And before I get started, a quick note to the poor HR person that will likely have to reply to this…
I know you're just doing as you're told, but really, please don't bother posting a mealy-mouthed response to this review attempting to profess company "values" when we both know the only thing leadership actually values is profit and self-preservation. Do yourself a favor and save yourself the time and characters.
With that said, LET’S GOOOO.
It's a challenge to distill Theragun/Therabody "culture" down to just a few key elements, but I'm going to try regardless. I'd say you should experience it for yourself to really understand. Still, I honestly don't believe anyone should subject themselves to that regardless of how entertaining it might be once you've escaped.
-Cult-like
-Professionally disingenuous leadership
-Strong fire culture
-Heavy amounts of nepotism
-Deference > Autonomy
The people who survive at Therabody are generally the ones who ingratiate themselves to the CEO by allowing him to be right about everything because of who he is (the guy with the trust fund who signs the checks) despite not having a defined area of expertise other than making sure the business stays profitable by any means necessary. He's an armchair social media director, a creative director extraordinaire, master salesman, product developer, an advertising specialist, master of strategy, and UX designer… in his own mind.
Any fledgling process or strategy can be forcefully and immediately abandoned based on his any one whim. When people don't see things how he does, he becomes combative and forces people to defend their knowledge and expertise against his strong but usually ill-informed opinion. The employee then has to weigh out the benefits of defending their work against the possibility of losing the CEO's favor and possibly even their job. Sadly, because most people have to work for a living and don't have a billion-dollar trust fund to fall back on, they usually fall in line instead.
Employees are stymied, dismissed, or ignored, and then oftentimes blamed for their lack of progress and sometimes even let go. In essence, too many employees are set up to fail instead of being supported into success.
This results in mediocre people being elevated to positions of power over more deserving ones because what's being measured is not talent or performance but deference.
Two C-Suite employees act as the CEO's personal consiglieres while professing to be employee advocates. One, in particular, is in charge of one of the most consumer-facing departments despite having a very different work history. But, she was lucky enough to have a connection to someone in the CEO's wealthy-person only networking group and was therefore deemed worthy of what I'm sure is a high-paying position.
She loves to wax poetic about how she enjoys mentoring people and helping them build their careers, but she continually moves goalposts when it comes down to it. She will not hesitate to throw members of her own team under the bus if it means avoiding the CEO's wrath.
The other consigliere is in a position of power over virtually everyone in the company and professes to be an advocate when in reality, she protects the leadership team (despite their sweeping ineptitude) and the institution as a whole. Her guiding philosophy (most likely adapted from the CEO himself) is that anyone would be lucky to work at Therabody, and she treats people accordingly. She has a very "take it or leave it" approach and will generally not negotiate salaries or allow counteroffers if someone gets an outside offer and is looking for Therabody to match it. What's worse is that she's flat out said that Therabody "hires the best person for the job," which is really just a convenient way to get out of having to put actual work into hiring candidates that may be at a societal disadvantage.
The founder and CEO and some of the leadership team are cripplingly insecure about one of their competitors in particular. They are very quick to deride objectively impressive things this other company accomplishes while at the same time rushing to follow in their footsteps.
The founder makes a habit out of tearfully addressing everyone in the company-wide meetings about how far the company has come and about how they're "only getting started." Unfortunately, these words and tears become more and more hollow the more they're said, and the more things stay the same. Does the founder cry so often because he knows what the company professes to be is so far from what it actually is? Whatever the reason, perhaps therapy would be beneficial.
In conclusion, if you value authenticity, respect, boundaries, and your work product, Therabody probably isn't the place for you. But, if you’re a masochist, give it a whirl!
