Uptake reviews

3.0

43% would recommend to a friend

(24 total reviews)

Adam McElhinney

56% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

24 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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3.0
Apr 19, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great perks (snacks, adjustable standing desks, stylish offices) - Thoughtful and respectful people. Never felt bullied or devalued as an employee. Most people are very approachable. - Great continuing learning opportunities through UptakeU and hackathons

Cons

- As many have pointed out, the company lacks direction and the ability to execute on delivering products that customers actually want to use. - A communication problem (which probably stems from the lack-of-direction problem) where engineers/product managers have little clarity into what products and features are being built and why. I say this is probably not a communication issue because the people in the organization who should be communicating this information, I suspect, do not, themselves, have a good grasp of the problems the company should be solving for customers. - Less focus on the company's internal branding and more focus on improving the experience of the customer when using Uptake applications. - For a company focused on "data-driven insights", there's very little rigor in applying that methodology to employee performance reviews. Middle-management is heavily tilted toward the business side, and with a lack of technically sophisticated managers, evaluating engineers' performance is clearly a challenge.

1.0
Jan 19, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Electronic adjustable standing desks for nearly every employee * Free snacks * Drink machines with lots of choices * meeting room scheduling and AV equipment is easy to use * Unlimited Vacation (at least there used to be)

Cons

* unlimited Vacation - it is nice to have when you work there, but doesn't help you if the company decides to lay you off (like they recently laid off 51 people) or fire you with little to no cause. It doesn't accrue or payout so when you exit (by your own will or their's) you will realize it was set up that way to begin with. * Open office plan * Awful progress program - The performance review and progress program changed 4 times when I was there, and none of them were effective. * Pay will not increase, and you will almost certainly not be recognized for your contributions. You will hear during your performance review that "HR screwed up" or other excuses to not reward you even though you are an "A player", and exceeded all of your goals. You will not be promoted. * One of my managers who was there for almost a year and a half was fired at the end of the day by his boss, who called in remotely to do it. That is the kind of culture you get here. * Decisions are political instead of being data driven. You may find this surprising because this is supposed to be a data company with an "answers platform", but you at no point will you see any justification or data behind any decision. You will often have to do whatever the HiPPO (highest paid person's opinion) decides. * Lots of great people quitting or have quit * Weekly CEO emails are nonsensical. The CEO is detached from the day to day experience of employees. They attempt to inspire and motivate, but they come off as egotistical and cliché. The CEO has had a year of them put into a hardcover book titled "Sunday Thoughts" and littered them throughout the office. * The bureaucracy around acquiring anything is hair-pulling-out frustrating. You want to try a new piece of software for your team because the other internal version of software is either slow or always down? You have to spend 6 months going through acquisitions, security, engineering, to finally see it denied by a director in favor of "let's make the other one stable". You are better off just using it and not trying to follow the process. * Bad people are let go or reorganized into better positions - there have been multiple times when projects have been complete and utter failures by the same person, yet they are either promoted. * Dumb spending policies - ask for another laptop charger so you can work more at home after hours? Denied! According to the rules, it would cost too much money. At the same time, 16 60" HDTVs are bring installed into a wall down the hall, a podcast studio is being constructed, and a million dollar donation is being made to a prestigious University.

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Uptake Response
8y
Thank you for expressing your frustrations during your time here. We continually assess how we can make it easier for people to operate at their own personal best. Our hope is that employees and managers are frequently sharing feedback with one another about performance and career interests and if an employee isn’t getting the feedback they see, we encourage them to ask directly for it. We are sad that you don’t think more positively of your time at Uptake and we certainly wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
2.0
Jan 16, 2018

Talented crews led by cheap and ignorant management

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A lot of things to learn if you are new grads. A lot of young and smart people who are enthusiastic at what they are doing. Casual working environment. Snacks and drinks Flexible PTO and WFH policy for most department.

Cons

Incompetent management: many high level management have no clue what motivates employee and how to make good products. It is quiet obvious from recent events that existing customers are not happy with what Uptake is doing. low-ball payment to experienced employee. No bonus, ridiculous stock options for a startup. They claim to offer market average but do not take into consideration of experience. Senior (and great) employees with 4 ~ 10+ years more experience may receive about 10k ~ 30k more than fresh graduations with similar education. Evaluation: for some department there is no clear career vertical advancement. Self-evaluation may be modified to worse without notice after 1-1 meet between manager and subordinate. backstabbing: manager who has no experience or clue would put himself to more projects and replace capable employees, with no notice. lack of professionalism: manager leak performance information to peers. Aggressive and unnecessary interference of projects to suit the need of management.

avatar
Uptake Response
8y
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Some definite feedback that we can leverage and improve upon and some that unfortunately just isn’t factual or true. Clearly you aren’t experiencing Uptake to its full potential. It might be beneficial for you to have a direct conversation with someone in leadership or even with our People team to better understand how senior management makes decisions in running a growing and successful company. We are here to help and provide clarity.
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