Samsara reviews

I'm actually walking out of my position today due to some circumstances at work. So TECHNICALLY I'm a former employee, but I still got a bit of time. Here are some excerpts from my resignation letter to give y'all an idea of what to expect. (unless maybe engineering? idk they always seemed relaxed.) I am Transgender. After about a year and a half of psychotherapy, I was diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria. I was prescribed Hormone Replacement Therapy as treatment and after more discussion with my therapist, I made the decision to transition. I finally had the resources to do so at Samsara, and I had hoped that it would be a safe place for me to work and transition. NARRATOR: It was not. There was a comment made in a 1-on-1 with a superior that implied my transition was affecting my attitude and work, and that it would be kept in mind when assessing my attitude in future review. I kick myself for not saying something when it was said. This happened months ago when I had only been transitioning for a couple months. I was still getting used to the changes, and this individual was one of the only people I was out to. Maybe they were right? Maybe they were just being supportive? I mean, most people transitioning are well aware not everyone is super on board with who you are, or just aren't educated on the topic. Hurtful things are going to be said, intentional or otherwise. Maybe I am being too emotional here. Perhaps my frustrations really are 'just my opinion' and I should just keep working and keep my thoughts to myself. It wasn't until I realized the 1-on-1s were growing more and more aggressive that there may be a problem, and perhaps my anger and hurt were valid: Between having my art career aspirations insulted, having important information withheld from me, and being instructed to keep my distance from new hires because of my attitude, I became really isolated. The work was mounting, my burnouts were happening more and more often, and I wasn't out to many people. I had no way to vent my frustrations without the context of what I was going through. I didn't want to come out either. After one of the people I was closest to made a comment like that, I felt it wasn't safe to be out to more people. It was hard enough having one person making you doubt yourself. It became very easy to paint me as the 'bad guy'. I would keep my distance, not go to work functions, and just do my work and leave. I understand. Samsara wants people who make their lives Samsara. People who spend so much time in the office that all their social interaction comes from work. If someone doesn't want to participate in after work functions, or spend nights with the company on camping trips, it's easy to point them out as the outsider. But what about the employees like myself who just kinda feel gross about themselves sometimes and don't want to go out that night? What happens to the non-binary/gender non-comforming employee who says no to Campsara because they don't want to have the discussion of what gender they are going to be paired with? Oh they're 'detractors' and aren't a good 'culture fit'. The truth is, I believed it too. I felt more and more unwelcome here as time went on. Everyone else seemed to be getting along just fine and I was the only one who had these feelings. It wasn't until I discovered similar behavior was happening towards other team members that I got serious about leaving this position. The 1-on-1s on this team have been used to make employees feel undervalued, that they could be doing more, that they are 'disrespectful' for disagreeing with a superior, that maybe they would rather find another job. It has been implied in these meetings that other members of the team are doing more than you, and that you should pick up the slack. That can't be further from the truth. It's frustrating and there does not seem to be an end. I have mentioned some of my frustrations in our employee happiness surveys only to have our team pulled into separate 1-on-1s to ask to talk about our answers to an ANONYMOUS survey. If we were to say anything that contradicted what the leadership wanted to hear in our team meeting to review the happiness survey, we would be retaliated against individually. I have spoken with My Manager and the 'People Partner' about some of the issues, and was either dismissed, or given vague responses that they would 'look into it'. Nothing has changed. The bad behavior still persists, and it is only getting worse.

Toxic - Many people here cry at work, on breaks, or at home (as of 2020 pre-pandemic). It's normal. People are over-worked, stressed, pressured, threatened, feel cornered by their boss or team, etc. I heard it was normal-ish for engineers to sleep under their desks during Christmas breaks and there would be "fire drills" where, I kid you not, if certain teams didn't meet the expectations of releasing a product by a certain time, people would be getting laid off 2 weeks later. - The expectation is that if you leave right at 5 you aren't working hard enough. There is a decent chance people take notice, your boss starts giving you light-hearted suggestions to put in the "same effort as others", then if you don't, you get put on probation/performance improvement plan. - I had a super verbally abusive PM I worked with. She screamed at me once in the middle of the office and stormed off. Said another time that she doesn't like me, to my face, and was visibly confrontational (this was her normal reputation but why the company put the new guy with her is beyond me). When I complained to my boss and her's about it over time as things got worse, they acted like I was bothering them and didnt' step in to mitigate anything between us at all. I was eventually partially put on probation for this. Set Up To Fail - I was particularly put on a platform that I'm not as familiar with. I have done mainly mobile design - why put me on a web team and get mad when I don't move as fast designing as everyone else who has been designing for web for years? - I tried to get meetings with my PM to discuss projects and deadlines. She was always busy with something so we never got to speak about what I'm supposed to be designing, the problem, metrics, etc. Then when I finally got a hold of her days before its due, she'd get angry that I waited for so long. Then get angry giving me basic details about this project I'm supposed to have designed most of already, then get mad when it comes in a little late. Then she would ask why I didn't try to get details earlier and when I said I did but she was busy or cancelled our meetings, she said I was blaming her and hard to work with. Cliques - If you're a white girl or asian person you're probably good to go. Are you anything else? You're gonna have to really put in hours to try and fit in. Otherwise you're left out of lunch, maybe left out of TEAM events, emails, etc. Some may say what if you just had a bad attitude and that's why they didn't hang with you? Nah - I'm super social, friendly, and smart enough to catch on quick to social norms. I just didn't have the time or ability to add more hours into my day just to figure out how to fit in - I was too busy trying to survive on a toxic team with a toxic PM and a hands-off boss while working until 7pm every night and not seeing my children. - Gossip everywhere. When I was there you would just hear it constantly. And I guarantee someone is saying something about you - it's that kind of place.