Via Transportation reviews

The company has lost integrity. There has been enormous growth, which is good for the bottom line, however, the internal structure of the company could not keep up- partners and board before employees. In my own personal experience, and I assume many others based on past conversations with other colleagues, there have been issues with HR not responding to messages (either entirely or not in a timely manner), overhearing they may be gossiping to other employees about employees (not confirmed but concerning nonetheless), and generally a fear of reporting top leaders to them as they at least appear to be biased in leadership’s favor. There has been numerous recent layoffs which has all of us scared that our team is next, and while leadership tries to throw “comforting” sentiments to reassure us that everything is fine, we don’t buy it. We smile and nod because it seems that anyone who isn’t at the top that has an opinion or challenges leadership gets offed.

Work life balance - Because Via’s industry is in transit you’re working on service(s) that run 24/7 so you’re expected to respond to any timely rider/driver/partner inquiries/emergencies. If work-life balance is something you’re prioritizing in your next role, this company is not for you. Via would also agree and not look to hire/promote folks who actively seek more opportunities to reclaim their day/time from work. The working hours are long (9am-6pm, but slacks/emails are sent past that time] with no set expectation on when to take lunch (in the office many people will eat lunch while working on their computer). Via also wants more of its employees to be in the office more frequently (min. 3 days a week). Career Development: Slow and top-down decision making - Via’s culture makes it difficult to advance. Via values and looks for candidates who are down for anything. (i.e., being down for anything is something you are rewarded for it is something you are expected to do). - Via is incredibly bureaucratic. Every decision involves buy-in from leadership (e.g., to hire someone, a selection committee of execs review hiring packets and decide whether or not the hire is right for Via, which is what contributes to our lengthy hiring processes). This is the same for raises/promotions - every single manager up the chain needs to green light the decision before it’s reviewed by the corresponding exec member/CPO/CEO. This contributes to lengthy waits for employees to receive their raise/promotion (in some cases employees have waited for a year to receive a raise their manager advocated for; by that point most employees are burnt out and disengaged). Performance reviews are supposed to happen quarterly but they are no indication of whether or not you'll receive a raise/promotion. Transparency - Via is very secretive. They do not claim to be a transparent company. Here is are some examples of company policy changes that were never announced: - Discontinuing Summer Fridays (second summer in a row) - Discontinuing birthday gifts - Discontinuing COVID sick time - Via does not share any guidelines around pay bands/leveling or pay transparency to managers. - Via’s HR team is largely absent from company communications. Via never sends company wide emails/slacks on any updates/policy changes. Via HR’s team does not present at all hands (in fact all hands is purely about the business and financials so much so that it feels like a shareholders meeting) and did not present at this year’s company kickoff. The CEO is not even on slack and never shares his vision for the company culture/environment. - Via does not conduct engagement/pulse surveys. They have no sense of what the employee population needs at any given time. Tl;dr - Via suffers from: - Culture of overdelivering with no reward: - Little to no transparency: - No clear guidelines around career development/advancement - Dismissing investment in employee engagement