The Motley Fool reviews

2.3

14% would recommend to a friend

(303 total reviews)
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Tom Gardner

24% approve of CEO

14% positive business outlook

The Motley Fool has an employee rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars, based on 303 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The The Motley Fool employee rating is 38% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

303 reviews
2.0
Nov 10, 2024

No values

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fully remote. The work environment is collaborative within teams. I felt my colleagues and manager cared about me, and work life balance was good. For many years, the Fool had a bias toward hiring good, interesting people, and the effect of this is still present. This is a good place to work if you keep your head down and don't mind playing layoff roulette.

Cons

There have been multiple rounds of buyouts and layoffs happening behind the scenes, despite business being good. Benefits have also been continuously shifted downward. Morale is terrible, and business and tech Vision are both lacking. it has the feel of a company circling the drain. In the 3 years since David stepped down, I can't help wondering if he was the heart and soul of Foolish culture. If you listen to the podcast, you will know his values: conscious capitalism, employee stakeholders, diversity of thought ("motley"), the golden rule, honesty, speaking truth to power, optimism, investing in your best vision for the future, and just doing right by people in general. David knew the name and face of every single person who worked at his 400-person company and enough about them to spark a conversation. It led to a gem of a culture, where the staff were inspired by the mission, felt empowered to pursue individual and company growth, and bent over backwards to help each other. While the staff that remain are good people, these values are missing at the organization level, and the impact on how the Motley Fool functions is clear. Many just clock in, keep their heads down, do their work, and clock out with no connection to a bigger mission.

2.0
Aug 29, 2014

Outgrown the CEO's ability to lead.

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing people to work with. If you're in an administrative, tech-support, or HR role this is a great place to work because you'll be relatively over compensated and you'll be valued.

Cons

If you like working toward a longterm vision or developing a career, this is not the right place for you. Expect to "reorg'd" often and without input even if you are leading a team. Most leaders spend most of their emotional energy "protecting", "blocking", or "shielding" their direct reports from the vacillating whims of a passionate and disconnected CEO and leadership team. Your 1st year here will be amazing, but disillusionment follows as you climb the ranks. Most managers joke that they won't have a team or job to return to after they take vacation --better monitor email at night and when away.

1.0
May 6, 2025

A Fool's bargain

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I loved most of the people I worked with in the beginning, when we felt more like a family. And the benefits were great. The office culture was fun and supportive. We were hard working but always took time out to have fun and build camaraderie. The finance team were always honest and transparent. The people team appeared to be on the side of the employees, wanting us to thrive and find fulfillment in our careers. Managers were encouraged to be servant-leaders. The company philosophy was one of long-term investment, not just in stocks but in people and their ideas. And true to the company name, founders and leaders welcomed a diversity of opinions and supported an employee's right to ask tough questions and explore contrarian viewpoints. It felt like such a human company. Even when we made mistakes we acknowledged them and found a way to learn from them and move forward together.

Cons

But it was a Fool's bargain. Something happened during the Covid lock-down, starting in 2020. The CEO started courting secret advice from outside contractors and he altered his normally informal and warm leadership style to be way more authoritarian. For some reason he became obsessed with cloud computing and then generative AI, to the point of making decisions that alienated his own loyal staff and made a mockery of their experience and expertise. In multiple rounds of exit offers they have been purging anyone who doesn't agree with the new company mantra of AI automation, even going so far as to make people sign a "pledge" to commit to the mission of automating as much work as possible. It's extremely dogmatic and dystopian. The CEO is now surrounded by sycophants who are afraid or unwilling to disagree with his strategy or vision, who are happy to conduct layoff meetings with inhuman detachment. And they instilled a CTO who is insulting, micromanaging, and unqualified to lead, who has promised to always advance the CEO's agenda without question. The company is losing its own core values and going down the path toward AI-generated mediocrity and obsolescence. For some reason they expect even their paying members to be excited about the fact that their investing advice is now tainted with AI hallucinations and lacking human insight, which makes zero sense! Honesty and integrity have been replaced with obedience and distrust. Remaining employees are confused and afraid. If the job market wasn't so precarious many more would have taken the exit or otherwise resigned. Honestly, in some ways this company broke my heart. They have turned their backs on what made us such a force for positive change in the financial world. They have lost the ability to look in the mirror and remember what it is to be human.

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