Low compensation compared to market averages and no pay transparency: I started at Pendo making $67k annually (I took a pay cut to join, which I later found out is not uncommon). I was originally offered $65k and when I countered asking to match what I was making (in the same city, same industry, same size company) I was told that per their policy they could not pay me more than the person making the most for that position (despite me having more years of experience). They never shared any salary ranges for any of the positions available on our team, so I have no idea what I was making compared to anyone else. They also had no job mapping available for our department, so it was a complete guess as to when and if you got a promotion or comp adjustment. They do "annual comp adjustments" at the same time every year. My comp adjustment my first year was $1k (less than an average cost of living raise). It took 1 year and 8 months to get a 10% pay increase that came with a title change. When I was offered a new position outside of the company making 100k annually, I was told by Pendo that they would never be able to offer me that much for my current title. So that was twice that these mysterious private pay bands appeared. It was a very common ask to management for pay transparency, job mapping/requirements, and professional development opportunities during my entire tenure. And for my entire tenure (2 years) they were "coming soon".
Inconsistent and arbitrary key performance indicators, goals, and metrics: Nearly every quarter we were given something new to focus on. I understand and embrace having to be agile, but this definitely felt more like throwing spaghetti at a wall. You would be asked to introduce customers to Big Important Self-Serving Initiatives at the beginning of a quarter only to never talk about them again (possibly a result of steady attrition and turnover, Pendo "parted ways with" people often). My customers quickly became aware that many of these things lacked actual value for them, but they were nice enough to take meetings anyway so that I could hit my goals for the quarter.
Lack of freedom to do your job: Pendo hires incredibly talented people who are good at what they do, but you would never know it based on the amount of leeway given to us. I truly worked with some of the best CSMs in the industry, who were rarely given time and space to shine or manage their book of business as they saw fit. Most teams were measured against strict goals for calls/activities, success plans, quarterly business reviews, retention, *insert random new goal here*, and expansion, all while trying to simultaneously provide level 1 product support (because it doesn't exist), provide product training (because it doesn't exist), fight fires, escalate risk, coordinate meetings, take feedback. I never felt like the company understood the value a Customer Success Manager brings the business. If they did, they would have given our team more support to do our jobs instead of leaving us to do every job no one else wanted to do.
Lack of WFH flexibility: COVID has made it extremely clear that Pendo is and always will be in-office first and isn't looking to pivot (hence the office remaining open while cases continue to spike in NC). My gut tells me it's because they're equating "culture" with office perks like cold brew on-tap and lunch once a week, a kegerator, lots of liquor/booze, and free t-shirts. It feels very isolating if you do work from home, there's little support or asynchronous communication for distributed team members or anyone who isn't at HQ in Raleigh.
Very few operations or processes exist: Year 7+ of being a "start up" with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, a one billion dollar valuation, offices around the world, hundreds of employees. The "we're a start up" response is used as a band-aid for bad business decisions most of the time. It also comes in handy for them when folks have valid feedback or constructive criticism.
It's hard to feel heard: This used to feel less true, but then some big things changed.. they stopped having anonymous AMAs for the CEO be visible to everyone (which allowed for some transparency and accountability), they also stopped anonymous employee NPS surveys. I for sure would not feel comfortable being 'honest' with my name attached to my feedback. I filled out surveys, went to management quarter after quarter (and I was not alone) with feedback about the competing priorities and initiatives, lack of KPIs/metrics, and all of the cons listed above, but was met with more empty promises (or got told that I just needed to manage my time better, or got told "we're a start-up!").
Performative allyship: To be expected at a tech company, but worth calling out nonetheless because it was particularly bad here. Everything is optics. Most mentions of accountability were auto-replied with "assume positive intent" without reflecting on power dynamics, privilege, etc. It gets really really frustrating. There are a few people with power at Pendo that do genuinely care about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but they certainly don't outweigh or outnumber ones that don't.