Pluralsight reviews

Talk to most senior leaders that have left the company that had a lot of direct exposure to the Skonnartist and you’ll likely find the following themes: 1. The company’s real ethics (evidenced by their CEO’s actions not their CEO’s talk) are money ethics that aren’t ethics at all - they are all centered around greed. 2. Gaslighting is rampant! The so called “leadership” sessions conducted by the Skonnartist are to groom you for gaslighting. Real leaders are identified over time by their actions not the marketing image they want you to believe. When you call the company’s leaders out on their questionable behavior, you’re gaslighted. 3. Loyalty is nonexistent. If the full extent and number of betrayals on the Skonnartist’s part were made known, it would make stomachs turn. 4. The “leadership” team is not united. Although the executive team talks a good game about being united, their actions expose that they really aren’t. Direct reports are exposed to the behind the scenes “Game of Thrones” nature of the executive team through their actions and constant tear downs of each other. The behavior filters down to VP and Director level folks at varying degrees and has a cascading effect in certain pockets of the organization. 5. Ridiculous pay and merit programs that aren’t equitable. One look at the company’s public filings and you’ll notice increasing current cash compensation for executives, $1M+ in personal private aircraft expenditures for the Skonnartist, millions of dollars in equity grants for the Skonnartist and other executives, while some front line employees and managers have gone years without a paltry 3% cost of living increase. The increases to executives have come even though they have delivered zero return on equity since the IPO (even before the pandemic). 6. The treatment of alum is horrid. Much like a cult, an employee that decides they no longer want to work for the company is treated like an outcast and their contributions to the prior success of the company are minimized and they are ostracized. This treatment feeds into the gaslighting behaviors. 7. The company openly employs illegal hiring practices to try and fit in with Silicon Valley like diversity practices. Don’t get me wrong, diversity is a great thing; however, like most things in this image driven company, pushing too hard on the image you are trying to project rather than what you really are leads to inauthentic and sometimes illegal behavior. 8. Forced consolidation into an office environment. As the current pandemic has demonstrated, most people can work effectively from home. The forced consolidation into an office in Draper is more ego and control driven than logic driven. The Skonnartist’s messiah complex speak even referred to the new building as a “beacon on the hill”. It is for him. The building is an ego driven move to try and keep up with Josh James (Adobe building influence), Ryan Smith (SAP building influence) and others. Several truly progressive tech companies are questioning the need for office space at all given the availability of tools for people to work effectively from home.

***Disclaimer*** I have been hesitant to post anything on Glassdoor for some time now. I'm much rather prefer to have an open dialogue, but as time goes on, the more apparent it is that that isn't an option. I want to make it clear that I love the people at Pluralsight, and the product we provide. Both are fantastic. Much like our culture and executive leadership was in the past. If you've ever watched Undrcover Boss, your heart has probably been warmed by the passion and empathy a CEO can have for their employees. Our CEO is nothing like that. In fact, not only does he not give a hoot about his employees, he has personally swindled them into sacrificing for Pluralsight with the (unkept) promise that they will be taken care of when the time comes... Whether intentional or not, I'm not sure. Either way, it's moot. Its been heartbreaking to see so many genuine, hardworking people trust unwaiveringly, only to be left holding the short stick. Not only has he become an expert in disappointment, he's also the king of corporate jargon. No one... I repeat... No one, can understand what in the world he's talking about when he gets on his soapbox in an attempt to convey some type of synthetic leadership. Pluralsight feels more like a cult these days than it does a tech company. Everything that he swore was different about Pluralsight has now become it's identity. A true leader can admit their mistakes or shortcomings, and that's something he has never done. His "keep up with the Jonses" mentality has crippled the org. On the advice of a peer CEO from Utah County, he stood up a CSM arm that was formed from 50% of the sales dept, then blamed sales for coming up short on their number. He justified not paying bonuses last year for EBITDA dropping to nearly zero, then paid himself, executives, and board out a cool $50k each in bonus. Look it up. It's public information. He's ran out quality talent and real leaders, and lost friendships in pursuit of the dollar. The hardest part of being a Pluralsight employee is knowing that things didn't have to be this way. We always did good things, and did them for the right reasons. We do things now in pursuit of the dollar. Our slew of new executives have been less than encouraging, to say the least. Our Chief Revenue Officer promised huge paychecks upon arrival, but can't seem to stick with a decision for more than a day or two. Our Chief People Officer promised a career advancement path and line of sight to greater compensation. She's been caught on a hot mic more than once patting herself on the back, but hasn't seemed to produce anything material, other than a propaganda tour to each office in hopes of increasing our Employee Engagement score...or so it seems. Our Chief Marketing Officer is best known for giving the ridiculous advice of "you should quit your job before you have a new one", and not-so-humble-bragging about the size of her estate in a recently published Forbes article. In the past, we had 3 values... Truthseek, eternal optimism, and entrepreneurship. We scrapped those recently, and replaced them with new language, one of which is to "seek context with understanding". This isn't an attempt to mud-sling or offend. It's a series of observations and examples that illustrate how off track we've become. I hope that Pluralsight executive leadership can seek to understand the context I'm trying to convey. Respect your people. Tell the truth. Admit when you were wrong. Our CRO recently said, "Sometimes you've got to fire your customer." Which is true. And if things don't turn around soon, Pluralsight employees are going to fire their employer en masse.