Pros
- the offices had free lunch a long time ago - there were many good employees...but many of the great ones including the ones who shape culture were laid off - some of the insurance benefits are decent, but they are not competitive with other companies, really seems like ML skimps out - salary is middling, decent for many but not competitive for many roles - customer support agents clearly care about customers and do their best despite internal pressures and lack of support for them ironically
Cons
Mission Lane feels like it has a masked work environment. Smiles and toxic positivity appear on the surface. Underneath and behind closed (virtual doors), people are experiencing gaslighting and a whole lot more from a variety of managers throughout the org. Don’t be fooled by the Great Place to Work awards. Amazon and other companies are more transparent in their toxic practices but Mission Lane is the worse company that puts up a facade about its own. The company kicked this month off by laying off over 70 people with almost no advance notice, joining the ranks of other companies in the great betrayal. It was actually in stark contrast to a holiday card from the CEO and many past company calls assuring us of healthy financials. Other companies have shown how to navigate layoffs with empathy and support. To treat people humanely. That’s not how Mission Lane went about it. My team members and partners across teams were suddenly greyed out. Gone. People who were keystones of the culture and operations. Now we’re expected to pick up the pieces and keep working as if nothing happened, meanwhile I can’t even find my team’s files anymore. But this doesn’t seem new or surprising anymore. After years of contributing to this company’s growth, and seeing how people seem to be so easily tossed aside, I need to get out of here myself. In hindsight the writing was on the wall in the first years ago when Mission Lane split off from LendUp. The wolf just continued on in green sheeps clothing. And it became the the worst culture I’ve ever experienced. I realize that now. So ask yourself if it’s worth the 50/50 risk to take a job here. There are so many plenty companies out there that value culture and people more than. This culture now favors a stunning degree of back-stabbing, pitting teams and good people against one another, weaving an "us vs. them" mentality toward colleagues rather than a unified, healthy fabric. Disrespectful behaviors and attitudes are the norm and condoned (don't be fooled by cheery group calls and emails that are performative, acting as though everything is fine when others are watching). In this culture, disparaging and misrepresenting people, their ideas, work and character are common, including existing staff (leadership team included) and people who left the organization. If you are accustomed to a professional workplace and normal standards of professionalism, prepare for culture shock. Some things to think about: - Be careful of older potential fake reviews here including those posted on the same day or close days - Even before this month’s layoffs, 160+ people had left and you can find them on LinkedIn. Compare these figures to the current 500+ employees. - Mission Lane tries to distance itself from LendUp which it spun out of, but I think more than 30 of those early employees and leaders might still be here - The past layoffs weren’t at such scale and not obvious, such as with VC churn cycles. They were more subtle and trickled out over quarters. Those moments were similar to this big layoff - before and after holidays, parental leaves, big projects, bonuses, 401ks, unscheduled reviews, PIPs, etc. Just not a good way to treat human beings. Any conversation about departing employees felt vague and stifled. - Customers should think about how they are treated when employees are treated like this. Check the public cardholder agreements and think about if theyre fair to customers. Look at Reddit and BBB and TrustPilot and WalletHub and other company or card reviews. I think there have been customer lawsuits on google and unicourt and more. - The leader who wrote Mission Lane’s old FinTech Equality Statement left not longer after writing it and is not even listed as the author anymore. Some other early leaders didn’t stay long either despite Mission Lane being young -Content and design heads pulled my team members and others into projects, Slacks, and meetings about community, content, and various design scopes, with no goals, agenda, roadmaps, etc. Although they said these projects were mandated from the top, these were total wastes of time that stretched my team thin while we were trying to push through growth and engineering projects. Then they had the nerve to aggressively criticize people for not giving them the "right” guidance as “stakeholders” and on top of all that threw their own team members under the bus. I told my team members to minimize interaction with them…who are still here after the layoffs, but a mix of everyone else was fired. These are some of the worst people I’ve ever worked with, who continue to fail upward here. - With hundreds of employees, I doubt leaders know or remember everyone. They don’t seem to make any effort to. Even in small teams, leaders might meet with some members only a few times a year. - Managers have not been managers previously and it shows. I think they don’t receive training before or during these roles. This lack of accountability is mindblowing but sadly not surprising anymore. There dont seem to be any checks or balances on abusive managers here. So manager mobbing, managing out, quiet layoffs, double standards, manipulation have happened here. I wouldn’t recommend this place to people open to work. - I think the CEO or someone made leaders copy McKinsey’s hypothesis framework and Jeff Bezos memos in order to get plans approved but internal politics seems to be really what makes decisions - Leaders pat themselves on the back for building “culture” but the company values were only written by the CEO, and managers break the values without consequence - There are a few employee volunteer groups that plan monthly events and stuff, and some teams have their own events, but I don’t think theres ever been a purposeful effort behind culture from the most senior people
