Navan reviews

The below list isn’t exhaustive, that would require a novel. 1. Ariel and his leadership team drive the “culture” of the company and that’s the problem. He is incredibly moody (various shades of terrible) and changes his mind regularly, leading to abrupt pivots that require you to drop everything you’ve been working on for weeks and start from scratch. The chaos that he creates is completely unnecessary and sets the business back regularly. We close offices and fire everyone only to reopen them shortly after. We have our 401k match and then we don’t (but other nonsensical perks, usually benefiting HQ, can stay). He randomly decided to start requiring employees to be in the office because he doesn’t trust them to work remotely, and threatened badge checks. He implemented “e-club” which is essentially an excuse for all of the men he works most closely with to go on an all expense paid trip to Cabo, while the rest of the company is told they cannot have backfills for the roles they desperately need to fill. 2. Inequity: the company could not be considered one that is diverse, and Thomas (former CFO) decided to get rid of the DEI leader, as well as the rest of the L&D team. Couldn’t make it any clearer that development isn’t important. 3. None of his direct reports have a backbone to speak up to him, and regularly use “well Ariel said to do it, so we have to do it” as an excuse for forcing their teams to fire people for no reason. 4. IPO continues to be pushed out. It’s a carrot that is dangled to lure people in, but if the company keeps going in this direction (valuation falling by half), there won’t be any value to the shares. We’ve had so much c-suite turnover, our exec team is a bunch of white men +2 women (one who has absolutely no business having her title) and one who just started.

Everyone thinks the cons sections are written by disgruntled ex-employees, but in reality many of us are looking out for the next round of candidates because we know firsthand what it was like to work here. The work life balance is non-existent and the culture is toxic. During my tenure, I had asked for one week of vacation almost 5 months in advance. I was told "it would be best it you don't take more than 2-3 days at a time, can you shorten your trip?", despite both my male counterparts taking 2 and 3 weeks simultaneously. Unfortunately, when you have a young company, there is also a sense of entitlement and lack of work ethic. People expect promotions way too soon (as promised during the interview process) and when you have to put a team member on a PIP (which is a tool to help them) it comes across as a personal attack. I have coached teams in the past of all backgrounds, ages, education levels, etc and have never had more pushback from reps than in this organization. If they didn't like what you said, they would go over your head to your boss to complain. The kicker - they were being asked to make more calls (a core part of being in sales!). Upper management is also a disaster. They promote individual contributors to management with zero training on the proper way to coach and support teams. Just because you are good at sales does not automatically make you a capable manager. Upper/middle management is even worse. Many still try to stay relevant and will go out drinking and share too many personal details with sales reps (sex life, drugs, etc). Its no wonder that there is no sense of respect or boundaries within the hierarchy. The vision they paint for you is amazing and everyone drinks the Kool-Aid for their first few months, but once you are out and look back on that period of your life you realize that it was one of the most toxic experiences you could have been a part of. Believe these stories and listen to your intuition as you consider your next role.