. There should have been external hires of people with years of leadership experience for management roles instead of promoting immature and inexperienced recent college grads who come off as deer in headlights. There were so many instances of unprofessional behavior by management on the floor including scolding employees in the open, drinking on the job, vaping in the office, telling us we weren't allowed to leave our desks for more than 5 minutes to use the restroom, and much more. The so called leadership was an absolute joke.
On the weekly Zoom company meetings, the CEO would ramble about random items and seem lost a lot of the time before passing it to another leader. Most of those meetings highlighted sales efforts without mentioning much about our friends' efforts in other departments. There have also been MASSIVE layoffs this year because the company didn't know how to properly scale in anticipation of COVID rates not sticking around. The worst part of the layoffs is that management told us every time that we were valuable to the company and safe. That was until our turn finally came around. I also saw a few people laid off a couple of weeks after being hired, which is cruel and heartless.
There was also a complete lack of transparency. The managers claim they want independent thinkers to help achieve goals, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Basically, we had to fall in line with what leadership wanted without voicing ideas that could help. If we brought ideas to the table, we'd risk being reprimanded because higher management didn't approve of us discussing things outside of their presence.
Salary was low, a 401k match barely existed, time off was very limited, and insurance options were laughable. Lower promotes itself as a desirable fintech company with great growth opportunities, but it's a company that briefly flashed before starting to fall apart. If major infrastructure changes don't happen soon, I could see them going out of business in the next 5-10 years. There's no clear direction and nobody there seems to know how to run a company. The frequency that they change processes at the snap of a finger without ever testing them also speaks to their lack of direction.
If you're a job seeker, I recommend looking elsewhere for now. Do not believe their social media marketing. It is not a "cool" or trendy company that's fun to go to every morning. Especially if you're looking for advancement in sales and not white or a guy. Of about 15 sales VPs, 2 or 3 were women and ALL VPs were white. Like the 401k match, diversity at Lower barely exists.
